Krystal's Perfect Marinade for BBQ or Grilled Chicken

Very nice marinade for chicken! I left out the sesame oil, used low sodium soy sauce and cut the black pepper down to 1/4 tsp. In order to give this a sort of sweet and smoky flavor I added 1 tsp. of liquid smoke. I let this marinate all day. The brown sugar carmelized the chicken on the grill and the result was very nice in both color and flavor. It went great with rice and veggies!

SO DELICIOUS! Even got a "Wow!" out of my husband. Took 5 frozen chicken breasts and put them in a big zip loc with the marinade and stuck in a bowl of warm water to defrost. 2 hours later, grilled on my stove (on grill pan, we were out of propane!) and the chicken was moist and "wow" quality. The key is to grill on low heat to retain the juices. This is a simple and quick recipe I will make again and again. Served with spicy vegetable chow mein and hawaiian rolls.

I made the marinade for chicken while camping. We enjoyed it, though, it was a tad salty (and I LOVE salt), even though I used reduced sodium soy sauce. Soy was the predominant flavor I got from these; if I make them again I think I'll reduce the soy a bit and bump up the balsamic. TY for a nice marinade!

The Best! I marinated boneless, skinless chicken breasts overnight plus 6 hours. My husband grilled them on the charcoal grill. The chicken was perfectly tender and full of flavor. No modifications of the ingredients made.

Uhh, this marinade really IS perfect! I had four thin sliced chicken breasts that I marinaded in it for about five hours. It was AMAZING. I was dubious initially, but I was proven very wrong! It grilled up beautifully. I topped it with an avocado/tomato/onion mixture and my DH said it was Top Chef quality. I highly recommend.

i had 15 minutes before church and i threw these ingredients together poured it over my boneless, skinless chicken thighs and left it alone for 8 hours... grilled it over a charcoal bbq and they were fantastic... the quickest easiest best tasting chicken i have had in a long time...

Overall the flavor was good. However, next time I'll cut the sugar in half. Too sweet for us. This may be the cook eror though... Marinaded longer than the stated 2 hours.

Sensational! Followed the recipe to the letter and it was fabulous. Not too salty or too sweet. Marinated 4 poussin (small chickens) overnight and baked them for 40mins. Absolutely perfect.

This was very good; made as printed with no changes. I let the chicken marinate over 4 hours and used chicken thighs and legs. The marinade is a strong one and I thought the darker meat would be better. I think I would use this on sirloin steak tips or a flank steak as well.

Fantastic! I followed the recipe to a T. I marinated the chicken for 2 days! My husband loved it also. I will make again!

I made the marinade for this overnight and let the chicken sit until dinnertime the next day. The longer it sits, the better it is. I did add some chopped green onions. I plan on using this again, I plan on cutting the sesame oil down to one tbsp. Two tbsp. overpowered the rest of the flavors. I served this with Sesame Noodles, which are also from this site.

uhmmmm - ok and kids did eat, but IMO too much sesame oil. Balsamic vinegar is better on its own IMO, not mixed with soy sauce and sesame oil.

good as is; add a 1/4 cup Rum 2 this u will like

We grilled boneless/skinless chicken breasts. I omitted the fresh garlic and sesame oil since I was out of those ingredients and substituted garlic powder and added garlic powder as well. I also added about 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter to it. We only marinated the chicken for 30 mins and it gave the chicken a wonderful flavor and made it very tender and by poking holes all through the chicken it let the marinade get deep into the chicken. Next time I will marinade longer to give the flavors more depth.

Delish! VERY good- only thing that I did differently was use sesame chili oil- intsead of plan sesame. Marinated overnight... YUMMMM!

Awesome Marinade and really easy to do. I marinated the chicken for about 24 hours. I made it right before we left to go camping and we had it the following day for lunch. The chicken was delicious and tender. Stabbed the heck out of the chicken with a fork before I added the marinade also didn't have sesame oil (couldn't find it at walmart) but it was still very very very good and we will definitly make it again!

I just eyeballed this one (didn't measure anything out perfectly) and it turned out great! I know some people commented that the sugar was too much. I did not pack the sugar, and went a little easy on the scoop. I found the sweetness to be just right

This was good. I did reduce the soy sauce by 1/4 cup and increased the balsamic by 1/4 cup. I sliced BLSL breasts into strips and let it marinate 6 hours. I grilled the chicken and served it in a nice hoagie with bacon and provolone cheese.

This is a DELICIOUS marinade!!! I have made it a few times, the first time with no modifications - there was too much sesame oil for my taste, 2 tablespoons was way too much in my opinion. So now I make it as written but with just a DASH of sesame oil and it is perfect! I marinate the chicken overnight if possible and I usually bake it but grilled would be delicious too. I also crush the garlic in my garlic press rather than chop for more flavor. YUMMMMMMM!

Can't go wrong with a tangy, tasty marinade like this!! I misread the recipe and just used sesame oil, but liked the added flavor boost on our veggie and beef kebabs!! Marinated for 4-5 hrs. and the flavor was outstanding...

I have made this several times for different groups of people and everyone LOVES it! It is easy, quick, and loved by all. Only tip I have is to cut the chicken breasts in half before placing in marinade - doing this allows the chicken to absorb more flavour.

Wow, we really loved this marinade. I did not have sesame oil, but it certainly wasn't missed. The flavor was amazing!

This really is the perfect marinade - though I've never used it for chicken! I will very soon because I just know it's going to be GREAT on chicken. I've made it a few times now and it's great on everything. I always cut the recipe in half (except for the sesame oil - I sometimes add the full 2 tablespoons of that). I also like to add some sesame seeds. I've used it as a marinade for pork and for a sesame steak stirfy (just added thin strips of steak, 1/2 a thinly sliced onion, and a head of broccoli cut up into smaller florets & quickly steamed - sauteed it all in a frying pan and added cornstarch/water mixture to thicken the sauce to serve over rice). Well balanced flavors - wouldn't change a thing.

easy and delicious!!!

Excellent recipe! Easy to do with common household ingredients. My family loved it and were impressed with the quick meal. I did add red pepper flakes to ours as we like a little spice.

Good stuff! I was in a hurry and found this and had all the ingredients and love it!

This recipe is great! The only thing I did slightly different was switch the sesame oil (I'm not a big fan) with EVOO, and added some white wine - GREAT! And it always gets rave reviews!!

It' PERFECT. I didn't change a thing. I marinated skinless-boneless thighs for 24 hours. Sweet, sour, tangy, tropical, YUM! Now I use it for all my chicken, wings etc. Today I added a dash of cayenne pepper.

I tried this with four turkey wings. It's sweet AND tangy. It isn't typical (Kraft) barbecue sauce, as it states. It's sauce for when you are barbecueing. It wasn't bad, just not what I had in mind. One big thing, & same problem with "marinade for chicken" I'm about to review, is that the flavor is barely noticable on the cooked food. I didn't get the true taste of if from dinner - only from a dish of it I'd reserved. My 12 year old boy preferred this & these are the measurements I used: 1/4c brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, rice wine vinegar, vegetable oil; 1/2c plus 2T soy sauce; 2 worcestershire; 1T hot chile sesame oil; 4 cloves garlick 1/4t black pepper

Great recipe! I was out of sesame oil, but it was still wonderful. I am anxious to try it again with the sesame oil though!

This IS the PERFECT marinade!!! A wonderful blend of flavors, not one dominating or overpowering another. I made 1/4 of this recipe for two boneless skinless chicken breasts. I reserved some to use for basting and marinated the chicken in the rest for about 5 hours. Hubs grilled these and basted with the reserved marinade, which gave the finished chicken a beautiful glossy sheen. This is a winner and one that we'll be repeating often!! Thank you!

Great marinade for the grill. Our neighbors always want to know what we are making for dinner when we use this.

My husband & I woke up yesterday morning (Memorial Day) and decided to try a totally new grilling recipe. We read the reviews and took the suggestion of cutting back on the sesame oil a bit. Wow! While we usually Don't try out new recipes on Holidays, This was a Huge Hit! Don't let the strong smell scare you....It cooks off and you end up with some Pretty Amazing Grilled Chicken!

Was good but wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I think next time I will add more brown sugar and less sesame oil since this did dominate the flavor.

Great marinade, we really enjoyed it. I'm just mad at myself for not cutting my chicken into smaller pieces or pounding them out so they could soak up more flavor. Followed recipe exactly using low sodium soy.

Wonderful, grilled up great on a camping trip with a portable propane grill. Absolutely dead-simple, with stuff I had around, and delicious.

Great! I marinated my boneless, skinless chicken breasts for about 6 hours and then put them on the bbq. They stayed moist and had lots of flavor. Another keeper. No modifications required with this one.

This is great, i would not change a thing!

If I could I would have given 10 stars! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe with us! I love they way it smells when it's being cooked and the taste is simply delicious! My family's favorite !

I'd give this more stars if I could! I wondered what to do with the chicken breast I had taken out early in the day. I only marinated for an hour and a half or so, boiled up the remaining marinade and basted the chicken breast on the grill. Oh...my...gosh...This is the only way I'll grill my chicken anymore. I made this exactly as stated, reducing the serving size to 2, and it was perfect!

Delicious! The only change I made was to add Hoisen sauce and a little less brown sugar. I marinated boneless/skinless chicken breasts for 24 hours and it was the perfect amount of time. I had a few leftover the next day and they were a little "over marinated" but still good!

Krystal's Perfect Marinade Haiku: "Can't say it's 'perfect', too much sesame oil, and too sweet for us." Sesame oil over-powered the flavor of the end-result chicken, which was also a little too sweet, in my opinion, so if I use this marinade again, I would greatly reduce both the brown sugar and the sesame oil. (As I've noticed several reviewers mention doing too.)

Made as recipe states but used a little less and regular sugar, didn't have brown in the house. WAS EXCELLENT!!!

I made this last night for dinner. I made the marinade about noon using Splenda Brown Sugar instead of the real stuff and left them in the fridge for about 5 hours, turning the plastic bag a few times. My husband put them on the grill. WOW! We loved them. We'll be doing them again often. For our taste they were not too sweet or too salty. Five plus stars!!!!!

Wouldn't change a thing! A refreshing change to the typical marinade. My only change was that I used sesame seeds because I didn't have the sesame oil. I only marinaded for about an hour, but that was ample amount of time for an awesome flavor.

I made this 2 nights in a row. 1st time for pork kabobs (didn't have any sesame oil so i just wend without) let it marinate for 6 hours and they were delicious! Then I made the marinade for beef top sirloin steak (had all of the ingredients and made exactly as directed) the next night. It only had about an hour to marinate but it was still really good. Everybody liked it a lot. Oh and we put the rest on the asparagus....everybody was in love with that too.

I made it without Worchester sauce (I was out) so I added about a teaspoon of liquid hickory smoke and used low salt soy sauce. I also did inject about a teaspoon of marinade in each chicken breast while cooking. Got rave reviews, delicious!! Thanks for sharing

a favorite of mine. also if you're like me and enjoy spice, feel free to throw in a hot pepper or three into the marinade.

Perfect, wouldn't change a thing!

sooo good! it reminds me of the obon festival (japanese) chicken i used to have as a kid and never was able to duplicate. i only used 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil as it can be overpowering. sadly i only had 1 hour to marinade. i can't wait to make it again to marinade the proper length, 6 hours maybe. i will also try it with steak. thank you so much for this recipe. this is a keeper!

This was recommended to me by luv2cook on the Recipe Buzz today. I had about 2 pounds of pork loin sliced into cutlets. I pounded them even thinner and marinated them in this for about 6 hours, then grilled them. Delicious with rice and grilled pineapple. An easy winner that I'm happy to add to my marinade arsenal. Thanks!

This is now our favorite marinade for chicken. We didnt have any balsamic vinegar, so we substituted malt vinegar, and it was still great. Makes the chicken very flavorful, and juicy. A hot grill is the key, but it was so good.

I made this for chicken I was planning to cook on the grill, but it started to rain so I baked it in the oven. I did not have any balsamic vinegar, so I used about 2 tsp. of apple cider vinegar instead. This turned out great. I know that it will be even better made on the grill. Thanks for sharing!!

Used this on chicken and veggies - LOVED IT!

This was a seriously a delicious marinade. I did not have Balsamic Vinegar so I left it out and it was still delicious. I marinated the chicken in a zip lock bag for about 5 hours and it was excellent, this is my new go to marinade for chicken.

The predominate flavour I got from this was vinegar. Too strong for my liking. It was still edible, but I won’t be using this recipe again for that reason. I cut the sesame oil in half but that was the only change.

Loved it. Next time I may cut down the sugar

I have tried TONS and a TON of chicken marinade recipes over the years and this one is HANDS DOWN the best one I've EVER had! Thank you for this! I will use this often this summer! I used it on boneless chicken breasts, grilled them, sliced them and used them on an Asian Chicken Salad. But I am telling you I ate a bunch of the meat before it even met my salad it was so good!!!

this recipe works great! makes alot! i used most for chicken, but kept some marinade separate for the veggies(peppers, mushrooms, onions), grilled them on bbq, they were so yummy! i've also tried baking the chicken and fried veg in pan.. mmmmmmm

This was very easy..... the chicken turned out so tender. I will use this again for sure... delicious

I omitted the sesame oil since I did not have it, but followed the rest. It was great and my kids and hubby loved it. Plus it made my chicken sooo tender!

It's five star great marinade!!! Thank you very much!

Made this yesterday just as it's written...good recipe, was a tad salty even with low sodium soy sauce, but I'm really sensitive to the salt since I don't use it much anymore...husband said it was good, and he's the one who needs to be happy...:)

I used less sugar and a touch of chili, just for our personal taste. A fantastic recipe.

We were looking for a good marinade for chicken and stopped looking after we tried this one. I like to leave it in the marinade for 24 hours and then grill it up. When using only one package of chicken I cut the recipe in half so we don't waste it.

Great way to make chicken delicious. Was the perfect amount of marinade for a whole chicken cut into pieces.

these were very salty on the soy sauce side. next time i will only use half

This is a great, easy marinade that gives food a lot of flavor -- thanks!

I really liked this marinade. I made 1/2 recipe, because I didn't have that many chicken breasts and let it sit for about 1 hour in it. I thought all of the flavors blended well together, with none really dominating. It was a nice change from the Italian dressing marinade I typically do, which sometimes can come off as too sweet. This didn't.

Used this recipe for about 45 lbs of chicken breast meat to feed over 100 people. People raved about the chicken and wanted the recipe. It is absolutely the best marinade I have found yet. I found brining the chicken ahead of time then the overnight marinade made this the best I have ever tasted. We used regular gas grills to cook the chicken.

Loved this recipe! Was looking for a quick tasty marinade and this worked! I didn't have time to marinade for 2 hours so I just did for 30 mins and then put the chicken in the BBQ. I continually marinated with a brush while it was in the BBQ and this turned out delicious. I didn't have sesame oil but I substituted with a little coconut oil. I'm not a chef so I'm not sure if that's a no no but it tasted delicious. Thanks! For sharing this.

Amazing marinade!! Got great reviews!

We loved this marinade! I marinated chicken for about an hour before throwing it on the grill. Even my son, who is a picky eater, asked for seconds. I didn't use the whole 1/2 cup of soy sauce that the recipe calls for because I ran out, it was closer to 1/3. I will definitely be making this one again!

This was so good! And so easy! The only thing I changed was using minced garlic instead of chopped, because it was all I had. I had everything else already on hand.. This was like a sweety teryaki flavor.. Everyone loved it. A definite keeper - go to marinade! Thanks Krystal!

Marinated three breast for two days (not on purpose) it was awesome. Thank you!

This marinade was quick, easily and extremely delicious on chicken breast. I only used one garlic clove because I ran out but added a little garlic powder to substitute. I also didn't have sesame oil but had sesame dressing which worked perfect. Marinated for 8 hours then threw it on the BBQ. My in-laws made their famous Guamanian marinade for chicken and this recipe was the winner!!!! Will def be making again.

will make again, easy and good

This is also great on a mix of veggies done up on the bbq. I use a bbq basket and put in onions, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, what ever your family likes. Marinate for a couple of hours and grill!!

In our version, we halved the Worcestershire, sugar, sesame, & garlic. We used Braggs liquid aminos as soy sauce & subbed grape seed oil for olive (grape handles the high temps better.) The combo was delicious, even with the milder flavor.

May family and I loved this on grilled chicken. I substituted sesame oil with walnut oil to make the taste less overpowering.

Very good, very easy. I left out the sesame oil because...I forgot to buy some. Still very good!

Great flavor in this marinade. I was originally looking for something with a more traditional BBQ flavor, as this has more of a teryaki tang, but still very tasty. I'm always looking for new flavors for my chicken, this one's a keeper.

WOW!!! Fantastic!!! I used 2/3 cup of balsamic, 1/4 cup of soy sauce, and sprinkled in the black pepper. We let chicken sit in marinade for an hour and 15 minutes and then my husband grilled the chicken! Sooooo good! Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe!

Very, very good. Have done this a hand full of times now. Used on thighs, legs, and breasts - bone in/out, skin on/off - baked and grilled. Good every time. Tried on steak too, works to change things up, is better on chicken. Haven't really made any changes to recipe.

I was only able to marinate my boneless chicken breasts for about 2 hours, but, wow! This was a big hit with my family. We will definitely put this in the rotation. Thanks for a great marinade.

Absolutely delicious. My family loved it. I used the recipe as stated with the exception of using a little less worcestershire sauce.

This recipe was very good. Great taste.

I made this fro some friends for dinner ,,,,,,, It came out so good .. I will make this again for the 4th of july cook out ......

We liked this a lot. The chicken was very good - juicy and flavorful, and not overly sweet at all. I will make this again.

This was great-tasting on my chicken! Many compliments on the flavor. This recipe will be one I use often.

I was missing the balsamic and the sesame but this was fabulous!!! I can only imagine what it will taste like once I get those 2 ingredients in the house! Thanks for sharing this simple keeper of a marinade!

Absolutely delicious! This is the first marinade that I've tried really got into the meat and tasted phenomenal. Kids and adults alike loved it!

Absolutely delicious! And I am really picky when it comes to chicken marinades. A keeper.

This is a good start for a marinade, but the sheer amount of sesame oil in this is completely overpowering. It's all I could taste.

Awesome stuff I use it for chicken, jerky and pork. It is the best for marinating a turkey breast overnight then on the BBQ. I recommend you marinade your meat longer than just two hours. If you don't have the time, follow the recipe and then put marinade in pot and bring to boil lower heat and reduce 10 mins. Great glaze.

I marinated the chicken breasts for about 3 hours and they were still nice and juicy after they were grilled.

Why does this recipe not have more reviews? This is awesome! I used cider vinegar and garlic powder and it was still great.

Great! Chicken was really tender and flavorful. Omitted the sesame oil due to allergies.

This is the best marinade for chicken! I lessened the vinegar by a 1/4 of a cup because I know my family's taste. The rest of the ingredients together was phenomenal. I marinaded chicken tenderloin in a ziploc baggie all day, and have the best grilled chicken.