Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken or Zucchini

Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken is one of my long-time favorite grilled chicken recipes, and everyone in my huge extended family loves this recipe. Use the Grilling Recipes to find more recipes like this one.

Click here to PIN Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken or Zucchini.

Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken is a recipe that makes me want to hold on to summer! Once the Fourth of July is over, do you start to feel like summer is slipping away?  I feel that way sometimes, and that’s when I want to start reminding you about my favorite summer recipes so you’ll make them at least once before before summer is over!

Even though Very Greek Grilled Chicken has long been the most pinned and viewed grilled chicken recipe on the blog and one summer I made Garlic, Lemon, and Herb Grilled Chicken Breasts over and over, if you asked me which grilled chicken recipe I’ve personally made the most often, this Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken would win, hands down.

I’ve made this chicken that’s marinated in lemon, olive oil, mustard, garlic, and chopped fresh rosemary for family parties, wedding showers, baby showers, dinners with friends, and even just for dinners for myself.  No doubt about it, this is my signature grilled chicken recipe, and lots of the cooks in my huge extended family make it regularly as well.

The recipe can be adjusted to your taste and what you have on hand, and it will always turn out well. When I have lots of lemons sometimes I increase the lemon juice a little for a slightly more lemony tasting chicken. I’ve used dried rosemary or fresh rosemary and both are good. If you don’t have Spike Seasoning or celery seed, no worries; use some kind of all-purpose spice mixture or skip it entirely. If your family is lukewarm on Dijon, you could use regular mustard and it will still be good. This same marinade is also fantastic on zucchini, or you can use zucchini and chicken and make kabobs.

If you haven’t tried this favorite of mine, I hope this will be the summer you’ll try it, and I’d love to hear back from you if it becomes a favorite recipe in your family as well. And if you don’t have an outdoor grill, this chicken could also be cooked in a stove-top grill pan with ridges or a George Foreman Grill with good results.

If you’re using fresh rosemary, chop it very finely. Whisk together marinade ingredients.  Follow my instructions for Juicy Grilled Chicken Breasts and make slits going down the chicken breasts, then put in a plastic bag or plastic container with the marinade and let it marinate in the fridge for  6 hours or more.

When it’s time to grill, spray or brush the grill with oil, then preheat the grill over medium-high heat. Lay chicken on the diagonal across the grill grates and cook 3-4 minutes (until you see grill marks); then rotate and cook 3-4 minutes more to get marks going the other way.  Turn chicken over and cook until it feels firm (but not hard) to the touch, or use an instant read meat thermometer to test chicken until it reaches 165F.

Serve hot, and wait for compliments.  Leftover Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken is great over a leafy green salad, or make it into a Beat-the-Heat Chicken Salad.

More Ideas for Chicken Dinners:

Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker Chicken Recipes Index Page ~ Slow Cooker or Pressure Cooker
Instant Pot Low-Carb Greek Chicken Tacos  ~ Kalyns Kitchen
Indian-Spiced Grilled Chicken ~ The Lemon Bowl
Grilled Fusion Chicken ~ Kalyn’s Kitchen

Weekend Food Prep:

This recipe has been added to a new category called Weekend Food Prep  to help you find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!

Print Recipe

Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken or Zucchini

Yield: 8 servings

Total Time: 30-32 minutes, Plus marinating time

Prep Time: 20 minutes, Plus marinating time

Cook Time: 10-12 minutes

This Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken is one of my long-time favorite grilled chicken recipes!

Ingredients:

• 8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Marinade Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Dijon mustard (or mustard of your choice)
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2/3 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp. garlic powder or minced fresh garlic (fresh is best)
• 2 T  crumbled dried rosemary (see below) or 3 – 4 T minced fresh rosemary
• 1 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
• 1 T Spike Seasoning (optional, but recommended, or use any good all-purpose seasoning if you don’t have spike)
• 1 tsp. celery seed (optional)

Directions:

For Chicken:

1. To crumble rosemary, put the desired amount into a small ziploc bag and crush with your meat mallet or anything heavy until it is broken up and partially powdered. Mix all the marinade ingredients.
2. Trim all fat undesirable parts from chicken breasts, then make small slits going crosswise down the length of each piece of chicken. This is to help the marinade penetrate the meat and make it so the chicken cooks more evenly. Be careful not to cut too far into the chicken.
3. Put chicken and marinade into large ziploc bag and let marinate in the refrigerator at least 6 hours or all day.
4. When you’re ready to cook, take chicken out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.
5. Make sure your grill is clean and spray or brush with oil or grilling spray, then preheat grill to medium-high heat.  (Sometimes I use a paper towel dipped in olive oil to rub oil on the grill again immediately before I put the chicken on.  Try that if you have a problem with meat sticking on the grill.)
6. Lay chicken on the preheated grill at an angle to grill grates and cook 3-4 minutes (or until you see grill marks when you lift up the edge of the chicken.)  Rotate chicken going the opposite angle to the grill grates and cook 3-4 minutes more (or until you see criss-cross marks when you lift up the edge of the chicken.)
7. Turn chicken over and cook until chicken is firm (but not hard) to the touch.  Actual cooking time will depend on how thick the chicken breasts are and how hot your grill is.  For the most accurate way to tell when chicken reaches the safe temperature of 165F, use an instant read meat thermometer to test chicken.

For Zucchini:

1. To use this marinade for zucchini you can shorten the marinating time, although I have marinated it all day when I was going to be out and it turned out great.
2. Cut zucchini pieces into lengthwise slices about 3/8 inch thick. This is a great use for larger zucchini that has escaped you, as long as they are not too huge.

Notes:

You might get flare-ups if the marinade drips down when you put the chicken on the grill.  I spray water on them, even though some experts say not to do that.

Don’t baste chicken with the reserved marinade because it contains bacteria from the raw chicken.

Another great variation of this recipe is to make kabobs with chunks of chicken and zucchini alternating on skewers after they have been marinated separately.This chicken could also be cooked in a stove-top grill pan with ridges or a George Foreman Grillwith good results.

This recipe adapted years ago from a cookbook and I no longer remember where I saw it!

All images and text ©Kalyn Denny for Kalyn's Kitchen.

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Rosemary Mustard Grilled Chicken is a perfect main dish for any phase of the South Beach Diet, and it would be approved for low-carb, Keto, and low-glycemic diet plans.  With approved mustard, the recipe could even be Paleo or Whole 30. Spike Seasoning is not Paleo, so use another approved seasoning if needed.

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.

Nutritional Information?
If you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into this nutrition analyzer, which will calculate it for you. Or if you’re a member of Yummly, you can use the Yum button on my site to save the recipe and see the nutritional information there.