The Best Chicken Marinade Recipe
Published June 14, 2023. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
You will love this easy-to-make chicken marinade recipe with soy, lemon, vinegar, garlic, and herbs for the juiciest, most flavorful chicken ever. This marinade comes together in minutes and is the perfect addition to turn your chicken from bland to brilliant.
We eat chicken several times a week and love how lean it is and how easy it is to include it in recipes. If you love it as well, then try my Chicken Fried Rice or Chicken Francese.
Chicken Marinade
The Chicken marinade is a liquid consisting of herbs, spices, oil, and other ingredients to help create a flavorful mixture that naturally seasons and tenderizes the chicken as it’s coated in the marinade for short to long periods of time. There are many variations to a chicken marinade, and the ingredients will depend on your desired flavor profiles. My chicken marinade is savory with a hint of sugar, soy, and thyme, for well-rounded flavors.
When making any marinade, it’s essential to have a balance of flavors so that every bite of chicken is juicy and delicious. To achieve this, it’s always good to start with acids like lemon and vinegar and then marry it with salt like soy sauce or salt by itself. You then want a binder like mustard so that the oil, which will help spread the marinade, can combine with the vinegar. After that, most of the flavors are up to you. Fresh or dry herbs, fresh or dry spices, and other liquids like wine can be used to round out the overall flavor.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Chicken – I always prefer to fabricate a whole chicken down into breasts, drums, thighs, and wings. However, you can use just breasts, drums, thighs, or wings, or any combination that you deem fit.
- Soy Sauce – This will help add a lot of flavor, color, and salt to the marinade. I prefer to use tamari, which is essentially a more decadent soy sauce.
- Wine – Any dry white wine will work. I usually use chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, or pinot grigio. If you don’t drink wine, substitute with lemon juice and chicken stock.
- Vinegar – I used white distilled vinegar. Substitute with apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar.
- Lemon – The juice of a lemon will help brighten up the marinade.
- Herbs – I like to use fresh thyme in this recipe. You can also use rosemary, oregano, basil, chervil, or parsley.
- Mustard – A little Dijon mustard will help emulsify the marinade and add flavor.
- Oil – Any neutral flavored oil will work for this chicken marinade.
- Onion – You can use a white, yellow, or sweet onion. In addition, you will need some garlic cloves.
- Seasonings – I use coarse salt and ground black pepper.
How to Make the Best Chicken Marinade
- Finely grate the onion and garlic into a large bowl.
- Next, squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon.
- Pour in the soy sauce, vinegar, white wine, oil, thyme, sugar, mustard, salt, and pepper.
- Whisk the ingredients together until they are combined and emulsified.
- Add the chicken to the bowl with marinade and mix thoroughly until it is completely coated in it.
- Cover with plastic and marinate it in the refrigerator for 12 to 48 hours.
Cooking Methods
Gilling – Place the chicken skin side down on a grill that has been lightly oiled on the grated on medium-high heat (375° to 425°) and cook for 10 to 12 minutes per side or until dark grill marks have formed and the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°. Depending on how intense the fire on the grill is, you may need to move the chicken around to that it does not overly char.
Pan-Seared – add two tablespoons of your preferred cooking oil to a large frying pan over medium heat and heat for 1 minute. Place in the chicken skin side down and cook for 5 to 7 minutes per side or until golden brown and cooked throughout. Be sure to watch the chicken as it can brown very quickly and turn burning. If that is the case, turn the heat down to medium-low.
Oven-Baked – Place the chicken skin side up on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven at 400° for 25 to 30 minutes or until browned and cooked throughout.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: You can make the marinade up to 2 days before it is ready to be used to marinate chicken.
How to Store: Store the marinade covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. This will not freeze well. If storing the chicken in the marinade, you can marinate it covered for up to 48 hours in the refrigerator. You can marinate the chicken and place it in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw it in the refrigerator for 1 day or until thawed.
How to Reheat: When reheating the marinated chicken, place the desired number of chicken on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven at 350° for 8-12 minutes or until warm.
Chef Notes + Tips
- This marinade will also work well with pork, beef, or vegetables.
- You can marinate up to 5 pounds of chicken with this amount.
- Feel free to use dry thyme instead of fresh if that is all you have.
- If you start to get nervous that your chicken is burning on the grill or in the pan, immediately transfer it to a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and bake it in the oven at an oven preheated to 350° for 12 to 15 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°, which is according to the USDA.
More Chicken Recipes
Video
The Best Chicken Marinade Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ peeled and finely grated yellow onion
- 5 finely grated garlic cloves
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ½ cup neutral flavored oil
- 1/3 cup white wine
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup white distilled vinegar
- 2 tablespoons finely minced fresh thyme
- 2 teaspoons coarse salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 4 1/2 pound chicken broken down into individual breasts, thighs, drums, and wings
Instructions
- Finely grate the onion and garlic into a large bowl.
- Next, squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon.
- Add in the mustard, sugar, oil, wine, soy sauce, vinegar, thyme, salt, and pepper.
- Whisk the ingredients together until they are combined and emulsified.
- Add the chicken to the bowl with marinade and mix thoroughly until it is completely coated in it.
- Cover with plastic and marinate it in the refrigerator for 12 to 48 hours.
- To grill: Place the chicken skin side down on a grill that has been lightly oiled on the grated on medium-high heat (375° to 425°) and cook for 10 to 12 minutes per side or until dark grill marks have formed and the chicken is reaches an internal temperature of 165°.
- Depending on how intense the fire on the grill is, you may need to move the chicken around to that it does not overly char.
The Title says it all ! Many claim to be the best, but this one actually is the best I ever made.it replaced my family recipe
I think I might(?) have put in 1 exta clove of garlic, but everything else was as written
The rain came in 1 day earlier than expected, so I oven baked it as directed 400 x 29 to 32 min for my oven..
Thank Chef Billy !
Thank you!
The title says it all ! How many “Best” Chicken marinate recipes have you tried? I have tried quite a few, b/c I was looking to upgrade my (husbands) family recipe. I know, shaky ground right ? Our recipe was good, but missing that sum-thin, sum-thin. Bingo, Chef Billy nailed it. The base is similar to ours… oil, distilled vinegar, lemon, soy sauce & garlic. But ours used garlic powder. instead of the fresh., which actually worked fairly well. BUT fresh garlic made a better choice ( FINELY grated, as stated in the recipe, so it doesnt burn on the grill. I used a hand held microplane,/ lemon zester to get it very fine. The rest of the ingredients
put it over the top…especially the greated onion and Dijon.
Tips : If you have to sub dried thyme for fresh, use 2t( level or slightly scant) of dried thyme LEAVES….. NOT ground
Sometimes i use dried oregano depending in what i am making
●DO NOT just jump to the recipe, then reviews. If you choose the recipe of a profesional chef, WHY skip the advice & experience part.
Thanks Chef Billy, We have a new family recipe. Even my husbands family likes it now. We all LOVE the alturnitive cooking methods
Brava !
Many thanks!
All I have is the small jars of minced garlic. Can I use ths and if so, how much? My husband, in his infinite wisdom, thought they were what I wanted.
If you do not get an answer rule of thumb is 1 clove fresh is equal to 1/2t. jar minced. OR 1/4t. Garlic powder for EACH clove of garlic
yummy
By far the best! Threw out my go to chicken marinade and replaced it with this one! Thank you Chef!
Awesome!
Really good marinade and something a little different than me making stuff up for a chicken marinade! Tasted great and the chicken was tender.
Quick question what white wine did you use?
The wine choices Chef Billy uses are listed ABOVE recipe.
Have to drop a comment here—this marinade is phenomenal. To anyone wondering, this recipe is both fantastic and bulletproof. Make it and don’t look back.
One day of marination is good, but two or three is GOOOOD. It’s great on a weeknight but also tasty enough to include on a nicer occasion as well.
We use it all the time in my house with bone-in thighs and drums; I give them 40–45 min in the oven at 425ºF. Sometimes I’ll even keep the marinade and dump more chicken in for the next day. Economical. Chef, I’m sorry, but we usually use 2 tsp dried thyme instead! Still delicious. Last time I had some fresh rosemary, which I chopped up and it was great as well.
Thank you, Chef Billy! 👊
thanks for giving it a shot!!
I made this and used it on chicken thighs for guests. I cooked the chicken on the grill. The chicken was really good. Very moist and flavorful. I will definitely use this again on chicken and pork chops!
many thanks!
What could I use in place of the wine?
skip it
I used this with pork chops and then smoked the next day. Best pork chops I ever made!!
delicious
Delicious! A new staple in our house
amazing
You used white vinegar, I’m partial to balsamic. . .thoughts on the switch?
I wouldn’t
This marinade hit the spot! The chicken was juicy and very flavorful.
awesome
The name says it all! We used this for chicken breast tenders, not my favorite cut of chicken but OMG did it deliver! Even after only 45mins, this magic marinade turned boring chicken breast into the juiciest most flavorful chicken we’ve ever grilled. Thanks Billy!
My pleasure!
I made this today for Father’s day. It was my choice to make not what my hubby wanted as he had chicken on his camping trip yesterday. I made the marinate last night, used boneless skinless chicken breasts, cuz thats what I had. Followed the ingredients to a T. Cooked today on the grill. The hubby announced at dinner that it was the fillet mignon of chicken. Bam! It was so good! Thanks for sharing Billy!
Love it!
…and I haven’t even tried it yet. But you made it look so good, plus I trust your judgment! Five star worthy!
Ir turns out GREAT in the oven too, so no need to wait for summer.
Can I use this marinade on boneless, skinless chicken breast in a air fryer?
Any reason you couldn’t?
I have tried many similar recipes. This is by far the best. Thank you for sharing.
Love it!
Don’t think I’m ever going back to my old recipe after making this one! Amazing flavors that I didn’t know were possible!
Nice
Will definitely try this. Thank you for your recipes.
Of course
i do love a good chicken recipe. Thank you. I 0ven baked it and it was perfect but you didnt include those instructions on the printed recipe. So many of us use the oven when possible. Less cleanup and less stress.
All of those procedures are in the post, since there are different ways of preparing the chicken.
Hey Che Billy,
Thank you for another great marinade recipe. I have so many of your delicious recipes already, and I use them all the time. I have got so many compliments on my food.
I appreciate you for taking all of the hard work out of my cooking for me.
my pleasure!