Chicken Marinade Recipe – Two Ways

December 10, 2009 { }

This is a quick and delicious way to marinate chicken and save time. I try to make time on my grocery shopping day to clean, prepare, and marinate the chicken breasts. If I don’t have time that day, I throw them in the refrigerator and marinate them the following morning. (Sorry – more raw meat pics…this is the last one for now. Promise!)

The great thing about these marinades is that you can use them with any kind of chicken, even a whole chicken if you remove the backbone and lay it out flat.

I posted the first half of this post on Wednesday. If you didn’t see it, you can find it here.

Before I give you the marinade recipes, I’m going to show you the final steps before adding all that great flavor to the chicken. I mix my marinade in 2 or 4 cup glass measuring cups before I start cleaning the chicken so it’s ready to go when I need it.

chicken-breast-marinade-1
Rinse and pat the chicken breasts dry. Then, salt both sides with kosher salt and rub the salt into the chicken. I use about 3/4 – 1 teaspoon per pound.

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Cut the breasts in half. (You can do this before or after you salt the breasts.)

chicken-breast-marinade-2

Place the chicken breasts in pre-labeled and dated 1 gallon zip-lock bags. Dump the marinade in the bag and flip it to coat both sides of the chicken. Get the breasts to lay as flat as you can, squeeze out as much air as possible, and then seal them.

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I place the sealed bags of chicken and marinade on a baking sheet. Once they’re frozen solid, I take them off the baking sheet. They stack neatly in my freezer. When you’re ready to cook them, let them thaw in the refrigerator. You’ll have perfectly flavored meat.

Print friendly recipe
Tuscan Lemon Chicken Marinade
makes enough for about 2 – 3 pounds of chicken
recipe from Ina Garten

1/3 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest, about 2 lemons
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 cloves of garlic grated on a microplane
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Combine all ingredients in a 2 or 4 cup glass measuring cup. Whisk to combine. Pour over chicken and marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight. The longer the meat is marinated, the more flavor it will absorb.

Print friendly recipe
Herbs de Provence Chicken Marinade
makes enough for 2 – 3 pounds of chicken

1/3 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
10 drops of liquid stevia (I use NuNaturals)
1 tablespoon herbs de provence

Combine all ingredients in a 2 or 4 cup glass measuring cup. Whisk to combine. Pour over chicken and marinate for at least 4 hours or overnight. The longer the meat is marinated, the more flavor it will absorb.

Enjoy!

Much Love,

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Comments

15 Responses to “Chicken Marinade Recipe – Two Ways”

Lauren
December 10th, 2009 @ 10:05 pm

Sounds great! Mom loves to marinade in salad dressing, then just pop ‘em into the oven, but I’m sure that these are just as delicious!

[Reply]
Janice
December 10th, 2009 @ 11:42 pm

I never thought to freeze marinaded chicken. I am definitely going to do this! When I make salad dressing, I usually make too much. I take the leftovers and add more oil and ’stuff’ to make marinade for my chicken.

[Reply]
MaryMoh
December 11th, 2009 @ 1:41 am

Thanks for sharing. I would love the marinade. I always marinade chicken overnight to get the flavour through before baking. I try freezing next time.

[Reply]
Amy Reply:
December 11th, 2009 at 8:36 am
@MaryMoh, I just freeze it to save time later – I can marinate a enough chicken for several dinnners and pop it into the freezer. Then, when I want to cook it I can pull it out to thaw in the refrigerator overnight.

[Reply]
Shari aka The Saucy Gourmet
December 11th, 2009 @ 10:21 am

This is so easy and such a great idea! I never thought to freeze the chicken in the marinade, silly me. I always open up the freezer, look at the “naked” breast and wonder “what to do” Now that will all ready be decided for me, thanks!

[Reply]
Alta (Tasty Eats At Home)
December 11th, 2009 @ 10:35 am

So freezing it in the marinade doesn’t alter the texture of the meat? I always thought it would turn it into mush or something. That Tuscan marinade sounds simple and delicious!

[Reply]
Amy Reply:
December 11th, 2009 at 11:24 am
@Alta (Tasty Eats At Home), No, the meat tastes great. In fact since posting this I’ve learned that this is a trick personal chef’s use when preparing a week or month’s worth of food for their clients.

[Reply]
Jenn AKA The Leftover Queen
December 11th, 2009 @ 10:57 am

I love your idea of using the baking sheet to get them nice, flat and stackable. Going to try that trick next time!

[Reply]
Rochelle (Acquired Taste)
December 11th, 2009 @ 2:42 pm

Great looking Marinades! I don’t usually let them sit in anything for too long but it’s always nice to have a new way to make my chicken more flavorful when I do

[Reply]
Sandy Gillett
December 11th, 2009 @ 4:52 pm

Thank you Amy. The marinades sound delicious. I appreciate the tutorial on preparing and then freezing.

[Reply]
gfe--gluten free easily
December 11th, 2009 @ 7:45 pm

Great idea, Amy, and I love that you share the step-by-step photos. I know you use agave most often, so I’m curious why you use Stevia in the last marinade. Does Stevia hold up better in the freezer or is it just a matter of stevia working better in that particular recipe?

Thanks,
Shirley

[Reply]
Amy Reply:
December 11th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
@gfe–gluten free easily, Actually I’ve been playing around with stevia as a good, low-glycemic sweetner without the calories. I put in just enough stevia to cut the tartness of the vinegar. I use it in my hot cocoa and if I make a fru-fru coffee drink, too. And, I just used it along with some agave in a batch of cookies. They’re great.

[Reply]
Shirley
December 12th, 2009 @ 7:38 am

I marinate overnight in ziplocks too. Really saves time and gets the most out of the marinade. And lemon juice is a must for that zing, isnt it?

[Reply]
lululu
December 12th, 2009 @ 11:42 am

Great tips! I’ve always freeze meat for use after, but never freeze marinated meat. Now, it really save me tons of hours!

[Reply]
Chef D
April 15th, 2010 @ 4:02 am

Amy very nice recipe and layout, consider guest posting. Thanks

[Reply]