Fresh, tart lemonade and something cooking on the grill– it sounds like the perfect snapshot of summertime. During the last week of my summer break, we cooked up this delicious dish and everyone in the house enjoyed it. Being a new dad, it is pretty cool to see how my kids respond to the food we cook now. I’ve always built my brand on easy weeknight meals for families– and now our 1 year old twins are totally living up to the job they were given– tast testers in chief! Put this meal on your menu soon– the chicken can marinate up to 24 hours so it’s the perfect thing to put together in the fridge overnight and cook when you get home from work. Everyone will be asking for Traeger Grilled Lemonade Chicken again!
CHICKEN ON THE TRAEGER: ALWAYS A HIT
Second only to a great steak, I love cooking up chicken on our Traeger grills. It’s the perfect thing to make for an easy weeknight meal, and if you make just enough to have extra, you’ll be set with leftovers for lunches and different variations of dinner later in the week.
For this recipe, I was originally going to use chicken quarters (thigh and leg connected). But given the wild world of supply chains these days, all three stores we checked didn’t have any in stock.
So the next best (and honestly, probably best best) option was bone-in, skin-on legs and thighs. Cooking those pieces alongside each other allowed for the meat to be cooked perfectly, without being dried out. We don’t often have that problem with quarters, but having the thighs and legs separate makes serving a breeze and those aforementioned leftovers really easy.
There are only a few ingredients in this recipe, and you may just have them all on-hand. We whipped together the chicken marinade and let the chicken soak for about 3 hours before cooking. I’d recommend, though, that you instead make the marinade either the night before or the morning before serving, so that the chicken has lots of time to soak up the flavors of the sauce.
On the Traeger, it took about 45 minutes of cooking to get perfectly-cooked chicken thighs and legs. The extra marinade from this Traeger Grilled Lemonade Chicken recipe is cooked down into a sauce that is tangy and flavorful and the perfect accompaniment to this dish.
PRIMARY INGREDIENTS
- Chicken pieces– we used a mix of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and legs/drums
- Lemonade- we used Simply Lemonade
- Dijon mustard
- Olive oil
- Hot sauce
- Oregano
- White onion
- My Garlic Junkie seasoning
- Whole lemons
WHY COOKING LEMONADE CHICKEN ON THE TRAEGER WORKS
Traeger Chicken is something that those of us who love cooking on our Traegers recommend everyone try as one of their first cooks. There’s just something about it– the wood fired flavor comes through, the chicken cooks quickly and is tender, moist and delicious. You wow your family and have an amazing meal on the table in under an hour. For people who are new to Traegering, it’s often the first taste of a new love.
So, in keeping with the love of Traeger chicken, this lemonade chicken recipe follows a lot of the same trends. Juicy, flavorful and tender chicken comes out of the Traeger with a hint of wood-fired flavor and is sure to impress your family and friends.
MARINADE VS BRINING
In this recipe, we suggest you make a marinade for the chicken, which will fill it with flavor before cooking. Lots of times, you will find recipes that recommend brining your chicken before cooking it on the Traeger. In many ways, the methods are similar. You can read all about brining versus marinading on the internet, like this site.
We like to dry brine our turkeys and whole chickens, which is a technique like wet brining, but honestly easier, less messy and has better results. Read about dry brining on this site– I love how Serious Eats gets into the science of the matter!
STEP-BY-STEP
- Assemble all your ingredients.
- Using a sharp knife, score the skin side of the chicken thighs.
- Then butterfly the chicken drums so that you have more surface area on the meat.
- In a pan or bowl, make the marinade.
- Combine the lemonade, chopped white onion, mustard, olive oil, hot sauce, oregano and garlic junkie.
- Whisk until well blended.
- Add the prepared chicken pieces to the marinade, turning to coat.
- Be sure that each piece of chicken is nestled into as much of the marinade as possible.
- Cover the marinading chicken and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours, and up to 24.
- About an hour before dinnertime, preheat your Traeger Grill to 350*.
- When the grill is hot, remove the chicken from the marinade and place them right on the grill grates.
- Reserve the marinade and put it in a sauce pan.
- Bring the reserved marinade to a full boil on the stovetop, and cook for 15 minutes until well reduced.
- Allow the chicken to cook to an internal temperature of 140*.
- Once it has hit that temperature, turn the chicken over on the grill.
- Using a long-handled basting brush, coat each piece of chicken with some of the reduced sauce.
- Cut the lemons in half and put them cut side down on the grill, cooking until golden.
- Turn the chicken again and continue cooking and basting until the internal temperature reaches 165* and are golden brown.
- Cooking time should be about 45 minutes total.
- Remove the chicken from the grill and place on a plate, loosely tented.
- Serve the chicken with some of the reduced sauce on the side. Enjoy!
TRAEGER CHICKEN RECIPES SIMILAR TO LEMONADE CHICKEN
As mentioned, we love cooking chicken on the Traeger because the results are consistently delicious, juicy and tender.
Here are a couple chicken recipes I recommend also trying.
- Roasted Chicken with Garlic, Lemon and Chilies
- Pulled chicken taquitos (using a whole Traegered chicken)
- Chicken Tinga Tacos
- Maple mustard chicken thighs
Products used in this cook:
- For this recipe, we used my Traeger Timberline XL which can get to really high heats. In addition, it has an induction burner on the side, so we were able to cook and reduce the marinade right on the grill.
- My Garlic Junkie is always a hit– and especially good in this recipe.
- We made the marinade in this Cambro pan.
Did you make this recipe?
I’d love to know how it turned out!
Leave a review below or snap a photo,
share it on Instagram and tag me at @ThisJewCanQue
Traeger Grilled Lemonade Chicken
Equipment
- Traeger grill
- Knife and cutting board
- Pan or bowl
- Tongs
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken pieces legs and drums
- 2 cups lemonade
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp hot sauce
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 white onion minced
- 4 tbsp Garlic Junkie seasoning
- 2 whole lemons
Instructions
- Assemble all your ingredients.
- Using a sharp knife, score the skin side of the chicken thighs.
- Then butterfly the chicken drums so that you have more surface area on the meat.
- In a pan or bowl, make the marinade.
- Combine the lemonade, chopped white onion, mustard, olive oil, hot sauce, oregano and garlic junkie.
- Whisk until well blended.
- Add the prepared chicken pieces to the marinade, turning to coat.
- Be sure that each piece of chicken is nestled into as much of the marinade as possible.
- Cover the marinading chicken and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours, and up to 24.
- About an hour before dinnertime, preheat your Traeger Grill to 350*.
- When the grill is hot, remove the chicken from the marinade and place them right on the grill grates.
- Reserve the marinade and put it in a sauce pan.
- Bring the reserved marinade to a full boil on the stovetop, and cook for 15 minutes until well reduced.
- Allow the chicken to cook to an internal temperature of 140*.
- Once it has hit that temperature, turn the chicken over on the grill.
- Using a long-handled basting brush, coat each piece of chicken with some of the reduced sauce.
- Cut the lemons in half and put them cut side down on the grill, cooking until golden.
- Turn the chicken again and continue cooking and basting until the internal temperature reaches 165* and are golden brown.
- Cooking time should be about 45 minutes total.
- Remove the chicken from the grill and place on a plate, loosely tented.
- Serve the chicken with some of the reduced sauce on the side. Enjoy!
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