Weeknight Grilled Chicken with Corn and Green Bean Salad

Looking for a simple, yet tasty and healthy weeknight meal? Then look no further than this! All the prep work for this complete and vibrant meal can be done ahead. All you have to do after a hard day of work is turn on the grill and you’re eating in 10 minutes with very little cleanup after, but it will taste like you spent hours in the kitchen!

Jump to Recipe

About the Food

This style of meal is one of my weeknight go-to’s, particularly during the summer. I love using my grill as I think it is the absolute best way to cook chicken and veggies, and there are pots or pans to clean up after! This particular meal utilizes a simple chicken marinade, a make-ahead green bean salad and corn on the cob with a simple, but vibrant seasoning.

As far as nutrition goes, this dinner contains no processed sugars, is gluten free and almost Paleo. For those that follow me you know that I tend to eat almost Paleo and my recipes (excluding Saturday recipes!) follow that trend. What makes this particular dinner not quite Paleo is the inclusion of green beans. Technically, if you follow the diet to it extreme legumes (beans and lentils) are not allowed. This is one of the facets that I do no adhere to, and at some point I’ll do a food science post on the paleo diet.

Let’s get cooking!

Although you can make this entire meal in one sitting, it is a great make ahead meal. For that the instructions are divided into two categories-the steps that you can make even a day or two ahead of time and cooking and serving instructions

Prepping Ahead

If you are a Sunday food prepper, then this a meal I recommend serving on a Monday or Tuesday. You could serve it later, but the salad will start to loose some of its textures. But I will include some suggestions on that. But, let’s begin!

Preparing the Mise En Place

With any meal, we start with our mise en place. Mise en place is a technique employed by every chef and cook in every restaurant. This is how three or four cooks and make hundreds of mouth watering meals in any given night while also maintaining cleanliness and safety. It is the concept of having everything prepared and in its place before you begin.

For our mise en place I always recommend having a bowl for waste on your counter. Have a cutting board out with a damp towel or paper towel under it (to avoid sliding around). You’ll need a standard chef knife-check and hone your blade before you begin. You will need 2 small bowls (I’m going to call them bowl A and B-make sure you can keep them apart), a glass or metal baking dish and one large salad bowl. Now, as I would always tell my culinary students before they start-if you’ve got long hair, tie it back, if you’ve got droopy sleaves, roll them up and then finally-wash your hands!

Okay-once you have all of that you are ready to begin! Start but putting a medium sized pot filled about 3/4 of the way with water on the stove and turn to high. While that is heating up, we are going to prepare the green beans.

To prepare the green beans you will want to place the bunch into a colander or strainer and rinse them under cold water. Allow to drain, then begin be pulling out any beans that are brown or floppy and any thing that is just a stem. Next, cut the stem end off your beans. Now you can leave the other end natural or you can trim that as well, it is up to you. This is it.

Once your water starts boiling add the beans an allow to cook for 3-5 minutes until they are a vibrant green and tender-crisp. Don’t overcook! The texture and freshness of the salad will be lost by mushy green beans. Once the time is up, immediately pour the beans back into the strainer from before and run under cold water to shock them and stop the cooking. Don’t skip this step or the texture will be compromised! You can add the beans to the large salad bowl and add back to the fridge.

Now, take a small saute pan and place it on medium heat. While it is heating, measure out 1/4 cup of pecans and set aside. Mince 7 cloves of garlic and place 1/2 in Bowl A and 1/2 in the baking dish. Dice 1/4 of a red onion (roughly about 1/4 cup), add to the salad bowl with the green beans-return to the fridge.

By this point the saute pan should be hot-add the pecans and continually stir or toss them for about 1 minute or 2. They should start to smell aromatic and darken slightly. But don’t walk away from them! They can burn very quickly! As soon as they are done, remove them from the pan and set them aside (do not leave them in the pan even if you turn off the heat as the residual heat will be more than enough to burn them!)

At this point shave 2 cups of cabbage, add to the salad bowl with the green beans-return to the fridge. Shuck and rinse your 2 ears of corn. Make sure as much of the corn silk is removes as possible. Chop 1/2 teaspoon of fresh thyme (about 4 sprigs), add to Bowl B. And just like that, you are done with your mise en place. This is a great point to pause, do any dishes, wipe down your cutting board and counters and move on to the next step.

Preparing the dishes

All our chopping is done, and our dishes are started. With our mise en place done, most of our work is done.

We’ll start with oil, all our dishes require oil. You may use the same type of oil for all three (which I recommend for simplicity) or you can use a different oil based on your preferences. I like avocado oil because it is neutral (no flavor) and has a high smoke point (can be heated to high temperatures without forming smoke). Olive oil is another good choice, it is a healthy oil with a more robust flavor that will complement all of these dishes. So, the choice is yours!

Now you have your oil, measure 2 tablespoons into bowl A (this your salad dressing)-just to recap bowl A should now contain half your minced garlic, your fresh thyme and now 2 tablespoons of oil. Into bowl B (this is your corn dressing) measure 1/4 cup of oil, and finally another 1/4 cup into the baking dish which is our chicken marinade (which should have the other 1/2 of your minced garlic). Look down below if you are a visual person-I’ve created a chart!

Next, lemon juice. If you’re a bit extra, go ahead and juice a lemon, but I just use bottled lemon juice. All our recipes take 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice. So go ahead and put 1 tablespoon into each of Bowl A, B and the baking dish. Next, salt- put 1/2 teaspoon in both Bowl B and the baking dish. Add a dash of pepper to all three dishes. Now we will finish each one individually.

Bowl A, add 1 tablespoon of honey and 2 tablespoons of mustard and whisk everything together thoroughly. Bowl B, add a dash of cayenne and whisk everything together thoroughly. In the baking dish add a teaspoon of smoked paprika and 2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning (or you favorite herb) and whisk together thoroughly.

Okay! You’re almost done with the prep! To finish up the salad, just add those pecans you toasted to the salad bowl. If you are planning to eat the salad the same day, then go ahead and dump the dressing (Bowl A) over the top and mix thoroughly. Give a taste, and add any salt or more pepper if you think its needed. IF YOU ARE NOTE EATING THAT SAME DAY– do not combine the dressing and the salad, just store both in the fridge until you are ready to eat and then dress. This will help preserve the crunchiness of the cabbage.

The corn and its dressing (Bowl B) are done until you are ready to cook. You do not need to combine them yet, you will brush the corn just before grilling. So for now, store in the fridge until your ready to cook.

Finally, you will marinade your chicken. Pull out your chicken (always keep meat under refrigeration until you are ready to use it). You can use either breasts or thighs for this recipe. If your breasts are really thick (your chicken breasts, you dirty dog), you may want to butterfly them for easier cooking. Either way, go ahead and place them in the marinade, turning to ensure they are completely coated. Cover and put in the fridge for a few hours to several days.

That’s it, your prep is done! At this point I would clean everything up and celebrate.

Cooking the Meal

What is great about this meal, is the actual cooking is super easy. All cooking is done on the grill so there is minimal mess to clean up, and you get to spend a little time outside. So let’s get started. Get your grill preheating. For my grill, I turn it to high, which is about 500 degrees when preheated (a bit of this heat is lost while actually cooking, so I would guess I’m actually cooking at around 450 degrees).

While the grill is preheating check the following. Is your salad dressed? If not, now is the time to do that. Pull out your corn and marinade and allow that to start warming up a bit. If you used olive oil your marinade has likely become congealed (a bit solidified). Don’t worry, it will warm up very quickly, you can speed it along by holding the bowl in your hands or placing it in another bowl of warm water. Once everything is liquid again, give the dressing a good stir and paint the corn on all sides with the dressing.

Go head and pull out your chicken as well. Once again, if you used olive oil its probably pretty solidified. Don’t worry, that will melt off in the grill. If it is solidified try and scrape off big chunks of oil, as that will melt into the flame and cause flare ups which could scorch your chicken.

Once your grill is heated and ready to go, put your chicken and corn on at the same time. I recommend placing the corn the same direction your grill grates go so that it won’t roll around. Their may be a bit of flare ups as some oil drops into the fire, but this will subside. Close the grill and walk away for 2-3 minutes, depending on how thick them breasts are. I would actually go back and wash any prep dishes during this time.

After 2-3 minutes, return to the girll. Roll your corn 1/4 of the way around. Rotate your chicken a quarter turn (don’t flip over, just rotate them). This is to get that criss cross grill mark pattern. You don’t have to do this, you do have to turn your corn. Close the lid and walk away for another 2-3 minutes.

After 2-3 minutes, return to the grill. Roll your corn another 1/4 of the way around. Now your can flip your chicken, and you guessed it! Close the lid and walk away for another 2-3 minutes. Once again, after the time is up, you are going to Roll your corn another 1/4 of the way around, and give your chicken a quarter turn…and walk away for another 2-3 minutes. At this point get a clean dish or baking sheet and have it ready.

Okay! Now, you should be done cooking, but I strongly recommend if you are a newbie to the grill, use a thermometer on the chicken. Stick it into the thickest part of the chicken. The temperature should read 165 degrees F. If its a little bit low, leave on the grill for a minute or two longer, but don’t let it get too high above 165, particularly if you are cooking white meat, it starts to get dry and tough the hotter it gets.

Transfer the chicken and the corn to the clean dish, turn off the grill, and guess what, you’ve got a hot and ready made from scratch healthy meal. Enjoy!