5 Best Chicken Marinades made with simple ingredients and without a food processor. Say hello to juicy, tender and flavorful chicken recipes!
Table of Contents
Let me present you 5 best chicken marinades you will use over and over again. So, bookmark the page! Whether for quick dinner, meal prep or a Saturday night party, one of these delicious marinades for chicken is guaranteed to work for you.
All these tasty chicken marinade recipes are made with simple ingredients. Then you can grill, bake, pan fry or even air fry the chicken.
I also include tips on how long to marinate, what cuts of chicken to use, best dish to marinate in and how to freeze marinated chicken.
Now please enjoy this collection of the best chicken marinades on the web!
How to Marinate Chicken
Here is a quick overview how to marinate chicken.
You can marinate any chicken pieces like boneless skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs. Also bone-in pieces like chicken wings, chicken drumsticks and even cut up whole chicken (here is a quick tutorial how to cut a whole chicken).
- Pick the best dish to marinate in: Pick large baking dish, bowl, container with a lid or reusable silicone bags, so chicken is submerged in a marinade and lays flat. It ensures the most flavor in every bite.
- Prepare the chicken marinade: To make marinade, just whisk all ingredients in a small bowl or right in the dish you will be marinating chicken in.
- Prepare the chicken: Pierce chicken pieces, especially with the skin on, with a knife or fork before marinating for deeper infusion with the flavor. This step is optional but I find it helps.
- Marinate chicken for up to a day: Ideal chicken marinating time is anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours, depending on your schedule.
Recipe Tip
You do not want to marinate chicken longer than 24 hours. It is because a chicken marinade usually contains some type of ingredient that has acid. Which breaks down the fibers in the meat resulting in a mushy chicken.
5 Best Chicken Marinades
Please note that each of these chicken marinades is enough for 2 pounds of chicken, which is about 4-5 large chicken breasts. You can double or triple the recipe, if needed. Also full recipe card is located below.
Fajita Chicken Marinade
Fajita Chicken Marinade is a Tex Mex marinade made with simple pantry staples. It’s perfect for when your fridge is empty. Everyone loves it and you can control amount of heat.
Serve with other traditional fajita ingredients like sauteed white onions or yellow onions, green and colourful bell peppers, pico de gallo and tortillas.
Greek Chicken Marinade
Greek Chicken Marinade brings pricey Greek restaurant into your kitchen – absolutely delicious and easy! All you need is lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and pantry dried herbs.
Serve with a side of Instant Pot quinoa or Instant Pot brown rice and traditional Greek salad.
Lemon Chicken Marinade
Lemon Chicken Marinade is universal and versatile king of all marinades. Basic, lemon-y and extra easy.
I use it to make grilled chicken breast that goes with everything! I like to serve it with wilted spinach salad or use in chicken salad recipe.
Teriyaki Chicken Marinade
Teriyaki Chicken Marinade is inspired by my teriyaki chicken and cauliflower made with fridge and pantry staples. It’s flavorful, pungent and rich with a hint of fresh ginger and garlic.
Slice chicken breast and serve with rice and a simple broccoli side dish like sauteed broccoli or air fryer broccoli.
Ranch Chicken Marinade
Ranch Chicken Marinade made with healthy ranch dressing and without a packet of dry ranch mix but rather we are marinating chicken in yogurt or buttermilk. Unlike vinegar and citrus juice, yogurt has fat to help prevent chicken from dehydrating. Making it a good “for tomorrow” marinade.
Serve with a simple salad like spring mix salad or oven roasted asparagus.
How Long Can You Marinate Chicken?
How long can you marinate chicken is a very valid question. There is such thing as marinating chicken for too little or too long. I recommend to marinate chicken in any of these chicken marinades anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours.
It is not recommended to marinate chicken for longer than 24 hours. And the reason is because chicken marinade active ingredient is acid which starts to break meat submerged into marinade immediately. Your marinated chicken for 2 days will end up with unpleasant texture and flavor.
How to Cook Marinated Chicken
You can bake, grill, pressure cook, slow cook or fry marinated chicken. Here are basic chicken recipes with instructions how to cook boneless chicken breasts or chicken thighs using most popular cooking methods:
- Baked chicken breast
- Chicken breast in crock pot
- Chicken breast in Instant Pot
- Chicken breast on the grill
- Chicken breast in air fryer
More FAQs
Amount of any chicken marinade listed in this post is enough to marinate up to 2 pounds of chicken well. Roughly, you need about 3 tablespoons of marinade per 1 pound of chicken without wasting extra.
Yes. Marinating your chicken with any of these chicken marinades is enough for 2 hours because they are very flavorful and pungent. To speed up marinating process, punch your meat randomly with a fork before submerging into a marinade.
If you marinate chicken too long, it starts to break down and results in mushy chicken. If “oops” happened and you didn’t have time to cook chicken after 24 hours, remove meat from its marinade, wipe excess, transfer to another container and refrigerate for up to another 24 hours.
No. It is not recommended to reuse chicken marinade for marinating next batch of chicken for food safety reasons. Used marinade contains harmful bacteria and should be discarded. If you are basting with marinade during cooking, stop doing so well before chicken is ready to allow marinade to cook fully.
Yes. Just combine frozen chicken pieces with chicken marinade and refrigerate. No need to thaw your chicken first.
Place your pieces of chicken into a freezer bag or glass container with a tight lid, add marinade and swoosh chicken around (with excess air removed if necessary). You can freeze marinated chicken right away for up to 3 months. And no need to let your chicken marinate before freezing.
When ready to cook, thaw chicken in the fridge overnight or for 24 hours and cook as per recipe.
More Easy Chicken Recipes
- Yogurt marinated chicken
- Chili lime chicken
- Cilantro lime chicken
- Baked honey garlic chicken
- Grilled lemon rosemary chicken
- Grilled BBQ chicken
- Grilled chicken thighs
You may also enjoy browsing all my grilling recipes or chicken recipes!
5 Best Chicken Marinades
Equipment
Video
Ingredients
Fajita Chicken Marinade
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
- 1 lime, juice of
- 2 tsp chilli powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Greek Chicken Marinade
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large lemon, juice of
- 1 tbsp oregano, dried
- 1 tbsp rosemary, dried or fresh
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
Lemon Chicken Marinade
- 1 large lemon, zest and juice of
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, grated
- 2 tsp oregano, dried
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Teriyaki Chicken Marinade
- 3 tbsp maple syrup or honey
- 2 tbsp soy sauce, I used Bragg’s liquid aminos
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
Ranch Chicken Marinade
- 3/4 cup yogurt or buttermilk
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl and stir.
- Pick flat container, baking dish or reusable silicone bag so chicken can lay flat for maximum flavor penetration.
- Place chicken in a container, pour marinade over and mix to coat well.
- Marinating time is anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours. Longer marinating time means more flavor but I wouldn't marinate past 24 hours because acid will cause flesh to break down.
- When ready to cook, remove chicken from marinade and cook as per recipes.
Notes
- How much chicken? Amount of any marinade is enough to marinade up to 2 lbs of chicken well.
- Past 24 hours: If meat is done marianting but you are not ready to cook, remove it from marinade, wipe off any excess and refrigerate in a container for another 24 hours.
- Freezing: You can freeze marinated chicken with excess air removed from the container for up to 3 months. When ready to cook, thaw in the fridge for 24 hours and cook as per recipe.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I have done both the teriyaki and the fajita marinade. I love both of them, and they are so simple. I personally like to double the recipe for the amount of chicken I use though. Otherwise I follow the recipes exactly.😋
So happy to hear it!
Hi Olena, thank you for all these trustworthy recipes! I have mixed the ranch marinade in a bag with chicken but I’m not sure how to cook it? If I put it in the pressure cooker I will lose much of the yogurt dressing. Is this one better dropped into a frying pan? Thank you!
Thank you again for the kind words! You should remove the chicken from the marinade before cooking (no matter the method). If you are worried the the Instant Pot might steam it too much, frying or even using oven baked chicken breast method would work. Definitely keep us updated!
Olena thanks for your quick reply. I didn’t realise meat should be removed from marinade before cooking- that makes sense! So I did the ranch chicken pressure cooked in the ninja. It didn’t look beautiful but it tasted SO GOOD! Even my fussy 3 year old asked for seconds! It will be going on the regular rotation. Looking forward to trying the other marinades. Much love to you and thanks again.
So glad you enjoyed and yeah for winning over the little one!
Teriyaki marinade was awesome! Picky husband approved 💪🏼
Always a good feeling to win over the picky eaters! 🙂
I just found these recipes. Got to give them all a try. Tired of just doing barbecue sauce,
So glad you found the marinades! Enjoy!
Love the Ranch & Lemon Chicken Marinades!! Making the Greek Marinade today for lunch/dinner… chicken breasts are in the fridge marinating now!
Thanks for some of the most delicious & healthy recipes I’ve tried thus far! Love your site – STILL!!
Thanks so much Tricia 🙂
Love the Greek Marinade I made yesterday… flavor in the chicken was really good. I made a Greek Pasta Salad to go along with it. Hubby enjoyed it very much – as did I. Thank you for all you do to make such healthy & wonderful recipes!
I can’t tell you enough just how much I love your recipes which I’ve tried more than once I might add!! And, the funny thing is I never get tired of using the same ones over… they’re that good.
May God continue to bless you & your family!
Thank you so much for your kind words and amazing feedback Tricia! I love that you are enjoying my recipes. Made my day 🙂
Love these – the fajita one made the best chicken I have ever cooked!!!
Thank you!
Thanks for the feedback and so glad you liked the marinades!
Tried the ranch one yesterday for a change. It was absolutely delicious, better than expected!
Love it! Thanks for the wonderful feedback Marie!
These really upped my chicken game!! The teriyaki is our favorite!