These are the Best Chicken Thigh Marinades! They’re great for meal prep. Try Sesame, Chipotle, Greek, Balsamic and Honey Dijon.
Ingredients for chicken thigh marinades
- Oil – use a neutral cooking oil like olive, avocado or canola oil; or a flavoured cooking oil like sesame oil for added flavour.
- Seasonings – add in any seasonings or sauces of your choice like soy sauce, garlic, honey, spices and more.
- Acid – you don’t have to use an acid like lemon or lime juice for chicken thigh marinade, but it helps tenderize the meat!
- Salt & pepper – to taste.
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How to make marinated chicken thighs
- Make the marinade.
- Marinate the chicken thighs.
- Bake or grill the chicken thighs.
- Serve and enjoy!
Making multiple marinades at once
If you're making this chicken for your weekly meal prep, you can easily whip up multiple chicken thigh marinade recipes at once and bake them together using foil dividers (pictured above).
If you'd like to do multiple marinades at a time, make dividers using your tinfoil as shown. Add your marinated chicken thighs, ensuring the dividers are high enough to separate any excess liquid from each marinade. Bake for 12 minutes, then flip and bake for another 8 minutes. It's so easy!
Cooking chicken this way ensures you easily have some variety in your week and you can create multiple different types of meals.
I wouldn't recommend using more than 2-3 thighs per chicken thigh marinade and foil divider. You also don't have to cut the marinade ingredients in half if dividing up your thighs among different marinades. As long as you remove the chicken from the marinade and don't pour any excess liquid onto the foil dividers, you’ll still get the same flavour without it being overpowering.
Frequently Asked Questions
You’ll want to let your chicken marinate for at least 15-20 minutes. You can leave them in longer and marinate them overnight or in the fridge during the day, but 15 to 20 minutes is the minimum to make sure they’re infused with all those yummy flavours from the chicken thigh marinade.
These are four main ingredients for any chicken thigh marinade: an acid that tenderizes the meat, a fat such as oil that saturates the meat and makes sure the flavour is fully infused, a salt that intensifies the flavour and bonus flavour for extra deliciousness!
It’s really a matter of preference on whether you make boneless or bone-in marinated chicken thighs. Boneless thighs cook a little quicker, but bone-in thighs are slightly cheaper because there is no extra work required by the butcher. However, if you are used to cooking with boneless skinless chicken breast, boneless thighs are a great swap. The thighs of the chicken have a rich taste and tender texture. Either type of chicken thigh will work with these marinades so go by personal preference.
The best way to know that your marinated chicken thighs are fully cooked is to use a meat thermometer. It should read at least 165° Fahrenheit in the thickest portion of the meat. Also keep in mind that thigh meat will look pinkish-brown, even after cooking. Breast meat will be white when fully cooked.
The skin of the chicken is what gets crispy. So, if you are cooking skinless chicken thighs or breasts, they are not likely to become crispy. Make sure to use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs if you are looking for crispy skin. To produce crispy chicken in the oven, cook it at 450° Fahrenheit on the top third of the oven, which is the hottest part of the oven. It also helps to occasionally baste the thighs with marinade.
Storing chicken thigh marinade
If you prepare your chicken thigh marinade ahead of time, store it in the refrigerator or freezer.
You can refrigerate chicken thighs in marinades for up to 24 hours in the fridge. Chicken thighs are more tender than breasts so you're not using the marinades to tenderize the meat – you’re simply looking to add flavour.
Very important note: Never reuse a marinade that is left over from marinating another meat. The bacteria from the other meat will contaminate the marinade. As a result, the marinade will contaminate the chicken thighs.
Can you freeze chicken in the marinade?
Yes, you can freeze marinated chicken thighs! After the marinade is prepared, put the chicken and marinade in a freezer-safe Ziploc bag. Remove all the air, seal the bag and lay it flat to freeze. You can freeze chicken thighs in marinades up to 3 months.
When ready to use your chicken, transfer the package to the refrigerator and allow it to thaw out before cooking. Typically, I'll allow my chicken to defrost in the fridge for 24 hours and then bake it or grill it.
The Best Chicken Thigh Marinade Recipes
I rounded up five of the most delicious chicken thigh marinade ideas. Pick one of the following or use the foil divider method to make them all! All of these recipes are made using simple ingredients you should already have on hand at home, and require five ingredients or less.
Chipotle marinade
Greek marinade
Garlic sesame marinade
Honey dijon marinade
Balsamic marinade
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Meal Prep Tools
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on using these chicken thigh marinades for meal prep lunches or dinners.
- 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 if you're marinating the chicken then freezing it.
- Freeze this recipe in glass microwave-safe bowls up to 3 months.
- **Get my full list of tools here**
5 Best Chicken Thigh Marinade Recipes
Ingredients
- 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Garlic sesame marinade
- 1 tbsp sesame oil or olive oil or canola oil
- 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce or tamari or coconut aminos
- 2 cloves garlic, minced freshly minced or jarred minced garlic
- 1 tbsp fresh minced ginger or ground ginger powder
Chipotle marinade
- 1 tbsp olive oil or avocado or canola oil
- 1/4 cup chipotle peppers in adobo sauce or chipotle powder or paprika
- 1 tbsp lime juice or lemon juice
- 2 cloves garlic, minced freshly minced or jarred minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper
Honey dijon marinade
- 2 tbsp honey or dates or maple syrup
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard or stone-ground mustard
- 1 tbsp olive oil or avocado or canola oil
- 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper
Balsamic marinade
- 2 tbsp olive oil or avocado or canola oil
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar with honey
- 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup, agave or brown sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced freshly minced or jarred minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper
Greek marinade
- 2 tbsp olive oil or avocado or canola oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice or lime juice
- 1 tbsp oregano or thyme, basil or Italian seasoning
- 2 cloves garlic, minced freshly minced or jarred minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 F. Mix together chicken marinade of choice in a small bowl and pour over chicken in a Ziploc bag or small bowl. Marinate for 15-20 minutes.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or tin foil. If you'd like to do multiple marinades at a time, make dividers using your tin foil as shown in the video below. Add chicken thighs with bottom area facing down. Bake for 12 minutes, then flip and bake 8 more minutes.
- Check that chicken is cooked through by slicing one of the thighs down the middle and if meat thermometer reads 165 F.
- Let chicken rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing or chopping. Store in glass containers for later or serve immediately with a side dish. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Comments & Reviews
Lisa says
Hey Taylor! I love your recipes! I just mixed up the chipotle and honey mustard marinades and put my chicken thighs in the marinade in the freezer. I would love to see other methods for cooking the meat such as crockpot, sous vide and air fryer. I see the link below in response to Melissa about using the IP. Thank you for that! I like to try to use all my gadgets when meal prepping to make things easier! Plus, I have 3 very hungry teenage sons and I can never meal prep enough! If you could add different cooking methods to this post, that would be SO helpful!
Thanks again!
Taylor Stinson says
Thank you so much for the feedback Lisa! We do make updates to posts from time to time so I will see if I can add this at some point should we update this point.