Ever stared at a plain chicken breast and thought, “Ugh, not again”? I know I have! But here’s the secret to transforming that boring piece of protein into a mouth-watering meal: marinating. This game-changing technique not only adds incredible flavor but also makes your chicken juicier and more tender. Let me walk you through the ins and outs of marinating chicken like a pro chef.
Why Marinate Chicken in the First Place?
Before diving into the how, let’s quickly talk about the why. Marinating chicken serves three important purposes:
- Adds flavor – The marinade infuses the meat with delicious tastes that penetrate beyond just the surface
- Tenderizes the meat – Certain ingredients break down proteins, making chicken more tender
- Improves moisture – Helps prevent your chicken from drying out during cooking
“Marinades are generally composed of oil, acid, and flavorings like spices and herbs—and don’t forget the salt!” as Real Simple points out. This combination creates the perfect environment for flavor transformation.
The Basic Formula for Chicken Marinade
The perfect chicken marinade follows a simple ratio:
3 1 oil to acid ratio
This means for every 3 parts oil, you need 1 part acid. For example, 3 tablespoons olive oil to 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar This ratio ensures the chicken gets tender without becoming mushy
Let’s break down the essential components:
1. The Fat Component (Oil)
The oil in your marinade
- Helps carry flavors
- Keeps chicken moist
- Provides a protective coating during cooking
Best oils for chicken marinades:
- Olive oil (most versatile)
- Vegetable oil
- Sesame oil (for Asian-inspired dishes)
- Avocado oil
2. The Acid Component
Acids work by breaking down some of the protein structures in chicken, creating tiny pockets that allow flavors to penetrate deeper. Common acids include:
- Citrus juices (lemon, lime, orange)
- Vinegars (balsamic, rice, white wine)
- Wine
- Yogurt or buttermilk
- Pineapple juice (contains natural enzymes)
⚠️ Important tip: Don’t overdo the acid! As Chef Eric Rowse from the Institute of Culinary Education warns, “the acid should be diluted with other ingredients (like soy sauce or vegetable oil), as they can make protein mushy if used undiluted.”
3. The Flavor Enhancers
This is where you can get creative! Add:
- Herbs (fresh or dried)
- Spices
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Soy sauce
- Hot sauce
- Honey or sugar
4. Salt
Never forget the salt! It’s crucial for enhancing flavor and helping the meat retain moisture.
Step-by-Step Guide to Marinating Chicken
Now let’s get practical! Here’s my foolproof method for marinating chicken:
Step 1: Prepare Your Chicken
- Decide whether to marinate whole pieces or cut into chunks (smaller pieces absorb flavor faster)
- For even better penetration, consider scoring the meat with shallow cuts
- Pat the chicken dry with paper towels
Step 2: Create Your Marinade
Here’s a basic all-purpose marinade that works wonders:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil- 1 tablespoon acid (lemon juice, vinegar, etc.)- 1-2 cloves minced garlic- 1/2 teaspoon salt- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper- Optional herbs and spices to tasteIf you want a specific recipe, try this crowd-pleaser:
“Whisk vinegar, soy sauce, olive oil, parsley, basil, oregano, garlic powder, and black pepper together in a bowl. Pour into a resealable plastic bag. Add chicken, coat with the marinade, squeeze out excess air, and seal the bag. Marinate in the refrigerator, 2 to 4 hours.”
Step 3: Combine Chicken and Marinade
You’ve got options here:
- Zip-top bag: Place chicken and marinade in a resealable plastic bag, squeeze out air, and seal
- Glass container: Use a non-reactive container with a tight-fitting lid
- Food storage container: Any airtight container works great
Pro tip: Always place marinating chicken on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator to prevent any potential cross-contamination if the container leaks.
Step 4: Marinate for the Right Amount of Time
Time matters! Here’s a handy guide:
| Cut of Chicken | Minimum Time | Ideal Time | Maximum Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken breast | 30 minutes | 3-6 hours | 24 hours |
| Chicken thighs | 1 hour | 6-8 hours | 24 hours |
| Whole chicken | 4 hours | Overnight | 24 hours |
| Chicken wings | 30 minutes | 2-4 hours | 24 hours |
As Chef Giancarlo Borletti from BSTRO38 in New York City advises, for whole chicken, “brine overnight then marinate the next day for a couple of hours.” For cuts like drumsticks, breasts, and thighs, “marinating overnight is ideal, but three to six hours works well.”
⚠️ Warning: Never marinate chicken longer than 48 hours! The acid will start breaking down the proteins too much, giving you mushy, stringy meat.
Three Types of Marinades to Master
According to chefs, there are three main types of marinades you should know about:
1. Acidic Marinades
These use vinegar, citrus, wine, or buttermilk to tenderize by denaturing proteins.
Example: Lemon-garlic marinade
- Olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, chopped parsley, salt, and black pepper
2. Enzymatic Marinades
These use ingredients with natural enzymes that break down proteins.
Example: Tropical marinade
- Olive oil, pineapple juice, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic
3. Oil-Based Marinades
These rely primarily on oil and spices for flavor without much tenderizing.
Example: Herb and olive oil marinade
- Olive oil, rosemary, thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper
5 Quick Chicken Marinade Ideas
Need inspiration? Try these five chef-approved marinades:
1. Fajita Marinade
Combine olive oil, lime juice, minced garlic, chili powder, ground cumin, chopped cilantro, and minced jalapeño.
2. Cilantro-Lime Marinade
Mix olive oil, lime juice, minced ginger, chili flakes, chopped cilantro, salt, and black pepper.
3. Spiced Yogurt Marinade
Blend full-fat Greek yogurt, lemon juice, minced garlic, ground cumin, ground coriander, chili flakes, salt, and black pepper.
4. Pesto Marinade
Stir together olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, chopped basil, chili flakes, salt, and black pepper.
5. Asian-Inspired Marinade
Combine soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, honey, and green onions.
Advanced Marinating Techniques
Wanna take your marinating skills to the next level? Try these:
Technique 1: Scoring
“Scoring the pieces of chicken about ⅓-inch deep significantly enhanced the flavor absorption and expedited the tenderizing effects,” according to tests conducted by Food52. Just make shallow cuts in the surface of larger chicken pieces.
Technique 2: Double Marinating
This involves:
- Marinating before cooking
- Resting the cooked chicken in a fresh batch of marinade or sauce after cooking
Chef Eric Rowse notes: “Resting meats can absorb up to 50 percent of their weight in [the] liquid they’re in.” This adds even more flavor, though it won’t tenderize like pre-cooking marination.
Safety Tips for Marinating Chicken
Safety first! Always follow these guidelines:
- Always marinate in the refrigerator – Never leave chicken marinating at room temperature
- Use the bottom shelf – This prevents cross-contamination if any leaks occur
- Use non-reactive containers – Glass, food-grade plastic, or stainless steel only (no aluminum or copper)
- Never reuse marinade – Unless you boil it thoroughly first
- Discard leftover marinade or bring it to a full boil for at least 1 minute if you want to use it as a sauce
Common Marinating Mistakes to Avoid
I’ve made these mistakes so you don’t have to:
- Using too much acid – This turns chicken mushy
- Not using enough salt – Salt is essential for flavor penetration
- Marinating too long – More isn’t always better
- Using too little marinade – Make sure chicken is fully submerged
- Adding too much oil – This creates a barrier that prevents flavor absorption
Cooking Your Marinated Chicken
After all that marinating magic, you’ll want to cook your chicken right:
- Remove from marinade and pat dry with paper towels
- Let sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before cooking
- Choose the right cooking method – Grilling, roasting, baking, and pan-frying are all excellent for marinated chicken
Remember that marinated chicken may cook faster than plain chicken due to the acid breaking down some proteins, so keep an eye on it!
My Final Thoughts
Marinating chicken isn’t just about flavor—it’s about creating a memorable meal experience. Whether you’re meal prepping for the week or impressing dinner guests, taking the time to marinate your chicken will elevate your cooking game significantly.
The beauty of marinating is that once you understand the basic formula, you can create endless variations based on what you have in your pantry and what flavors you’re craving.
What’s your favorite chicken marinade? I’d love to hear about your go-to flavor combinations in the comments below!
Plus, the absolute worst way.
Published OnJuly 25, 2022
Photo by Julia Gartland
In Absolute Best Tests, Ella Quittner destroys the sanctity of her home kitchen in the name of the truth. Shes boiled dozens of eggs, mashed a concerning number of potatoes, and seared more Porterhouse steaks than she cares to recall. Today, she tackles marinated chicken.
I used to think that marinades were pointless. Or, more accurately, I wasn’t really sure what they did for flavor—blame the honey mustard craze of my youth. I wasn’t sure how or why I might employ one to lock in moisture when I could simply dry brine. So more often than not, I skipped them.
And then, a few years ago, my then-colleague Eric fed me a little bite of salmon. The bite was like none I’d ever had: it was juicier than a peach, despite being cooked to flake-stage, and its flavor carried the whole way through, rather than presenting as a surface-level jacket. He was developing a recipe for marinated salmon, and each day for a few weeks, I’d get a taste of a slightly tweaked recipe. Each bite of marinated protein was better than the last. I was hooked.
And so, I began to dabble. I began with prolific food scientist Harold McGee, to parse the true purpose and definition: “Marinades are acidic liquids, originally vinegar and now including such ingredients as wine, fruit juices, buttermilk, and yogurt, in which the cook immerses meat for hours to days before cooking,” McGee writes in On Cooking. “They have been used since Renaissance times, when their primary function was to slow spoilage and to provide flavor. Today, meats are marinated primarily to flavor them and to make them more moist and tender.”
From there, I’ll admit I became a little obsessed, and I’ll also admit that I began to marinade probably more than I should, possibly at one point marinating a single scallop in a six-ingredient concoction. The details don’t matter. What matters is that when the assignment to test as many marinades for chicken as I could fit in my (tiny) refrigerator came through, I responded affirmatively so quickly, I basically sprained my left thumb. Here are the results.
I tested with the most cursed (least juicy) of meats: boneless skinless chicken breast. For each trial, I cut the breast into 2-by-2 inch chunks of roughly the same thickness. I did this to keep the results consistent, but also because through my completely normal dalliances with marinades over the years, I’ve found that the effects on flavor and tenderness tend to be more pronounced with a smaller cut of protein wherein a high proportion of the meat has surface area than, say, a whole bird (see Round 2).
In each test, I covered two chunks with just enough of the marinade agent to fully cover (which for me was about 6 ounces) + Diamond Crystal kosher salt (1/2 tsp) + minced garlic (1 large clove). Using whole Kosher salt in the solution seemed counterintuitive because it didn’t dissolve at first, but everything I read led me to believe it would work within the marinade like a dry brine, drawing out liquid from the meat and dissolving into the flavored liquid replacing it.
I marinated each set of chunks—really, so sorry to have to keep using the word “chunks” — for three hours, and six hours, doing a cooking test after each increment. To test each chicken chunk (we’re doing this), I seared the chicken in a hot Dutch oven with about a teaspoon of high heat friendly oil on all sides, just until cooked through.
- Rice Vinegar (pH: 2 to 3)
- White Wine (pH: 3.0 to 3.4)
- Orange Juice (pH: 3.5 to 4.6)
- Buttermilk (pH: 4.4 to 4.8)
- Yogurt (pH: 4 to 4.94)
- Lemon Juice (pH: 3ish)
- Tomato Sauce (pH: 5.1 to 5.8)
By the three-hour mark, the most tenderizing marinades were lemon juice, tomato sauce, orange juice, and yogurt. The buttermilk-marinated chicken was barely more tender than an unmarinated piece. (Thank god I’ve found a synonym for chunk. It’s piece!) The rice vinegar-marinated chicken was about half as tender as the extremely tender aforementioned pieces. By the six-hour mark, the most tenderizing marinades were the same—orange juice, lemon juice, tomato sauce, and yogurt—with the addition of rice vinegar. The buttermilk-marinated chicken was a bit more tender than before, but still not quite as soft as the others.
On the flavor front, by the three-hour mark, the lemon juice, orange juice, tomato sauce, and wine had all penetrated the meat extremely thoroughly. Only the lemon juice also carried the flavor of garlic into the chicken. At the six-hour mark, rice vinegar again joined the bunch. Bizarrely, the garlic essence (also my signature perfume, and also all of my passwords) had disappeared from the lemon juice-chicken by the six hour mark, but the garlicky flavor appeared in the six hour white wine-chicken. The flavors of buttermilk and yogurt were not particularly palpable in the three-hour tests, but were subtle and delicious in the six-hour tests. Overall, I was most taken with how deeply and profoundly the wine flavor made its way into the meat in very little time, as when this type of marinade is the basis of dishes like Drunken Chicken.
One common complaint about marinades is that, even with more than enough time, depth of penetration can be limited. (Say, if you’re cooking meat that isn’t carved into perfect and tiny 2-by-2 inch chunks. Say, a situation like that.) The good people behind AmazingRibs.com write, “Marinades, unless they are heavy with salt, in which case they more properly are called brines, do not penetrate meats very far, rarely more than 1/8″, even after many hours of soaking. Especially in the cold fridge where molecules are sluggish. They can enter tiny pores and cracks in the surface but that’s about it.”
As such, for each test in this round, I tested different application techniques, all with a rice vinegar marinade, to see if I could get the solution to work its magic deeper than just the surface.
Scoring the pieces of chicken about ⅓-inch deep significantly enhanced the flavor absorption and expedited the tenderizing effects of the rice vinegar marinade at the three-hour mark, as compared to the submerged only-chicken. By the six-hour mark, the scored chicken was rubbery and over-penetrated, though I suspect a larger piece and/or bone-in breast would have appreciated the extra hours, and perhaps deeper scoring.
I am sad to report that while I bought a truly terrifying tool off Amazon to inject vinegar and little bits of garlic into cold meat, the tool did virtually nothing. The marinade dribbled right out. I’m so glad real syringes don’t work like this. So, so glad. I suspect that were I marinating something huge, like pork tenderloin, I could have used heft, gravity, and twine to my advantage to keep at least some of the injected marinade in place, but for the small pieces I was working with, injection was a bust.
The BEST Chicken Marinade
FAQ
How are you supposed to marinate chicken?
Marinate your chicken. Add chicken to a large baking dish, shallow bowl, or plastic bag. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour over your pickle juice, making sure to cover the chicken. Marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours. The longer the better.
What is the best liquid to marinate chicken in?
By the six-hour mark, the most tenderizing marinades were the same—orange juice, lemon juice, tomato sauce, and yogurt—with the addition of rice vinegar. The buttermilk-marinated chicken was a bit more tender than before, but still not quite as soft as the others.
What is the best seasoning for chicken?
What seasonings are best for chicken? Everything from salt & pepper to garlic & onion, as well as a good mix of herbs and red spices like paprika. Paprika-forward spices are also great with chicken recipes, especially when grilling or cooking on the barbecue.