15 Easy Chicken Marinades for Simple Summer Grilling
These easy grilled chicken marinades combine big flavors with almost no prep work. And the marinating times? Well, unlike tough cuts of meat, chicken doesn't need long dips in the marinade pool before hopping onto the grill. So you can have marinated grilled chicken for dinner even on your busiest summer days.
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Italian Chicken Marinade
You want simple? This chicken marinade combines Italian salad dressing, garlic powder, and salt. Add the chicken and marinate as long as you like. "I don't know what magic occurs when these four little ingredients come together," says momabroad. "But the results are fantastic."
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Easy Grilled Lemon Chicken
Here's an easy chicken breast marinade for quick weeknight meals. All you do is mix together lemon juice, soy sauce, ginger, and black pepper and pour it into a large, resealable plastic bag. Add boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and marinade for 20 minutes or more.
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Marinade for Chicken
The only chopping you'll need to do here is the parsley. Otherwise, just combine vegetable oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, soy and Worcestershire sauces, mustard powder, minced parsley, and the chicken pieces of your choice.
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Misti's Chicken Marinade
Here's a super-simple recipe for boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Just whisk together vegetable oil, vinegar, molasses, soy sauce, and a few seasonings — lemon-pepper and garlic and onion powders. Dinner's ready in no time.
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Key West Chicken
Here's a lime chicken marinade straight from the Florida Keys. "This recipe is the best chicken marinade," says TINA B. "And it only takes 30 minutes from prep to grill."
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Soy and Garlic Marinated Chicken
A soy chicken marinade with garlic. "This is the easiest marinade I have ever used," says CANDIELIPS. "It works well with any cut of chicken — thighs, legs, whatever you have."
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Easy Chicken Fajita Marinade
With this recipe, you chop nothing. Just mix together lime juice, honey, vegetable oil, and a few ground spices. "It seriously doesn't get any easier than this," Terri confirms. "And to top things off, I had all the items in my cupboard."
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Chicken Marinade
Crush a little fresh garlic, and mix it with soy sauce, vegetable oil, brown sugar, and the secret ingredient, sherry! For best results, use drinking sherry not cooking sherry, which is loaded with sodium. Stephani dispensed with the sherry entirely, using cognac instead, all to five-star effect: "Really simple and just great!" she raves.
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Korean BBQ Chicken Marinade
"I served chicken with this marinade to my Korean parents for dinner. My mom, who said she wasn't hungry before we started eating, ended up going back for seconds and exclaimed that it was delicious." — chibi chef
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Smokey Tequila-Lime Marinade
"This awesome marinade for chicken, chicken wings or flank steak has a taste of Mexico with a hint of Texas. It's definitely a must for the grill!" — DALEANDESTELL
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Best Ever Kabob Marinade
"Delish! I made as written marinated chicken breasts for about five hours and grilled them. I served them with rice and snow peas." — llhall01
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Spicy Scarborough Chicken Marinade
"Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme combine with garlic and spicy habanero pepper for a chicken marinade you'll want to sing about!" — Pam Ziegler Lutz
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Mango Teriyaki Marinade
"This was unexpectedly amazing. I admit I was skeptical and was expecting it to taste just like a teriyaki marinade but no. The mango came through loud and clear. Everyone just loved the flavor this added to grilled chicken." — Alberta Rose
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Summer Italian Marinade
"This refreshing Italian-style marinade works great for grilled chicken!" — Mat & Kerry
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Grilled Chicken Marinade
"Completely exceeded my expectations. I usually feel like marinades just burn off during cooking and you end up with bland chicken. Not this one! Great flavor after grilling and very juicy!" — Julie Thompson