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

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 CHICKEN MARINADE

I started making this Grilled Chicken Marinade about 25 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.

A plate of Grilled Chicken with the best Marinade.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: 

Why use a marinade for chicken?

Chicken on its own is pretty bland. Especially chicken breasts. Like most marinades, this Chicken Marinade 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!

What are the 3 main ingredients when marinating?

The three main things that make up a marinade are an acid, an oil, and a flavor. For this Chicken Marinade recipe, we use lemon juice as the acid, olive oil as the oil, and minced garlic, black pepper, mustard, etc as our flavorings.

How do you keep the chicken from sticking to the grill?

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.

How long can you marinate chicken before grilling?

For this marinade recipe, you can keep chicken in the marinade in the fridge. I suggest a minimum of 4 hours in the marinade but you can leave it to marinate overnight for even more flavor.

How do I clean the grill if I don’t have a grill brush?

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!

How do I prevent the skewers from burning?

You can use metal skewers like I did, or if you have wooden ones, be sure to soak your skewers

What should I serve marinated chicken with?

The options are endless here folks, I could eat this Chicken Marinade with anything. The chicken turns out delicious every time. Here are a few of my favorite things to serve with this Grilled Marinated Chicken: baked beans, potato salad, macaroni salad and maybe my Alabama White Sauce as a dip. 

Can I use leftover marinade?

Unfortunately, NOPE! While this marinade is fantastic on cooked chicken, you have to toss any extra that you have left once the chicken has soaked in it. Since you put raw chicken in the marinade, you’d risk contaminating other food by reusing it elsewhere. Just make a new batch.

How to store leftover Grilled Chicken?

Any leftover marinated Grilled Chicken can be stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days in the fridge or up to 3 months in the freezer. You can use this marinated chicken in other dishes as well, another great way to make sure you use all that you make.

Skewers of marinated Grilled Chicken.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (SEE RECIPE CARD BELOW FOR THE FULL RECIPE)

  • olive oil
  • soy sauce
  • lemon juice
  • mustard- Dijon or yellow mustard
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • minced garlic
  • black pepper
  • chicken tenderloins– can be substituted for or chicken thighs
Chicken tenders, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, yellow mustard, soy sauce, garlic, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

HOW TO MAKE GRILLED CHICKEN MARINADE:

Combine all marinade ingredients and whisk together well.

Put chicken tenders into a lidded container (or a Ziploc bag) and pour marinade over top of chicken. Make sure all the chicken is coated.

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

Raw chicken in a baking dish, a baking dish with raw chicken and marinade and a container with marinating chicken with the lid on it.

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.

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.

Preheat grill to medium high heat. 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. Metal ones will be too hot to handle at this point and the wooden ones might break.

Marinated chicken on skewers, chicken being grilled on a grill and chicken tenders flipped and being grilled on the other side.

Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before serving.

A bunch of Marinated Grilled Chicken tenders.

CRAVING MORE RECIPES?

Originally published: January 2011
Updated & republished: June 2019

Close up looking at marinated, Grilled Chicken on skewers.

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
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 cup olive oil
  • ¾ cup soy sauce
  • ¼ 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.
    Chicken tenders in marinade in a container.
  • Make sure all the chicken is coated, then snap on the lid or zip the top closed.
    A closed container of marinating chicken.
  • 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.
    Marinated chicken on skewers.
  • Preheat grill to medium high heat (about 350F). Place skewers on clean grill.
    Marinated chicken on skewers on the grill.
  • Cook for about 5-6 minutes per side (until internal temp. is 165F degrees).
    Grilled chicken cooking on the grill.
  • 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.
    A bunch of Marinated Grilled Chicken tenders.

Video

YouTube video

Notes

  • Please refer to my FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) and ingredient list above for other substitutions or for the answers to the most common questions.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Calories: 284kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 35g | Fat: 13g | Sodium: 1907mg | Sugar: 1g

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 and other nutritional values 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!

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! 🙂