This is the only chicken marinade you will ever need. There I said it.
Helping make the chicken tender and flavorful this marinade lends well to any dish. I’ve used this marinade on chicken for salads, tacos, chicken sandwiches, Chinese dishes, you name it. Tonight I am enjoying it sandwich style with a lettuce “bun” and my favorite coleslaw. Yum! So with no more ado, here you go.
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ¼ cup soy sauce or coconut aminos (use coconut aminos for a whole30 option)
- 2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
- 2 TBSP minced garlic
- 1 TBSP parsley flakes
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp onion powder
Use on two to four chicken breasts depending on size.
Mix together all ingredients in a bowl and whisk thoroughly. In a shallow dish or big ziploc bag, place your chicken breast and pour the marinade over your chicken. Mix around to make sure your marinade is covering every part of your chicken breasts. Let sit in the refrigerator for 45 minutes to 2 hours.
Feel free to flip or stir around once during the marinade time to ensure coverage.
When ready to cook, throw it on your smoker, grill or in the oven, and cook until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
In deciding to add recipes to this blog, I knew that I want to make recipes easy and simple and without needing a reader to search for miles trying to find ingredients and instructions. So I am posting the recipe at the top of the page and any additional information below.
I am a big proponent of making recipes your own and not adhering to a list of measurements too tightly. Don’t have garlic? Use garlic powder! Don’t have garlic powder? Use something else! I rarely measure and I think everyone has different tastes and should add ingredients to the degree that suits your taste best! For this recipe you can add or delete ingredients as you wish but know this:
- Fats transfer fat-soluable liquids onto the meat. They also make sure that the acid in the marinade isn’t overwhelming. Basically, they round out the flavor of a marinade. So if you don’t have olive oil to use, find another oil/fat (ideally with a high smoke point) to use.
- Acids break down the connective tissue which can help the flavors of the marinade penetrate deeper into your meat. However, too much acid can actually toughen your cut of meat. So any kind of vinegar will work, or lemon juice, or buttermilk, but you need to make sure that you don’t use too much. Try to keep the acid:fat ratio 1:3.
*Know that a marinade will not necessarily tenderize your meat, but it will break down tissue in order for flavor to penetrate.
**Also know that this recipe has plenty of fat involved, so if you are putting straight onto a grill, you may get a little more smoke/fire going depending on the fat you use. However, if you use a smoker or oven to cook your chicken you should be A-OK!
