Brined and Grilled Boneless Skinless Chicken Strips

From Minnie:  Boneless, skinless, chicken breasts on the grill.

I bought boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale and cut one of them into four strips of about the same size for the two of us.  (The photo above shows just two of the four pieces).

There are several reasons for doing the chicken in small strips on the grill:

• The chicken strips cook faster than full chicken breasts or bone in chicken. The time is in the same range as hot dogs.
• Since the chicken grills so quickly, it stays much moister (unless cooked too long).
• The chicken has less fat and is healthier with no skin (which can be a problem though with larger pieces which can get dry).
• The small grilled strips really can be finger foods – just a little messy with the sauce but not bad.

How to Make Boneless, Skinless Grilled Chicken

1. Before grilling, I brined the chicken for about 4 hours. I put the chicken strips into a small plastic bowl, covered them with 98% fat free chicken broth, added some salt and pepper, garlic and onion powder, and let them soak in the refrigerator for several hours before cooking them. You could certainly use Italian Dressing or any other marinade of your choice.  Brining or marinating is not a requirement for this dish, but either adds just that little something extra to the final product.
2. Heat the grill to very hot. Let the grates heat too, because cold grates make foods stick. Hubby also sprayed the grates with Pam Olive Oil to help keep the foods from sticking too badly.
3. Grill for about 2 minutes on each side to sear the meat (See the lovely grate marks on the chicken breast strips!). Turn heat down to medium.  Put barbecue sauce on strips and grill again for about 2 minutes on each side.
4. Times vary depending on grills and the size of the chicken pieces. The chicken will look white and not pink. And, it really does not take long with the chicken cut this way.

As far as the barbecue sauce, we used our favorite half and half mix of Kraft Honey & Kraft Hickory Smoke Barbecue Sauce here. We think it’s excellent, but any other type you like would work just as well.