Favorite Everyday Chicken Marinade
My family’s favorite everyday chicken marinade recipe. This recipe is foolproof, fast, and ensures flavorful chicken every time.
Oh, hey! I meant to share this recipe with you years and years ago! This happens far too often around here. Forgive me.
Today I’m finally sharing my favorite, everyday, fool proof chicken marinade. It is actually a family (aka. my mom’s creation) recipe that we’ve been making for years and years.
Actually, if we’re being technical, we’ve probably been making this for decades now. Maybe multiple decades? That’s a long, long time! Trust me, my family wouldn’t keep a sub-par chicken marinade around for that long if it wasn’t great.
It is our go-to marinade for grilled chicken (in fact, I’m fairly positive we use it for steak as well). It would always taste a tiny bit different every time, as my mom is averse to following all recipes, including her own–but the ingredients have always stayed the same.
Despite having a little bit of an Asian flavor profile (the marinade has lots of fresh ginger and soy sauce in it), this chicken marinade is very versatile.
The marinade only requires 7 ingredients, many of which are basic pantry staples: natural peanut butter, olive oil, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, fresh garlic, ginger, orange juice, and soy sauce.
This also means you can make this chicken basically at the drop of a hat, which I love. If you throw them all into a Ziplock freezer bag (which I tend to do), clean-up is practically non-existent too.
Other bonus points? This chicken marinade is incredibly reliable and everyone always loves it. Once you get the hang of it and get the basic ratios down, you won’t even need to measure anything. Aren’t those the best types of recipes?
The soy sauce in the marinade ensures that you’ll have perfectly seasoned and moist chicken breast each time (in fact, you do not want to season this chicken again before you cook it, as the marinade takes care of this for you).
This chicken goes with practically everything. During the summer months, we would serve it up with a ridiculous quantity of grilled vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, bell peppers, onions, etc.).
It also goes works incredibly well for main-course salads (think of mix-in’s like avocado, spring or red onions, radishes, or basically anything), as well as with stir fries. During the fall and winter months, I like to serve it alongside vegetables, such as Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Squash, or Green Beans Almondine.
This chicken marinade also works extremely well for indoor grilling (a good cast-iron grill pan is worth the investment) or searing in a hot cast-iron pan. Hope you love this as much as my family does!
Favorite Everyday Chicken Marinade
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons (45 g) unsalted creamy natural peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons (30 mL) extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce optional
- 2 inch chunk of fresh ginger peeled and finely diced
- 4 large garlic cloves finely diced
- ⅓ cup (80 mL) soy sauce
- zest of ½ an orange optional
- ¼ cup (60 mL) fresh orange juice roughly ½ a juicy orange or substitute 100% pure orange juice
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 4-5 boneless skinless chicken breasts roughly 2 to 2½ lbs
Instructions
- Fold over the top half of a large freezer Ziploc bag (or reusable container, such as a Stasher bag) and add all of the marinade ingredients, except the chicken, to the bag. Close the bag (squeeze out any excess air) and combine the ingredients together - you want to make sure the peanut butter is thoroughly incorporated - by squishing the contents of the bag with your hands. Alternatively, you can place all of the marinade ingredients in a small mixing bowl, whisk them together, and then pour the mixture into a Ziploc bag.
- Using tongs (or your hands), add the chicken breasts to the bag, squeeze out the excess air from the bag, and reseal. Make sure all of the marinade is evenly coating both sides of the chicken breasts. Place the bag flat on a large plate (I like to place mine on a quarter-size baking sheet, as I can store it easily in the fridge), casserole dish, or mixing bowl and marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for 45 minutes or as long as 2 hours. Avoid marinating the chicken for much longer than 2 hours, as the chicken will start to get mushy. If possible, flip the bag halfway through, but this is not required.
- Ideally, remove the chicken from the fridge about 20 minutes prior to cooking, so that it comes slightly closer to room temperature. Heat an outdoor grill over medium-high heat (or alternatively, a large cast-iron grill pan over a stovetop). You do not need to season the chicken prior to cooking, as the soy sauce in the marinade takes care of this for you.
- If using an indoor grill pan, grease the pan lightly with cooking spray. Grill the chicken (I prefer to do this in batches, depending on the size of the chicken breasts, so that the grill pan stays hot)for 4 to 5 minutes per side (cooking time is roughly 10 minutes per inch of thickness) - adjusting the heat accordingly.
- Transfer the cooked chicken to a clean plate or serving platter and allow it to rest for at least 5 to 10 minutes. Once rested, slice the chicken against the grain and serve.
Tips for Success:
- Feel free to swap out skinless boneless chicken breasts with skin-on or bone-in chicken breasts or chicken thighs (which have even more flavor!)–and adjust the cooking time as necessary. For indoor grilling, I find skinless boneless chicken breasts to be the best bet.
15 Comments on “Favorite Everyday Chicken Marinade”
This was delicious!!! I loved how flavorful it was and did not need hours and hours of marinating. I am more the type that gets home from work and wonders what is for dinner. This really made my chicken and veggies special for the evening. Thank you for the recipe!
Yay! So happy to hear that. I love this marinade so much.
Just cooked your recipe for marinaded grilled chicken this evening Laura. Whilst I visited my veggie plot (allotment) to water and pick beans and raspberries, it was all marinating nicely in the fridge so when I got home it was so quick to cook and put together with home grown salad and freshly dug new potatoes. It tasted fab and is now printed and in my recipe folder. I’ve a feeling we will be eating this quite often! Many thanks for all your inspiration.
Susan – Oxfordshire, England
This makes me so happy! Thanks Susan!!
Thanks for the great post about our favorite chicken marinade! So I don’t follow recipes, ha! Even my own?????
Love the baggie trick… and diggin on the ingredients on making this super tasty! I’ve always had a hard time with chicken and never know how to get good flavor out of the bird. Definitely going on the menu!
Thanks Gloria!!! I literally make this all the time and the chicken always comes out very flavorful. Hope you like it! Let me know if you try it 🙂
ML’s chicken marinade….printed! I love this….
Hi! This looks delicious and I’m always looking for a great marinade . With two young boys and a husband we eat a lot of chicken (and I work so this looks fast!). That said, we do have a peanut allergy. Do you think I could substitute the Peanut Butter for Sunflower Butter or other Peanut Butter substitutions? Thank you!
Hi Lisa! Thanks for asking this–as I want to make sure that no one serves this to unsuspecting people with peanut allergies. I think you could substitute other peanut butter substitutions, but have never tried it, so I can’t say for sure. The peanut flavor definitely contributes to the overall flavor, but I don’t think its an absolute requirement. I think almond butter might be a bit strange, but sunflower might be the better choice here! Maybe cashew too? Does this help?
This marinade sounds wonderful and I think, quite versatile. I’d like to try marinating chicken thighs or even pork tenderloin…I think the possibilities are endless.
Just want to tell you how much I enjoy your blog! Even more, I’m a former Chicagoan and I still miss it. I lived in the Lincoln Park area.
So sorry that I’m only just replying to this!!! Thank you Jennifer! I definitely think it would be great with pork too 🙂 I’m so glad you like the blog! I’ve been up to Lincoln Park quite a bit (there are some amazing restaurants up there), but I need to explore that area more. It’s such a great city!
This so simple and perfect for weeknight meals!
Thanks Tieghan!
I’m prety sure this is the most beautiful chicken ever!