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White platter of grilled sweet and sour chicken pieces.

Grilled Sweet and Sour Chicken

Yield: 6 Servings
Prep Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 40 minutes

Ingredients

Brine:

  • 2 quarts water, room temperature or cool water, not warm or hot
  • ⅓ cup (71 g) coarse, kosher salt (use half the amount for table salt)
  • ¼ cup (53 g) packed light or dark brown sugar
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • 6 thin cut chicken breasts, about 2 pounds (or use 3-4 thicker chicken breasts and cut them in half lengthwise or pound thin)

Sweet and Sour Sauce:

  • 1 cup (212 g) granulated sugar
  • ½ cup ketchup
  • 1 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions 

  • For the chicken, prepare the brine by whisking together the water, salt, brown sugar and soy sauce in a large bowl until the sugar and salt are mostly dissolved.
  • Cut each chicken breast into 2-inch strips (so about two strips per chicken breasts, depending on the size of the chicken breasts) and submerge all the chicken pieces fully in the brine mixture. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least two hours (or up to four hours). Any longer than four hours and the chicken may be too salty.
  • For the sauce, whisk together all the sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring the mixture to a simmer over medium-low heat. Let the sauce simmer for about 15 minutes to reduce and thicken slightly (can simmer longer for a thicker sauce), stirring occasionally. There may be a strong vinegar smell as the sauce simmers and the vinegar evaporates - that's completely normal (and the sauce will not taste overly vinegary).
  • Preheat grill to medium heat (on my pellet grill, I preheat to 350 degrees for this recipe). Remove the chicken from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Discard the brine.
  • Grill the chicken, turning once, until an instant-read thermometer registers 165 degrees F (exact cooking time will depend on what type of grill you have; it takes about 15 minutes total on my pellet grill for thin cut chicken at this temperature). During the last two minutes of grilling brush the chicken liberally with the prepared sweet and sour sauce.
  • Remove the chicken from the grill to a serving platter and drizzle with remaining sauce OR serve the sweet and sour sauce on the side.

Notes

Brine: you can use up to four pounds of chicken using the same amount of brine.