Best Chicken Marinades – 20+ Ways!

Name: Best Chicken Marinades - 20+ Ways!
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 1 tbsp sesame oil; 1/4 cup soy sauce; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 1 tbsp minced gingerroot; 1/4 cup honey; 1/4 cup mustard; 1/4 cup olive oil; 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar; 1 tbsp Dijon mustard; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper; 1/4 cup olive oil; 1/4 cup lime juice; 1 tbsp homemade fajita seasoning; 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper; 1/2 cup BBQ sauce; 1/2 cup jarred pesto; 1/4 cup olive oil; 1/4 cup dry white wine or lemon juice; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 1 tbsp Italian seasoning; 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper; 1/4 cup olive oil; 1/4 cup lemon juice; 1 tbsp fresh or dried rosemary; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper; 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts

By Taylor Stinson | 23 Comments | Posted: 10/30/23 | Updated: 11/06/23

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These chicken marinade recipes include everything from teriyaki to honey mustard and fajita flavoured. Most have 5 ingredients or less!

Components of a chicken marinade

Here are the 4 components of any basic chicken marinade:

Oil
Vinegar
Emulsifier
Sweetener

You can use that simple marinade template alone, or add additional herbs and spices to create more depth of flavour. Let your creativity shine and your taste buds lead the way for the best chicken marinade!

How to marinate chicken

Mix together the marinade ingredients.
Pour the marinade over the chicken in a Ziploc or bowl.
Marinate the chicken for 15-20 minutes.
Cook the chicken and serve!

Delicious Chicken Thigh Marinades - 5 Ways. Image 1: raw thighs on a foil lined baking sheet. Image 2: cooked thighs on the foil lined sheet.

Why you should marinate chicken

Chicken marinades are a great way to infuse a lot of flavour into the meat and they also help keep the chicken juicy and delicious. This is especially true when you make certain slow cooker chicken recipes or other cooking methods that have a long cook time. The longer a chicken breast cooks, the more likely it is to become dry and over-cooked. Chicken marinades will help to prevent that from happening!

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do you marinate chicken for?

There's no exact rule of thumb here but anywhere from 20 minutes to 24 hours is a safe bet for marinating chicken. If you're using a marinade that has a particularly acidic profile (think marinades heavy on lemon juice, vinegars, etc.) then you will want to marinate only 20-60 minutes and not overnight. With milder chicken marinades such as honey mustard, pesto, BBQ and wine-based marinades, you can let them sit overnight in the fridge.

Can you freeze chicken in marinade?

You can freeze the raw chicken in the marinade right in the bag then freeze up to 90 days. When ready to serve, defrost the chicken in the fridge for 24 hours, then bake or BBQ as you normally would.

What's the best way to cook it?

You can bake chicken in the oven using the recipe card instructions below. Alternatively, you could cook it in a skillet, on the grill or in the air fryer.

Can you make multiple marinades at once?

You can make multiple chicken marinades at once to get all kinds of flavours for your weekly meal prep! Create foil dividers as shown above, then bake your chicken for the times suggested below in the recipe card. Easy peasy!

What kind of chicken should you use?

You can use this recipe for any kind of chicken, including chicken breasts, chicken thighs and chicken drumsticks. If you're looking for more chicken thigh marinade recipes, check out this post.

The Best Chicken Marinade Recipes

Now that you know the basics of how to marinade chicken, it’s time to get into the recipes! Below you'll find pictures of my go-to super easy chicken marinades! Most of these recipes contain five ingredients or less and they are pantry staples so there's no running to the store for any crazy spices. These are my fave marinades and ones I always rotate through when it comes to my weekly meal prep.

Lemon rosemary marinade

Balsamic marinade

Pesto marinade

Teriyaki marinade

Garlic herb marinade

Fajita marinade

BBQ marinade

Honey mustard marinade

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More marinade recipes

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Meal Prep Tools

Grab some glass meal prep bowls to store leftover chicken.
I get all my free range chicken from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen.
Get a meat thermometer to make sure your chicken is cooked through.
Use these Ziploc bag holders for mess-free marinating.
**Get my full list of tools here**

BONUS Chicken Marinades

If you’re looking for more inspiration, I rounded up some of the best chicken marinade recipes from my fave food bloggers.

Chicken Shawarma Meal Prep Bowls

These Chicken Shawarma Meal Prep Bowls are great for your weekly lunches, with a homemade shawarma seasoning that’s made of pantry staples.

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