You know, when someone asks me, “How hard is it to make a good chicken marinade,” I love that question because basically the answer is always the same: you can make it as hard….or as easy as you like. Here, let me explain.
Unless you are making a 'dry marinade', or a rub as they say, you are going to need some liquid. Marinades, especially a good chicken marinade do a couple of things for you:
- they tenderize the meat (which is a good thing)
- and they season the food (which is an even better thing).
Since a good marinade does these things it really is a great idea for you to have a few different 'marinades' in your repertoire. After all, if all you know is a good chicken marinade, I know you are not going to want to cook chicken for the rest of your life. I know my wife complains because I grill up chicken way too much for her tastes.
So, a basic understanding of marinades and what they are and what they can be used for is a very important basic thing to know. It will only be to your improvement as a backyard barbeque chef.
Marinades usually contain an acid like:
- lemon juice
- yogurt
- vinegar
- a wine-flavored vinegar
You will then want to incorporate maybe some oil (for tenderness and keeping it moist and juicy).
And then, lastly, you will want to add some flavoring ingredients when making a good marinade. Here are some examples of what you might want to try:
- salt and pepper (or course)
- garlic
- onion
- parsley
- any herbs (like Basil, Marjoram, Oregano, Cilantro, Sage, Rosemary, etc.)
- cut up fruits
- mustard
On the 'making it healthier' idea this is what I did in the restaurant business a few times. I have a great Onion/Ranch Marinated Chicken dish I use to do with chicken tenders. I would marinade the chicken tenders in ranch dressing for quite some time before I would finish then off with a good onion mixture and then grill them. Then I would slice them and arrange them on a good salad.
At some point in time, I replaced the ranch with Lemon Yogurt to make it a little healthier. So it is ideas like that which you can just run around in your barbeque head and then try out for yourselves on the weekends to see if your family likes them.
Look, it is just like I said, you can make it easy. Or you can make it a little more time consuming when you are coming up with your own good chicken marinade. It would be foolish of me to tell you to use some Sage in case your family does not like sage. However, your family might be in love with Oregano and Lemon.
Great, use that in a good chicken marinade for your loved ones. But do you see what I am talking about?
You can use a good marinade and that will always make the meat you grill better by adding:
- moisture
- tenderness
- and way more flavor
I have included a video from my friend who has a good recipe for a great chicken marinade. Take a look.
How to Make a Basic Chicken Marinade
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