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A Tasty Introduction to Easy Chicken Marinade Recipes
A chicken marinade recipe can make the different between a plain, uninteresting chicken breast or thigh, and a really juicy and delicious one, which is literally bursting with flavor.
Not all chicken recipes require you to marinate the chicken but sometimes using an easy chicken marinade is a great idea because of the fantastic results. Most marinades combine an acidic ingredient like vinegar, yogurt or lemon juice, with some oil and also flavorings such as fruit, mustard, herbs or spices. There are literally hundreds of different recipes and sometimes you can switch one ingredient for a similar one (lemon juice for lime juice perhaps, or chili powder for cayenne pepper) to make a totally new and unique marinade.
What is the Best Chicken Marinade?
There are different chicken marinades for different occasions. Perhaps you want to add a touch of citrus or a garlic flavor to your chicken, or maybe you want to give it a smoky hot flavor for the grill. You can choose from rotisserie chicken marinade recipes, a chicken breast marinade, grilled chicken marinades and more.
Some steak marinades can double up as chicken marinades, which might be a good idea if you are grilling a lot of meat and poultry at once, but some steak marinades are designed to break down and tenderize the meat, which is not necessary for poultry since poultry is not naturally tough like some cheap cuts of beef.
Making Your First Chicken Marinade Recipe
A good recipe for chicken marinade will advise you on the best ingredients to choose and talk you through preparing the rotisserie chicken marinade or chicken breast marinade. Often, it is simply a question of whisking the ingredients together and leaving the chicken in the marinade for a specific amount of time. This could be anything from ten minutes to overnight or even longer. The longer you leave the marinade on, the stronger flavor it will leave in the poultry.
It is important to follow advice about whether to throw the used marinade away. If you are marinating vegetables, for example, you can reuse the marinade as a sauce or basting liquid but in the case of chicken it is usually recommended to discard it, since bacteria from raw chicken can contaminate cooked chicken.
Alternatively you might be able to use it for basting (not during the final five minutes though) or boil it for a few minutes to make a sauce. Follow the chicken marinade recipe for the best advice.
Basic Tips for Marinating Chicken
When chicken is frozen, its pores are closed. This means it cannot absorb a marinade. Forget about pouring sauces or marinades over frozen poultry. You could always freeze chicken in the marinade though, and then by the time it thaws out it will be marinated to perfection.
Never marinate chicken in a metal container. It might be fine but sometimes you get a metallic flavor which is not good. Plastic or glass are better. Some chefs claim that using a plastic bag means the chicken cannot "breathe" but this is up to you.
Whichever you feel is the best chicken marinade for you, why not make it for dinner tonight? There are lots of ways to marinate chicken and plenty of delicious side dish ideas. Marinated chicken is always supremely juicy and positively oozing with amazing flavor.
Thanks for visiting,
Christine and everyone here at Easy Chicken Marinade
Featured Easy Stew Recipe:
The Best Grilled Chicken Marinades
There are a lot of different grilled chicken marinades to choose from, whether you are planning to grill your chicken breasts or drumsticks whole or whether you fancy making marinated chicken kabobs. You can either grill or broil the following chicken kabob recipe. If you want to broil them, keep them five inches from the heat and give them about fifteen minutes. You will find the directions for grilling the chicken in the recipe itself. Chargrilling gives the kabobs a smoky flavor which broiling cannot.
In the following recipe, the chicken is marinated in a spiced mixture of pineapple juice, soy sauce, ginger, lemon juice and more. This combination of ingredients gives the chicken plenty of flavor and since the chicken is chopped up before being added to the marinade, it will have a stronger flavor. If you marinate a whole chicken breast, only the outside gets the taste because it is in contact with the marinade. Marinating chopped chicken means more of the chicken's surface area is in contact with the marinade, therefore it will have a more intense flavor.
This is one of the best chicken marinade recipes if you want to make kabobs and you can serve them with fresh salad leaves and tomato, as well as a fruity salsa. Pineapple salsa is nice but since the kabobs contain pineapple chunks and the chicken breast marinade contains pineapple juice, why not try a mango salsa recipe instead, for a better contrast? Use unripe green mango or ripe orange-colored mango, as you prefer.
Chicken Breast Marinade for Grilled Kabobs
Ingredients -
6 whole chicken breast filets, cut into 24 cubes
1 onion, cut into 1 inch pieces
12 pineapple chunks
Lettuce and tomato wedges, to serve
For the Marinade:
1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
½ cup soy sauce
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup pineapple juice
¼ cup brown sugar
⅛ teaspoon onion powder
⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup pineapple juice
For the Salsa:
½ red onion, sliced lengthwise
2 big mangoes, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 de-seeded, finely chopped jalapeno
Salt and black pepper
Fresh mint sprigs, for garnish
Preparation:
Combine the marinade ingredients and soak the chicken in it for 2 hours, in the refrigerator.
Alternate the chicken with the onion and pineapple on skewers.
Grill 8 inches from moderately hot coals for about 12 minutes or until the chicken is no longer pink inside.
Turn often, brushing with marinade.
Do not apply any marinade during the final 5 minutes of cooking.
Toss the red onion, mangoes, jalapeno and lime juice together. Season with salt and pepper.
Serve the hot kabobs with the lettuce and tomato wedges, as well as the mango salsa.
Garnish with fresh mint.
(Serves 6)
Grilled Chicken Marinades
Photo Description:
As you can see from the picture, this is a tasty-looking and very colorful chicken kabob recipe. There are different grilled chicken marinades you could choose from but something sweet yet piquant usually works well when you are grilling. Alternatively feel free to adapt your favorite rotisserie chicken marinade or another easy chicken marinade, to infuse the poultry with a different flavor. You can see how the mango salsa looks great served alongside the kabobs. This is a hearty and satisfying meal which the whole family will enjoy.
An Introduction to Chicken Marinade
If you have never made an easy chicken marinade before, you are going to have great fun with your first one. A good chicken marinade will make your chicken juicy, tender, and flavorful and they are so simple to use. Of course chicken needs time to marinate properly so you will want to make your marinade and add the chicken at least a couple of hours before cooking it.
You can serve marinated chicken with any of your favorite side dishes and you might wish to echo the marinade ingredients in the side dishes. For example, if you have used garlic in the marinade and the chicken has an aromatic garlic taste, you might like to serve garlic mashed potatoes with it. Alternatively you can serve contrasting side dishes.
Marinating chicken gives it a gourmet flavor and whether you want to feed the family or cater for a dinner party, making an easy chicken marinade is a great way of making a satisfying meal. You can begin it in the morning, let the chicken soak all day and then cook it in the evening when you are ready, using your favorite cooking method.
How Easy Can Chicken Marinade Be?
A chicken marinade can be as easy as combining two or three basic ingredients or it can be more complex, requiring a lot of different components. Every recipe is different although most require just a few ingredients and are really simple to put together. You can prepare some chicken marinade recipes in less than a minute if there is no chopping or slicing involved.
How to Use Chicken Marinade
Once you have prepared the marinade, it is simply a question of adding the chicken and allowing it to soak up the wonderful flavors. You do not need to make too much marinade but the chicken does need to be covered in it. There are two ways to apply the marinade and that is either a shallow dish or a plastic bag.
If the chicken is in a dish, it might need to be rotated or turned over a few times during the marinating time, just to make sure there is plenty of marinade in contact with the meat. If you are using a bag, use a strong Ziploc bag which you can re-seal. Add the marinade and shake or stir it in the bag, then add the chicken and squeeze all the air out. This ensures the chicken will be in contact with the marinade.
The smaller the surface area of the chicken, the less contact it has with the marinade, so for example soaking one inch cubes of chicken in a marinade will give it a more intense flavor than soaking a whole chicken breast in marinade, because more of the chicken is in direct contact. Some recipes suggest that you poke holes in the chicken with a fork so the marinade can penetrate deeper, so you can try this if you want to marinate larger chicken cuts.
You can boil some chicken marinades while the chicken is cooking, if you want to turn them into a sauce. Others are best discarded because they do not make good sauces and they have performed their job already by flavoring the bird. Since a marinade is designed to flavor the chicken, some do not taste good as a sauce or basting agent, although they might give the chicken a delicious taste when used as a marinade.
Inside Easy Chicken Marinade
Baked Chicken Marinade
The Best Baked Chicken Marinade Recipes - Chicken is a lean meat, which means that although it is healthier for you than fatty meat, it is also prone to drying out. When you bake chicken, or use another dry heat source, the risk of your chicken drying out is greater. This is why using a baked chicken marinade is such a great idea. The marinade will not only give your chicken plenty of wonderful flavor but it will also keep it moist and succulent the whole time it is in the oven. There is a tasty baked chicken marinade for every occasion.
Chicken Breast Marinade
Choose a Good Chicken Breast Marinade - Chicken breasts make a versatile ingredient, which means you can use pretty much any kind of easy chicken marinade on them. Whether you want to add a delicate citrus touch, some aromatic herbs or really spice them up, you can do this with a good chicken breast marinade. You can add Asian flavors with lemongrass, chilies, cilantro or soy sauce, sweetness with molasses or honey, or some fire with curry powder, chili powder or other spices. A good chicken breast marinade will bring your chicken to life, infusing the chicken breasts with an amazing flavor and keeping them really moist.
Chicken Marinade Recipe
Chicken Marinade Recipe Ideas - If you are stuck for ideas, you might like to browse our comprehensive collection of chicken marinades. You can find grilled chicken marinades, chicken breast marinade suggestions and rotisserie marinade ideas, amongst others. Part of the fun of marinating chicken is deciding which marinate to choose. You also need to choose which side dishes are going to go with your marinated chicken but you can keep these simple if you like. There are some really easy chicken marinade ideas, including combining just two or three ingredients, using fresh herbs or freshly-ground spices or even using oriental ingredients.
Grilled Chicken Marinades
Gorgeous Grilled Chicken Marinades - Grilled chicken is popular all year but especially in the warmer months when standing over a grill is a pleasure rather than a chore. The best thing about a charcoal grill is that it gives your chicken a delicious smoky aroma and flavor. If you have a gas grill, you will already know how easy it is to control the cooking temperature. Whatever kind of grill you have, there are some tasty grilled chicken marinades to try out. Whether you prefer your chicken sticky and sweet, herby, fruity or something else, you can find the best grilled chicken marinades right here.
Rotisserie Chicken Marinade
Rotisserie Chicken Marinade - Skewering a whole chicken on a spit and slow-cooking it in the oven or over a fire is one great way to crisp up the outside whilst keeping the inside moist, but using a rotisserie chicken marinade in addition to this style of cooking means an extra special result. Not only can you be sure that the bird will stay moist during the long cooking time but you can also give it any flavor you like by matching a rotisserie chicken marinade recipe to your preferences and palate. There are various rotisserie chicken marinade ideas you can try out, all of which add a gourmet touch, soaking into the chicken to give it an amazing taste.
Simple Chicken Marinades
Stick with Simple Chicken Marinades - There is no need to make complicated marinades when simple chicken marinades do the job just fine. A five, four or even three ingredient marinade can infuse your chicken with fantastic flavor and give it a wonderful taste on the grill, in the oven or however you choose to cook it. There are simple chicken marinades for every occasion and anyone can make an easy chicken marinade, even somebody who is totally new to cooking. Try a tasty rotisserie chicken marinade, an Asian-inspired chicken marinade recipe, or even one of our classic grilled chicken marinades.
Chicken Cooking Tips
Handy Cooking Tips for Chicken Marinade Recipes - If making a great chicken breast marinade is new to you, you might wish to learn a few handy cooking tips before you dive into the world of baked or grilled chicken marinades. For example, do you know how to make the best chicken marinade or how long you should let your chicken marinate? Should you marinate chicken at room temperature or in the refrigerator, and is it safe to baste chicken with leftover marinade while it cooks? Find the answers to these questions and more in our chicken marinade cooking tips section.
Chicken Articles
How to Work with Chicken Marinades - Even beginner cooks will find learning an easy chicken marinade recipe to be easy. A rotisserie chicken marinade, chicken breast marinade or even grilled chicken marinades can enhance the flavor and moistness of your chicken, infusing it with a mouthwatering flavor and giving it a gourmet touch. If you want to make something easy using chicken, marinating the poultry in a similar homemade marinade is one of the best ways to do just that. Most marinade recipes are very easy to prepare and you should already have most (or all) of the necessary ingredients in your pantry or refrigerator.
Five Reasons to Make Your Own Chicken Marinade Recipes
1. Chicken Marinades are Easy
You can make a tasty chicken marinade in a couple of minutes. Simply whisk together your chosen ingredients and you can make something quickly and easily. Marinating the chicken will take a while but plan ahead and marinated chicken recipes can be a timesaving solution.
2. They are So Tasty
Whether you want to make a chicken breast marinade, a rotisserie chicken marinade or another of our easy chicken marinade recipes, there is no doubt they will give your poultry an amazing taste.
3. There are Plenty to Try
There are Asian chicken marinades, spicy ones, simple two or three ingredients ones and smoky grilled chicken marinades. There are plenty of ethnic marinades to try out, as well as classic traditional ones. You will never get bored of chicken marinades because there are so many recipes for them.
4. A Chicken Breast Marinade is Versatile
Marinating your chicken does not necessarily mean you have to grill it or broil it. You can marinate chicken and then cook it on the rotisserie or you can slice it up and add the marinated slices to a stir-fry. You can even make marinated chicken kabobs.
5. Poultry is a Delicious Budget Choice
Most people cannot afford to eat fine steak or lobster every day, and nor would most of us want to. Chicken is a great choice because it is healthy, affordable, and versatile. You can pick up a couple of chicken breasts for less than two dollars and make a mouthwatering chicken marinade recipe to give it the perfect flavor.
How to Make Memorable Chicken Marinade Recipes
A chicken marinade should give your chicken a wonderful flavor and texture without interfering with the natural poultry taste. After all a marinade is meant to enhance your meat, not disguise its natural flavor.
A chicken marinade should be memorable for its great flavor and this means you need to use good quality ingredients which blend well together. You can also recognize a great marinade by how well it tenderizes the chicken, as well as how much flavor of the marinade remains on the chicken after cooking.
The Best Ingredients and Presentation
Some chicken marinade recipes will color your chicken as well as flavoring it, so this can make the presentation more interesting. If you are boiling the marinade to serve with the chicken as a sauce, you might like to keep the side dishes simple so you can enjoy the chicken and sauce. Choosing rice, mashed potatoes or something else to soak up some of the sauce is a good idea, and you can also serve one or two cooked vegetables, or some salad.
You can cook the veggies with the chicken if you like, perhaps grilling them if you are grilling the poultry or baking them if you prefer to do the chicken in the oven.
Quality and Quantity
The quality of your chicken marinade and the quantity you make are both important factors in the success of your chicken recipe. You should use the best quality ingredients you can afford to make a truly stunning chicken dish, and you should ensure you make sufficient marinade to coat the chicken.
Oils help to hold in moisture so use a good quality extra-virgin olive oil in your easy chicken marinade, or a neutral oil if you do not want the distinctive olive oil flavor.
Try These Delicious Easy Chicken Marinade
Here is just a sampling of our delicious marinade recipes you'll find plenty more inside the site.
Spicy Sweet Chinese Chicken Wing Marinade
Healthy Low Sodium Marinades for Chicken
Korean Chicken Marinade with Sesame
Marinade for Chicken Kabobs with Herbs
Simple Buttermilk Chicken Marinade with Mustard
History of Chicken Marinade
A marinade is a seasoned liquid and it can be used to marinate meat, chicken, veggies, or fish. Fruit can also be soaked in seasoned liquid but the correct term for soaking fruit is "macerate" not "marinate."
The verb "to marinate" used to only apply to fish and the word comes from "mare" which is Latin for "the sea." Marinades are used with fish and seafood today, but more often with meat or chicken.
Marinated Meat and Chicken
Meat was the next thing to be marinated, after fish, when it was discovered that acidic ingredients like citrus juice or vinegar could break down tough sinews in beef and make it tender. Chicken does not need to be tenderized, so an easy chicken marinade is used to add flavor rather than change the qualities of the poultry.
One of the most famous chicken marinades is a jerk chicken marinade recipe. This dish has been made in Jamaica for many years. The chicken used to be seasoned with native spices and then smoked, which kept the insects away and preserved the meat. Today, there are jerk chicken marinades which you can use to get the spicy flavor and the spiciness.
You can get all kinds of readymade chicken marinades at the grocery store but it is easier, cheaper, and better to make your own, if you want the very best chicken marinade. There are more chicken marinade recipes than ever these days and it can be fun to try out different ones, to discover which you like best.
Find Out More About the History of Chicken Marinade in our more in depth look at its history.
Photo Description:
This photo shows a young woman enjoying a marinated chicken kabob recipe. Some people like to use a spice rub on their chicken to give it flavor but if you are going to grill kabobs over a grill, remember that the heat can be unforgiving and dry out your meat. The best way around this is to use a chicken marinade recipe to seal in the juices and make your kabobs extra tasty. You can choose from a wide range of chicken marinade recipes and pick any marinade recipe for poultry. Thread your chicken on to skewers, add some veggies too, and grill to perfection.
Why Homemade Chicken Marinade Recipes are Wonderfully Unique
Marinating chicken gives it an amazing aroma, taste and a flavor that lingers on after the last piece has been eaten. Marinating lies at the heart of chicken recipes because chicken is versatile enough to suit all kinds of marinades.
Many marinade recipes contain oil, herbs, spices and something acidic like lemon juice, wine, or vinegar. In some parts of the world buttermilk and yogurt are used to marinate chicken, and these tenderize the meat as well as flavor it.
Making Your Own Chicken Marinades
Bottled marinades are available from every grocery store, although most home cooks prefer to make their own because a homemade marinade is much fresher-tasting than a bottled one and they are so easy to put together. You only need to make enough marinade to coat your chicken in a thin layer and you should refrigerate the chicken while it marinates, even if the marinating time is quite short.
If you are serving the marinade as a sauce along with the chicken you must boil it for five minutes to destroy any germs from the raw chicken. Some marinades are not suitable for boiling so if you want to make a sauce from your marinade, consult the recipe to see whether this is possible.
There are so many chicken marinades to choose from that it can be said chicken marinade recipes are wonderfully unique. You can add any flavor to your chicken and the whole family is sure to enjoy a marinated chicken meal.
Different Kinds of Chicken Marinade Recipes Around the World
A lot of international chicken marinades will feature ingredients often used in the cuisine, so a Hawaiian chicken marinade might call for pineapple, ginger and soy sauce, an Italian one might call for basil, garlic, and Italian dressing, and a Japanese one might specify teriyaki sauce, green onions, or garlic. You can give a Chinese flavor to chicken by soaking it in Chinese condiments and seasonings, a French one by using French ingredients, and so on.
In India, chicken is sometimes marinated in a yogurt-based mixture which might also contain lemon juice, ginger, garlic, cayenne pepper, turmeric, cumin, cardamom, and chilies. Yogurt has been used for hundreds of years in India for preparing meat because it makes it really soft as well as giving it a lovely flavor.
A Mexican chicken marinade might call for cilantro, basic, garlic, lime juice, cumin and chilies. Perhaps a Middle Eastern chicken marinade might contain cinnamon, lemon juice, cumin, coriander, garlic, paprika, and yogurt. A Greek one could make use of garlic, oregano, lemon juice, rosemary, and thyme.
Southeast Asian recipes might feature lemongrass, coconut milk, cilantro, and chilies. In a Chinese chicken marinade recipe you might find ingredients such as hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, sake, five spice, ginger, garlic and sesame oil. Chinese chicken marinades tend to be thick, sweet, and sticky. Some of them are boiled up and then served as a sauce over the chicken.
Classic Local Favorites
In the United States we have taken chicken marinades to our hearts and many home cooks enjoy experimenting with different recipes for chicken marinade, perhaps using a delicate lemon and herb marinade one day and a bold red wine marinade another day. Typical ingredients like A1 sauce, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, vegetable oil, orange juice, pineapple juice, minced onion, and fresh herbs often find their way into our best chicken marinades too.
Everyone has their own particular favorite and for some people that might be a thick, rich chicken marinade recipe. For others it might be something made with buttermilk and garlic so the chicken gets really tender as well as aromatic.
Other people enjoy using fresh or dried herbs, experimenting with different types of vinegar or using bottled salad dressings combined with their favorite spices. If you usually eat your chicken plain, you will be really impressed with your first chicken marinade recipe because it imparts so much flavor to the poultry. Whichever recipe you choose to make, you can be sure the resulting chicken dinner will be delicious, and that means juicy as well as great-tasting.
Seasonal Marinades for Chicken
Some chicken marinade recipes are best served at specific times. If you want something simple and light for a summer barbecue, you might like to use lemon juice, garlic, oil and fresh rosemary or thyme to give your chicken an aromatic flavor. Serve it with some potato salad and you have a great summer meal. In the winter people crave heartier dishes so that is the time to get out the soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, red wine, dark beer and other intensely-flavored ingredients.
This is just a suggestion rather than a rule of course. You can marinate chicken in any marinade you choose whenever you fancy it. Some ingredients might be unavailable or hard to find at certain times of the year but that is your only limitation when making the best chicken marinade recipes.
Homemade Chicken Marinade Recipes for Everyone
Chicken has a better texture and flavor if you marinate it before cooking. Marinades usually combine an acid such as vinegar, yogurt or lemon juice with oil and some kind of flavoring like mustard, garlic, fruit, herbs, or spices. Acids can break down the flesh of chicken so do not marinate it for longer than the recipe suggests. There is a huge difference between chicken which is soft and tender, and chicken which is too mushy to use.
There are chicken marinade recipes for everybody because there is such a huge range of recipes to make. If you want to make something really simple then use oil with wine, fruit juice, vinegar or yogurt and add some garlic, minced onion, or mustard for flavor. You can add a pinch of your favorite spice or some chopped fresh herbs to pretty much any recipe.
You can also choose your favorite side dishes to serve with the marinated chicken. Roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, fries, rice, and noodles are all good ideas and you can steam, roast, or grill your favorite vegetables too. Marinated chicken is juicy enough not to require a sauce if you want to serve it just as it is.
Converting Leftover Marinade into a Sauce
You can also use the leftover marinade to make a sauce but never serve leftover marinade without cooking it first. It will probably have picked up bacteria from the raw chicken which can make you ill.
This is why you should boil it for several minutes before basting the chicken with it or making a sauce. Alkalines which come out of the marinated chicken will interact with the acidity in the sauce to diminish its original acidity or sharpness, making it softer, smoother-tasting, and nice as a sauce.
Top Tips for the Best Homemade Chicken Marinade Recipes
If you want to make your chicken marinade more flavorful, use less oil. That way the other ingredients will seem stronger. The best marinade is about half acid and half oil. That would not make a very nice salad dressing but it does make a fine marinade for poultry.
Read the recipe to discover how long to marinate the chicken. Steak can be marinated in acid for one or even two days to tenderize it but chicken is already tender and some marinades will start to make it mushy after as little as an hour. If your chicken needs to marinate for longer than thirty minutes, or the weather is very hot, marinate it in the refrigerator.
Using Fresh Herbs for a Fresh Flavor
Use fresh herbs whenever possible. This gives your chicken a fresher, nicer flavor. If you only have dried ones, crush them between your fingers. This releases their aromatic oils and will improve the marinade.
Basting the Poultry with the Marinade
Brush some of the marinade over the chicken as it cooks if you like, but stop doing this a few minutes before the end of the cooking time for safety reasons. Alternatively you can boil the marinade and brush it on to the chicken as it cooks. Boiling kills the bacteria from the contact with the raw chicken. Discard any leftover marinade.
When marinating the chicken, put it in a Ziploc bag or a glass dish. Never use aluminum because the acidic ingredients in the marinade can react with it and impart a strange flavor to the chicken. If you are using a Ziploc bag, put it on a pan or bowl in case of leakage.
A Few Chicken Marinade Recipes Facts
Chicken benefits from a great marinade. Chicken breasts without skin need the moisture and a marinade also helps to protect the chicken from the heat of your oven or grill, and stop it from drying out. Chicken needs a delicate touch and a good chicken marinade recipe will keep it juicy and succulent.
While you are marinating chicken, you should move it around or turn it over every now and then, to ensure the marinade reaches all the surfaces. If the chicken pieces are pressed together tightly, the marinade will not be able to sink into the chicken evenly, so keep it moving and you will be able to notice the difference.
How Long to Marinate Chicken for the Best Results
The exact marinating time depends on several factors including how acidic the marinade is, what ingredients you are using in it, how intense you want the marinade flavor to be and what kind of chicken you are using.
The best way to determine the correct marinating time is to consult the recipe you are using. As a rule though, as long as you are not using something too acidic, you can marinate chicken pieces (legs, wings or thighs) for two or three hours, and a whole chicken for four to six hours.
Give skinless chicken breasts thirty minutes to an hour, or skin-on chicken breasts one or two hours. These are only guidelines though and if you are not using an acidic marinade you can leave your chicken for hours, to give it an intense flavor without affecting its texture.
How to Cook Marinated Chicken
Grilling is a great way to cook chicken that has been marinated, or you could bake it instead. The marinade will protect the chicken against drying out too fast. If you want to baste the chicken with the marinade as it cooks, boil it for a few minutes first to destroy the bacteria from the raw chicken.
It is sometimes unwise to use a sweet marinade for basting chicken on the grill because it can burn. If your marinade contains alcohol, sugar, honey, molasses or something similar, only baste it within the final couple of minutes, if at all, else the outside of the chicken will burn. If the marinade is not sweet you can baste it earlier.
You can also pan-fry the chicken. If you are doing this, it is up to you whether to let the excess marinade drip off or whether to add it to the pan and cook the chicken in it.
Not all marinades make good sauces so it depends on the recipe you have used. Some people microwave chicken but this can dry it out and give it an unpleasant texture so you might prefer to use one of the other cooking methods.
Serve your marinated chicken as soon as it is done, with your favorite side dishes. Another option is to keep it in the refrigerator for up to two days and enjoy the cooked marinated chicken cold with potato salad or coleslaw. You can also take it on a picnic or take it to work to enjoy at lunchtime. Marinated chicken is versatile and delicious.
