Making Your Own Marinade

  It’s spring and like many of you, we are all about grilling outside this time of year.  We do chicken on the grill, because it is an excellent, low-fat source of protein.  Making our own marinade is an important way we keep the flavor high and the fat low.

Especially during the summer when we are both so active and the hubby is training for his races, chicken is easy and versatile.  To make sure it doesn’t get boring, we try to switch up our preparation.  You don’t want to make the same old ho-hum chicken every week.  

One of the ways to liven up chicken on the grill is to marinate it.  Making your own marinade is easy and far less costly than store-bought varieties. Plus you can modify the recipe on the fly based on your family’s preferences. Or, change it up based on the menu. Really, the sky’s the limit once you know the basic components. Marinades add tenderness and flavor – and are very forgiving, as long as you keep the following guidelines in mind.

Here are my tips for making your own marinade. And as a bonus, I’ve added links to a few of my favorite chicken and pork marinade recipes for the grill down below.

Making Marinade – the Components

1. Always use an acid in your mix.  This could be vinegar or lemon juice, as in the recipes which follow, or it could even be wine or acidic juice like orange or pineapple, depending upon the flavor you want to achieve.  The acid actually tenderizes the meat by breaking down the connective tissue. 
2. For an extra tender meal, add dairy to the marinade. The dairy has a mild acid level which means the chicken can stay longer in the marinade without getting too soft.  Both Indian and southern cooking have known this secret for generations.  I really like to use Greek yogurt because it is lower in fat and adds a really fantastic taste to the chicken, but regular plain yogurt or buttermilk also work. Buttermilk is one of the secrets to southern marinades.
3. The all-important next ingredient for flavor is oil.  I usually use olive oil for any Mediterranean-inspired dish. But I will switch to sesame for Asian dishes. You could also try more mild oils like Canola or grape seed oil. 
4. Sugar is another important component for marinades. Especially if you are adding straight vinegar, I like to cut it with sugar. This will take a little bit of the edge off of the acidity of the vinegar. You don’t necessarily need this with the other acid types. 
5. The last ingredient to think about is your flavor/spices.  This is where your creativity really comes in to play. I like to make my own spices and spice blends from garden grown peppers and herbs. Make sure whatever you choose is going to be harmonious with the acid and oil selection. Also note that finer ground spices generally will dissolve and permeate their flavors better than bigger flakes or whole seeds.  For example, while cumin seeds are great for sprinkling on top of food, you’ll get more of their flavor in a marinade with the ground version. 

Making Marinade – the Method

A few additional points to think about:

• The easiest method to prepare the marinade (which also doesn’t create a mess in your kitchen!):  Add all of the marinade ingredients right in your resealable freezer bag, zip it up with very little air (make sure the seal is tight!), and massage with your fingers.  Then add your chicken right to the bag. Massage the marinade into the chicken. Set in the fridge to rest for anywhere from 1-24 hours (see below). Easy-peasy!
• Marinades are usually forgiving.  You can adjust the time you leave the chicken in the liquid by how big the cut of meat is and also how acidic the marinade is.  Vinegar has a higher acid content than buttermilk, so you won’t leave the same size cut of meat in vinegar base marinade as long as you might leave it in a dairy based one.  Also, for the Greek Gyro recipe, I like to cut the chicken into smaller strips so that the marinade soaks in faster. This works well because the chicken is meant to be served in strips so it can be stuffed in a pita.  Therefore the marinating time can be shorter.  But for the Chicken Dijon marinade, we grill and serve the chicken breasts whole to our guests, so I usually leave them in the marinade overnight. 
• Lastly on a safety note – ALWAYS toss the marinade after removing the chicken.  Do not use it as a baste, do not save it and try to reuse it.  The raw chicken juices mingled in could potentially contain harmful bacteria. 

So there you go – my guidelines for creating your own fantastic chicken marinades! Don’t forget to check out the recipes I promised.

Marinade recipes

Happy grillin’!!

Some more great recipes…