Grilled Chicken Thighs With Peach Salsa

These grilled chicken thighs with peach salsa create the ultimate summer meal! Marinated with peanut, soy, and chilis and topped with juicy peaches, cucumber, green onions, cilantro, and just enough sriracha to wake up your taste buds. This salsa is a perfect complement to the nutty and charred chicken. It has balanced notes of sweet, salt, acid, and heat that bring out the best of summer's bounty.

Chicken Marinade Ingredients

You only need 9 common ingredients to make these marinated grilled chicken thighs!

• Chicken Thighs: Boneless and skinless thighs are a favorite cut of chicken to cook on the grill. They are quick, easy, and stay juicy because of their higher fat content.
• Peanut Butter: I use the creamy peanut butter from JIF or Skippy. Natural Peanut butter would be another great option.
• Sambal Oelek Chili Paste: This is an Indonesian raw chili condiment and consists of chilis and vinegar. It’s tangy, spicy, and thicker than sriracha sauce. I like this chili paste and find it in my local grocery stores and Asian markets.
• Soy Sauce: This is used for seasoning purposes and provides umami flavor to the marinade. I prefer this popular Kikkoman less-sodium soy sauce.
• Canola Oil: Any neutral-tasting oil that doesn’t have a strong flavor, such as grapeseed, vegetable, or avocado oil.
• Unseasoned Rice Vinegar: Made from fermented rice. Rice vinegar has a mildly acidic, tangy flavor and neutral acidity compared to other kinds of vinegar. It is sold in most grocery stores in the Asian section. Look for unseasoned versions because the seasoned varieties have added sugar and salt to the vinegar.
• Garlic: Real garlic, not the jarred stuff.
• Ginger Root: Fresh ginger root provides a brighter, pungent, citrus flavor than powdered ginger. Rather than buying a large cluster of ginger at the store, break off a knob the size of your thumb. Peel it, then grate it using a microplane rasp.

Peach Salsa Ingredients

When peaches are in season, you only need 9 ingredients to make this amazing peach salsa!

• Peaches: Fresh peaches are in season during the heat of summer. Don’t bother with trying to buy grocery store peaches grown hundreds of miles away. It’s best to find a local orchard for sweet, tangy, and chin-dripping good peaches. If you are having a hard time finding good peaches, I suggest having these Georgia peaches shipped to your front door early in the season. They are more expensive than local, but they are very good.
• Cucumber: Fresh cucumbers make a tasty snack and are pretty easy to grow in a garden if you have the space for a climbing vine. Mixing them into fresh fruit salsas is a unique way to eat them. If I buy a cucumber at the store, I buy the English type that is wrapped in plastic and considered seedless, although its seeds are just smaller. I peel cucumbers and remove the seeds before adding them to salads and salsas because some skins are thick and bitter, and the seeds add water to the salsa.
• Sriracha Sauce: A hot chili sauce made from jalapenos that have ripened past their green color and turned red. I like the Huy Fong brand with the rooster on the logo and a green twist cap. I use it in small amounts because it’s pretty spicy to my palate.
• Unseasoned Rice Vinegar: The same vinegar used to marinate the chicken above.
• Honey: A liquid, natural sweetener with floral notes that enhance the vinaigrette.
• Using fresh green onions and cilantro help build a herby and pungent flavor.

See the recipe card below for ingredient measurements.

Substitutions

Try these suggestions for ingredient substitutions.

• Sambal Oelek Chili Paste - If you are having a hard time finding Sambal Oelek, substitute chili garlic sauce.
• Sriracha - You can substitute half a jalapeno, seeds removed, and diced.
• Cilantro - While cilantro is a key ingredient, you can substitute mint or Italian parsley.
• Spiciness - There is a little bit of heat in this recipe. If you prefer to tame the heat, reduce the Sambol Oelek and the sriracha to half the volume.

Equipment

• Gas grill
• Microplane (to grate the fresh ginger root)
• Metal spatula (to flip the chicken on the grill)

Step-by-Step Instructions

Make the Marinade

I suggest mixing the marinade in a zip-lock bag rather than whisking in a bowl to make clean-up easier.

Step 1: Combine all of the ingredients for the marinade in a gallon-sized zip lock bag. Seal while removing most of the air. Use your hands to massage the bag and combine the ingredients.

Step 2: Add the chicken to the bag, seal it closed. Massage the marinade by rubbing the chicken around in the bag. Let the chicken marinate for 12-24 hours in the refrigerator.

Prepare the Salsa

Make the salsa up to 30 minutes before lighting the grill.

Step 3: Peel the cucumber. Remove the seeds, slice it into strips, and cut into a small dice. Add it to a medium-sized mixing bowl.

Step 4: Peel the peaches, cut them in half, and remove the pits. Dice the peaches and add to the bowl of cucumbers.

Step 5: Thinly slice the white and green parts of the green onions and chop the cilantro. Add to the bowl.

Step 6: Add the vinegar, oil, honey, sriracha sauce, and kosher salt. Stir to combine and store in the fridge while you are grilling the chicken.

Grill the Chicken

Step 7: To grill the boneless, skinless chicken thighs, let the grill preheat to 550℉ on high for 5-10 minutes. It's ready when you can only hold your hand for 3 seconds when held 3 inches above the grates. Rub the grates clean with a grill brush. To help prevent sticking, lightly oil the grates by rubbing them with a paper towel soaked with canola or vegetable oil with your tongs.

Step 8: Place the chicken, smooth side down, on the grill. Dispose of the marinade. Cook the boneless thighs with the lid down until lightly charred for about 7-8 minutes per side, and their internal temperature is 165℉. Don't flip them too early so they can develop a crust. Use a metal spatula to flip the chicken rather than tongs if they are sticking.

Step 9: Remove the chicken thighs from the grill and let them rest for 5 minutes

Step 10: To serve, spoon some of the peach salsa over a chicken thigh. Pass the remaining salsa.

If desired, serve over steamed rice.

Make Ahead Instructions

Chicken: While I prefer to serve the grilled chicken right away, you can marinate and grill the thighs up to 2 days ahead of time. Store in the refrigerator. Take the chill off the chicken by reheating the thighs in a covered container of a 325°F oven for 15-20 minutes.

Peach Salsa: This salsa is also best served fresh; however, you can chop the ingredients up to 8 hours before serving and store covered in the refrigerator. Wait to add the vinegar, oil, honey, sriracha sauce, and kosher salt to the chopped ingredients until just before serving.

Storage Information

On the rare occasion you have leftovers, store the chicken and salsa separately in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days after it was cooked.

The chicken reheats well in the microwave or in a 325°F oven for 15-20 minutes, covered.

The salsa is best consumed within 48 hours before the peaches break down. Drain the excess liquid.

FAQ

More Recipes You Will Love