The 13 Best Fruits To Grill With Chicken This Summer

Ah, grilling season! The sun beckoning everyone to step outside those too-hot kitchens and take their cooking endeavors into the fresh air. Firing up the backyard-barbecue is the best way to shake off winter chills and embrace a new season — but perhaps the same-old hot dog and hamburger operation just isn't cutting it, and you're ready to embrace something new. Enter: grilled chicken with fruit. It's a combination that will have your neighbors, family, and their friends tipping their hats to your genius and loading up their plates with more.

Grilled chicken on its own is a special treat at a barbecue, and the leftovers can easily be repurposed into handy recipes like grilled chicken Caesar salad sandwiches. Adding a side of grilled fruit to the menu brings a whole new element of surprise. Take it from me — I've been working in kitchens for 10 years and have more than one trick up my sleeve to take a plate from run-of-the-mill to talk-of-the-town.

Grilling fruit to pair with your protein combines two beautiful things into one: salty and sweet. The sugars from these fruits will caramelize to perfection on your grill and blend seamlessly with that bit of char on your chicken. If you're looking for a way to elevate your barbecue prowess, read on to discover which fruits you should be grilling this summer.

If you've ever ordered tacos al pastor fresh off the trombone (where a pineapple is speared at the top of the cone) then you already know that this fruit is a classic for pairing with meat. It isn't just the flavor of pineapple that makes it work so well, but an enzyme called bromelain. Bromelain is the reason your mouth feels so tender after indulging in a plateful of pineapple — the enzyme breaks down proteins and act as a natural meat-tenderizer. While this may not be such a pleasant feeling when you eat too much of it, it does make pineapple a great fruit to use in marinades.

If you're grilling pineapple for the first time there's a few different ways to approach it. You can use a knife to remove the tough exterior and slice your pineapple into spears, or even try grilling a pineapple whole for more of a slow-cooking effect. Using a touch of brown sugar, cinnamon, and chili to season pineapple slices before grilling will bring even more drama to the plate, but pineapple is also perfectly delicious grilled on its own — just use a touch of oil on the grate to prevent stickage.

When grilling pineapple and chicken together, don't be afraid to get creative. A teriyaki-style soy sauce glaze with a splash of pineapple juice for sweetening can be used to marinade and baste both items on the grill. A bit of chili, garlic, or green onion will add a pop and cut through the sweetness of the fruit. Whether you keep it simple or dress it to the nines, pineapple and chicken are sure to impress.

The size of cherries may seem counterintuitive to grilling, but you won't want to skip adding a little smoke to these stone fruits. The dark red Bing cherries are especially good for grilling with their intensely sweet flavor, which will become even more jammy and concentrated as the cherries cook on the grill.

If you're worried about the cherries slipping through the grates of your grill you can use foil to keep them contained — but if your barbecue is set up with a top rack, letting the cherries cook over your chicken so the juices drip down onto the sizzling meat will put every ounce of the fruit to good use. The sweetness of cherries can stand up to bold flavors. Think chipotle chilis or balsamic vinegar, which you can use to marinate your chicken or as ingredients in a salad or spread. Once those cherries have a bit of char they're delicious to eat whole, chopped into chunks, or puréed into a smooth sauce that can be drizzled expertly over your chicken on the plate.

Having a lemon wedge on your plate is one thing, but being served a piece of citrus grilled to perfection — so the juice comes out a bit smoky — is a top-tier eating experience. Limes, lemons, oranges, blood oranges, grapefruits — you name it. Just cut those citruses in half crosswise to make for easy-squeezing, give your grill a touch of oil, and cook the citrus for a few minutes over high heat until they get some good char.

Grilled citrus can serve many purposes when it comes to chicken. You can use the now-smoky citrus juice to marinade your chicken with other ingredients like garlic, herbs, oil, and spices. You could make a glaze of the juice using honey as a thickener and baste your chicken while it grills, or you could simply serve up your citrus halves as a restaurant-worthy garnish on the plate for your guests to use as they please. The eyes eat first, and a grilled half of citrus is a feast before you've even taken a bite.

Mango is the tropical fruit that just can't be beat. From desserts to dinner plates it seems to go with just about everything, and grilled chicken is no exception. When picking out your mangos to grill, opt for the ripest, softest ones to maximize the sugar content and get the best sticky-sweet char.

Skinning and slicing your mango before grilling is going to be the best bet to allow the smoke to infuse with the fruit and to get some good grill marks on the outside. You can also add a sprinkle of chili flake or a squeeze of lime juice while it cooks to make the final product that much bolder and brighter.

Leave your mango slices whole and enjoy them with a salty glazed grilled chicken, or dice them into pieces after grilling and take a regular mango salsa up a notch with that barbecue flavor. Your new and improved mango salsa can be spread over a chicken taco like a smoky-sweet pico de gallo, or would be equally as delicious used in a salad with grilled chicken as the topper.

When it comes to grilling fruit, peaches are a classic. The sugar content, flavor, and texture of a ripe peach makes it absolutely ideal for sprinkling with a little brown sugar (or just leaving plain) and popping it on a barb-e. Great on its own for a summertime snack or as part of a dish, a grilled peach will make your chicken go from mundane to insane.

They're also the secret ingredient to one of Bobby Flay's favorite tricks to elevate a barbecue. He likes to grill peaches before cooking them down into a smoky-sweet barbecue sauce — a concoction that would be ideal for smothering over your grilled chicken. Grilled peaches are also fantastic when chopped into a summer salad and paired with fresh cheeses and herbs, added to chicken skewers, or simply served on the side of the plate to accompany a beautifully grilled breast or thigh.

Nothing screams summertime like cracking into a big ol' watermelon. The high water-content of the fruit that makes it so juicy and delicious when fresh is also what makes it good to cook — the flavors become a bit more concentrated, and the smoke can permeate large pieces and so you get that nice grilled-flavor in every bite.

A watermelon triangle is easy to grill (no worrying about your fruit slipping through the cracks with this one), and is a delicious side to grilled chicken when served with a walnut gremolata and homemade balsamic dressing. A sprinkle of sugar, salt, or Tajín while your watermelon grills will draw out more moisture and make the fruit that much bolder. If you have leftovers, you can chop your grilled watermelon and chicken down into chunks and pair with other fresh ingredients like cucumber and parsley for a cooling summer salad.

An underrated fruit (that isn't even technically a fruit), grilled figs make some beautiful dishes that will have your backyard barbecue feeling more like the patio of a restaurant than ever before. Fun fact: Figs are technically inverted flowers, not fruit, but that doesn't change our mind from the fact they belong on this list nonetheless — the earthy flavor and subtle sweetness of a fig complements chicken's umami beautifully. 

Give your figs a light basting of olive oil to protect the skin from shriveling before you grill them, and cook for a few minutes on medium high heat. Ideally you want the inside to be warm and jammy without overdoing the smoke.

The chicken-and-fig duo opens up doorways to dishes with bold Mediterranean flavors like goat cheese, oregano, tzatziki, sumac, and so forth. Get creative, and maybe nix the barbecue beers in favor of a cool bottle of wine to best complement the dish.

Papaya is not a fruit you see at the dinner table too often, but you can bet your bottom dollar that it deserves a place on the grill. If you've never cut into one of the fruits before, just think of it like a butternut squash — cut it in half lengthwise, scoop out the cluster of seeds with a spoon, and use a peeler to remove the skin. From there, you're ready to grill. Oil the barbecue to prevent sticking and throw your papaya on as a large half or sliced into wedges. Leave it plain or sprinkle with a bit of Tajín, lime juice, or sugar.

Papaya can be treated similarly to mango when you're thinking of pairing it with grilled chicken to make a dish. It can be diced into a grilled-papaya salsa, blended into a marinade or sauce, or chopped into chunks along with the chicken to make easy-to-grill skewers. Don't be intimidated if you've never cooked papaya — it's tropical flavor won't disappoint. 

Picking blackberries off of a bush in the summertime is a core childhood memory for anyone who was lucky enough to grow up near them. It may seem logistically challenging to throw blackberries on the grill, but the end result is nostalgia-inducing. You can always use a piece of foil or a grill plate to cook the berries if the cracks in your grill are swallowing them whole; they will still be swirling in smoke and cooking in their own juices. 

Passing your blackberries through a fine-mesh strainer after grilling will yield a smooth, syrupy juice that's perfect for turning into a smoky-sweet sauce to be drizzled over your chicken, or simply serve them on the side of your plate to be eaten whole with each bite. Whether in a salad, sauce, or compote, cooking blackberries on the grill is likely to transport you back in time to those childhood memories.

The custard-like consistency of a ripe persimmon becomes even more creamy once cooked, making this fruit ideal for including on the grill. Typically coming into season in the late summer and continuing on into the fall, you'll want to wait patiently for these orange fruits to ripen before popping them on the barb-e with your chicken.

Whether grilling in slices or whole, the versatile flavor of a persimmon can go either a sweet or more savory route. Brush slices with olive oil and dust with powdered ginger, cardamom, or chili flake, or opt for just a sprinkling of brown sugar. Once grilled, persimmons can be puréed into a salsa, cooked into a sauce, chopped into chunks, or served in slices atop your chicken. To bring balance to the duo, consider using complementary spices to season your chicken such as garlic, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, or paprika.

The key to the best barbecued cantaloupe is picking one that's ripe. It's always a disappointment to cut into a cantaloupe to discover it's still crispy and tart, so knowing the tricks for determining which melon at the grocery store is ready-to-eat is the first step in grilling this fruit. Once you've found a good one, clean and cut the fruit to grill it in slices.

Cantaloupe is sweet, juicy, and slightly floral in flavor. It's a versatile fruit that's classically paired with prosciutto, but goes just as well with a boldly-flavored grilled chicken and can be seasoned many different ways. To bridge the gap between sweet fruit and savory chicken, try a sprinkle of salt, your favorite chili flake, or even ginger powder on the cantaloupe while it grills. For the chicken, think bright, herbaceous marinades or curry-based spice blends which will taste incredible paired with the smoky fruit. Plus, you can always prosciutto wrap the cantaloupe post-grill to put a delectable twist on a classic pairing.

Plums aren't only delicious in crumbles and pies (although they're definitely good for those, too). This versatile stone fruit has a flavor that tows the line between tart and deeply sweet. Add smoke into the equation and a bit of time on the grill and they become even more complex. As they cook, the sugars will deepen and some of the tartness will mellow, making them ideal to cook with a touch of honey or a light sprinkling of sugar.

Plums can easily be grilled whole or sliced to remove the pit, and pair well with nutty flavors like almonds or even aged cheeses such as Manchego. To seamlessly blend your grilled plums and chicken into a cohesive dish, consider using a splash of plum wine in your chicken marinade and perhaps a sprinkling of Chinese five-spice (a blend of star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, fennel, cinnamon, and clove). These flavors can work well in salads, over rice, as a kebab, or simply plated in slices.

This potassium-rich breakfast snack isn't often found at the dinner table in the United States, but once you try it grilled you won't be able to eat it any other way. Peeled and skewered before cooking, grilled bananas are a common street food in parts of SouthEast Asia like Thailand and the Philippines. They can, however, also be cooked right in the peel where slow-steaming will make them even softer and sweeter. Cut a slit in the skin to sprinkle in a bit of brown sugar — which will make the end result even more caramelly — and either wrap in foil or place over low to medium heat on your grill.

Bananas are sweet and creamy after cooking, and they stand up well to bold, intense flavors. Mole oaxaqueño (also called mole negro) is a rich, nutty, and smoky sauce  perfect for smothering grilled chicken and pairing with a side of grilled bananas. Jamaican jerk chicken, or a salsa made of chipotle chilis are other examples of delicious preparations for your grilled chicken and banana combo.