Affordable and nourishing, chicken is a weeknight dinner staple, and if you know the formula for a good marinade, it never gets boring. Marinades are generally composed of oil, acid, and flavorings like spices and herbs—and don’t forget the salt! It’s not an exact science, but a 3:1 ratio of oil to acid is a helpful guideline. As you get more experienced, you’ll be able to eyeball amounts with ease.
When it comes to the marinade, there’s endless room to play; for example, you could go Greek with lemon juice and oregano, or whip up a sweet-and-tangy barbecue sauce. If possible, start marinating chicken as early as the night before you cook it to infuse the meat with flavor, but even 20 to 30 minutes will make a difference if that’s all you have time for.
Keep reading to discover how to marinate chicken so it never tastes bland and dry!
Be generous with the salt and other seasonings in your marinade, because only some of it will sink into the meat—even if you let it marinate overnight. Chicken can be a bit bland, so it can take a punchy marinade.
Make the marinade in a bowl, then transfer it to an airtight container—like a resealable plastic bag or a food storage container—that will fit all of the meat.
Add the chicken pieces and submerge them in the marinade. To ensure that the flavor gets into the meat, you could slash the meat a few times with your knife beforehand, but it’s not essential.
Close the container and transfer it to the refrigerator to marinate for a maximum of 24 hours.
Marinade Recipes
Now that you know how to marinade chicken, we’re sharing five chicken marinade ideas to get you started. Stick to that 3:1 ratio of oil to acid, and adjust the spices according to your preferences, and you'll set yourself up for success.
Spiced yogurt marinade: Combine full-fat Greek yogurt, lemon juice, minced garlic, ground cumin, ground coriander, chili flakes, salt, and black pepper
Pesto marinade:
Combine olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, chopped basil, chili flakes, salt, and black pepper
How Long to Marinate Chicken
The ideal amount of time to marinate chicken depends on the cut of meat you’re working with. If you’re marinating a whole chicken, for example, we’d suggest marinating it for closer to 24 hours so that the flavors really have the chance to settle. On the other hand, for something like chicken wings, even just 30 minutes is enough time to give the meat some good flavor.
Just make sure that you don’t marinate chicken for much longer than 24 hours, because the acid in the marinade will start to make the meat stringy and tough—no, thank you!
In a large ziptop bag, combine the garlic, lemon zest and juice, olive oil, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, oregano, salt, and pepper. Add the chicken. Seal the bag, removing as much excess air as possible.
While under-marinating may leave you with a chicken that's a little more bland than desired, over-marinating poultry can render it inedible. According to the USDA, chicken can be marinated for up to 48 hours and still be safe to eat.
An acidic liquid, such as vinegar, wine, tomato, yogurt, or citrus juice (or a natural enzyme like ginger or pineapple), breaks down the dense protein to tenderize it. Various seasonings and/or sweeteners, including garlic, molasses, honey, fresh or dried herbs, and spices to amp up the flavor.
Brining your chicken is a foolproof way to not only add flavour to your roast but also to ensure you don't overcook the meat. Essentially a mix of salt, sugar and water, we love adding herbs, garlic or whole spices such as fennel and cumin to flavour the brine.
Try poking holes for better penetration when you only have a short time for marinating the meat. It'll help maximize tenderness in the Flank steak without risking too much of a good thing.
You can marinate chicken anywhere from 2 hours up to 24 hours, though marinating chicken for even 15 to 30 minutes can impart flavor and moisture into smaller pieces of meat. Generally, bone-in cuts of chicken, such as wings, drumsticks and breasts, will require a longer marinade time than their boneless counterparts.
Overmarinating. Marinating for too long can change the texture of the food by making it either tough or mushy, depending on how acidic the marinade is.
You might have wondered why most chefs or cooks prefer to soak their chicken in buttermilk or yogurt overnight. Well, the answer is simple: they are tenderizing the chicken for cooking later, and that's the secret behind their super delicious, juicy chicken.
The reason you do not want to marinate chicken for longer than 4 hours is that the acidic ingredients in the marinade (like vinegar, wine, or lemon juice) will begin to break down the structure of the meat too much and it will start to “cook” before ever touching a heat source.
Marinating not only adds flavor, but the combination of healthy fat and acid in most recipes also helps tenderize the meat. A good marinade is roughly three parts oil to one part acid, plus salt and other seasonings like spices, crushed garlic, or a little natural sugar.
Modern poultry, particularly mass-produced chicken and turkey, is particularly bland in taste, as animals are bred for large muscle mass that grows faster than naturally breeding fowl; trace chemicals in the meat that would give it a distinctive flavor would thus be dispersed through larger amounts of muscle with less ...
The distinct game flavor of either birds or animals will be milder after soaking the meat overnight in the refrigerator in either a salt or vinegar solution. 2. Vinegar solution - 1 cup per quart of cold water.
If you find that your homemade or store-bought broth is thin and bland, you can concentrate its flavors by cooking it a little bit longer." Make sure to remove the lid or tilt it slightly to let the steam escape. Reducing your broth to two-thirds of its original volume should result in two times the flavor," she says.
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