Home » Dinner Recipes » The Best Grilled Chicken Marinade (+Video)

The Best Grilled Chicken Marinade (+Video)

This really is the best grilled chicken marinade! It’s easy to prepare and makes any chicken taste like restaurant-quality chicken. So good!

A SUPER FLAVORFUL GRILLED CHICKEN MARINADE

I started making this chicken and marinade about 20 years ago when we were stationed in London. Many of us Americans would get together and have Super Bowl parties. It was a comaraderie thing. Nothing like being with your fellow countrymen and eating all your favorite foods from home. My little chicken on a stick soon became a favorite of our friends and it was regularly requested at get-togethers. And I’m happy to say it is still a favorite in our home.

The Best Chicken Marinade for Grilled Chicken

WHY USE A MARINADE FOR CHICKEN?

Chicken on its own is pretty bland. Especially chicken breasts. Like most marinades, this one has a base of oil and acid (the lemon juice.) Marinades generally have some sort of acid, like vinegar, that helps to tenderize the meat slowly. What really gives this marinade that oomph of flavor is the soy sauce, mustard and garlic. You’ve got a bit of salty, a bit of tang and the garlic just pushes it over the top. It may sound like a really odd combination of flavors, but I promise that they end up working perfectly together. If you wanted to take it a step further, you could serve these with a little Alabama White BBQ Sauce – scrumptious!

The Best Grilled Chicken Marinade recipe from The Country Cook

INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (FULL RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST)

  • olive oil
  • soy sauce
  • lemon juice
  • mustard (Dijon or yellow)
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • minced garlic
  • black pepper
  • chicken tenderloins (or chicken thighs)
chicken tenders, soy sauce, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, lemon, garlic, olive oil

HOW TO MAKE GRILLED CHICKEN MARINADE:

Combine all marinade ingredients and whisk together well.

marinade ingredients whisked together in a bowl

Put chicken tenders into a lidded container (or a Ziploc bag) and pour marinade over top of chicken.

the best chicken marinade added to chicken tenders

 Make sure all the chicken is coated.

fully coated chicken breast in marinade

Snap the the lid on. And pop it into the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

chicken in marinade

When chicken is ready, soak your wooden skewers in water for at least a half an hour (so they don’t burn on the grill). Obviously you can skip this step if using metal skewers.

soaking chicken skewers in water

Preheat grill on medium-high heat. Once skewers have soaked, begin threading chicken onto skewers. Keep going until you are done with all of them. You can put either one or two chicken tenders on each skewer.

skewered marinated chicken breast

Preheat grill to medium high heat. Place skewers on clean grill

marinated chicken on grill

Cook for about 5-6 minutes per side (until internal temp. is 165F degrees). It’s really important that you flip the chicken using tongs and you handle it by the meat portion of the skewer. Don’t try flipping using the skewer itself. Metal ones will be too hot to handle at this point and the wooden ones might break. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before serving.

The Best Chicken Marinade for Grilled Chicken

Grilling Pro Tip: To keep food from sticking to your grill, you need to make sure you scrub off any baked-on food that might still be on your grill grates or your chicken is just going to stick to that blackened char. Don’t have a grill brush? Just preheat your gas grill to high for a few minutes and close the lid. Open it up, turn down the heat, and scrub grates with a wad of aluminum foil. Works for me every time!

The Best Grilled Chicken Marinade for chicken on a stick

CRAVING MORE RECIPES?

Originally published: January 2011
Updated & republished: June 2019

The Best Grilled Chicken Marinade

The Best Grilled Chicken Marinade (+Video)

This really is the best grilled chicken marinade! It's easy to prepare and makes any chicken taste like restaurant-quality chicken. So good!
5 from 26 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Best Grilled Chicken Marinade
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 284kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 cup olive oil
  • ¾ cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • ¼ cup mustard (Dijon or yellow)
  • ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1-½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 pounds chicken tenderloins
  • 1 package wooden meat skewers (or metal skewers if you have them)

Instructions

  • Combine all marinade ingredients and whisk together well.
  • Put chicken tenders into a lidded container or tiptop bag and pour marinade over top of chicken.
  • Make sure all the chicken is coated, then snap on the lid or zip the top closed.
  • Pop it into the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight.
  • When chicken is ready, soak the wooden skewers in water for at least a half an hour (so they don’t burn on the grill). Obviously you can skip this step if using metal skewers.
  • Once skewers have soaked, begin threading chicken onto skewers.
  • Preheat grill to medium high heat (about 350F). Place skewers on clean grill.
  • Cook for about 5-6 minutes per side (until internal temp. is 165F degrees).
  • It's really important that you flip the chicken using tongs and you handle it by the meat portion of the skewer. Don't try flipping using the skewer itself.
  • Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before serving.

Video

Notes

  • To keep food from sticking to your grill, you need to make sure you scrub off any baked-on food that might still be on your grill grates or your chicken is just going to stick to that blackened char. Don’t have a grill brush? Just preheat your gas grill to high for a few minutes and close the lid. Open it up, turn down the heat, and scrub grates with a wad of aluminum foil. Works for me every time!

Nutrition

Calories: 284kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 35g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 96mg | Sodium: 1907mg | Potassium: 729mg | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 55IU | Vitamin C: 7.6mg | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 1.9mg

Nutritional Disclaimer

“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

Did you make this recipe?Share it on Instagram @thecountrycook and mention us #thecountrycook!

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




49 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Made last night and we loved it! Plenty of flavor but not overpowering. I like that it’s easy to do, can sit in fridge till dinner time and mostly pantry staples.

  2. 5 stars
    Great marinade, my husband loved it! I had to substitute lime juice for lemon juice but it tasted great. Thanks for sharing!

  3. 5 stars
    OMGOODNESSSSSSS…No exaggeration, this was BY FAR the best tasting marinade I’ve ever made!!!!!!
    Our family was obsessed with how DELICIOUS my chicken was. Thank you for sharing and creating.

  4. 5 stars
    Really the best marinade. So delicious! When I made it for a gathering, I got so many compliments. I do half the marinade ingredients for the two pounds of chicken tenderloins and it turns out perfect. I also use a fork to poke the chicken so more marinade can soak in. No need for me to use another marinade, love this recipe!

  5. 5 stars
    We had these last Sunday. Amazing! Flavor was wonderful and the chicken was so tender. We will certainly have them again, SOON!

  6. 5 stars
    This seems like a lot of marinade (2 c) for 2lbs of chicken. I just marinated 2.5lbs of chicken tenders, and used about 1c of marinade, and that was plenty. I wonder if you could use half, then save the other half off as a sauce or basting?

    1. I made this too with 2lbs of chicken tenders and to me it seemed like way too much oil and soy sauce. It came out way too salty and the pan burned too easily. I would suggest baking it.

  7. I was looking for a great recipe for chicken when I stumbled across this one. It was awesome!! Everyone liked it and my toddler also enjoyed it. THank you for sharing your recipe.

  8. I have no way to grill so was wondering how this could be done in the kitchen. Maybe the broiler or oven. Am clueless 8(

  9. 5 stars
    I made these for dinner for a special friend and I ;). I used cut chicken breast. I watched these babies like a hawk and kept an eye on the temperature of the chicken. I have had one too many dry grilled chicken kebabs! I took them off the grill when they were around 160-163 degrees. These were great! The flavor from the marinade was nicely balanced. They were very juicy as well. I will be using this recipe again! Besides the soy sauce, these were all ingredients I had at the house. I am learning to grill by trial and error. Thank you for making a recipe that's simple and oh so delicious! 🙂