Looking for some creative ways to flavour up your chicken breasts and chicken thighs? Here, we’ve got ten different easy and healthy chicken marinade recipes ranging from Mexican to Greek chicken to suit all of your flavouring needs! Perfect for summer grilling and meal prep! {gluten-free-friendly}
Table of Contents
Easy marinades for juicy chicken!
Say goodbye to bland and boring chicken! These delicious and healthy chicken marinade recipes will transform your chicken breasts and thighs for incredibly easy, juicy and flavourful chicken!
If you’re anything like me, you probably prefer not to eat dry and flavourless chicken. With these recipes, you’ll have some quick options for flavouring up your chicken all in one convenient place.
My favourite part about these easy chicken marinades is that they’re so simple to prepare. Make them all at once for meal prep or prepare one of the tasty options for an easy weeknight meal.
Either way, you can’t go wrong!
Why we love these homemade chicken marinades
- Lots of variety: No one wants to eat the same chicken over and over again, right? That’s why we’ve provided ten different flavour profiles to choose from to keep your chicken fresh and exciting!
- Perfect for meal prep: Prep one, a few or all of the chicken marinades at once. You can freeze the chicken right in the marinade so all you have to do is thaw it out and cook!
- Easy: Each of the marinades requires 10 or less simple ingredients and can be prepped in less than 5 minutes. The cooked marinated chicken is perfect for easy dinners and lunches!
How to marinate chicken
To prepare:
- Mix all of the ingredients for each marinade together in a bowl or mason jar. You can either make just one at a time, a few or all if you’re looking to do some meal prep to get organized!
- Place chicken breasts or chicken thighs in a large plastic Ziploc bag or bowl. Add the marinade and massage it into the chicken to ensure that it’s evenly distributed.
- Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or up to 24-48 hours, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Expert tips: You can pound the chicken breasts with a mallet before adding to the marinade to help them cook more evenly. Additionally, to infuse more of the marinade into the poultry, use a fork to pierce some random holes into the meat.
Type of chicken to marinate
These marinades are really versatile, so you can use them to marinate a variety of different cuts of chicken.
Try them with:
- Chicken breasts
- Chicken thighs
- Chicken tenders
- Chicken wings
- Chicken drumsticks
Recipe FAQs
Each of the recipes makes enough to marinate the equivalent of about one to one and a half pounds of chicken.
If you require more marinade, you can also double or triple the recipe that you intend to use.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, you can safely leave marinated chicken in the refrigerator for up to 2 days (source). However, keep in mind that depending on the ingredients, some marinade recipes are created to work in a matter of hours — not days.
The great thing about these marinades is that they are freezer-friendly. There are a couple of different ways that you can go about freezing them. You can either freeze the marinades in separate ziplock bags, freezer-friendly containers, or Souper Cubes individually OR you can freeze it with the chicken immersed in the marinade.
I tend to prefer the latter option because then you have your meal pretty much ready to go! If you do opt for the ziplock bag method, I highly recommend using this handy tool to make it super easy to get that chicken and marinade in the bag…and not all over the counter.
Once it’s all packaged up and frozen, simply pull the chicken and marinade out of the freezer when desired, defrost and cook!
For optimal quality, I would recommend freezing the marinated chicken for no longer than 3 months. Your best bet is to use it within two months for the best tasting outcome.
It took me about 1 1/2 hours to prep all ten chicken marinade recipes from start to finish (not including the shopping trip to pick up the ingredients). It’s totally worth the time and effort because then you have ten healthy chicken recipes all ready to cook up!
How to defrost marinades
To defrost: Place the marinated chicken breasts or thighs in the fridge in a bowl or on a tray for about 24-48 hours before you’re ready to cook and serve to allow it to adequately thaw.
You can also place it in a bowl of shallow water in the fridge. This will help to speed up the defrosting process.
How to cook marinated chicken
Once you’ve marinated the chicken, you can then cook it using any of the following methods:
Cooking chicken breast on stove
Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the chicken breast and marinade. Cook for 3-4 minutes then flip over and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes.
Baking chicken in oven
Preheat oven to 450°F. Take marinated chicken out of the refrigerator and place in a baking pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until a meat thermometer place in the thickest part of the breast registers 165°F. The cooking time will depend on the thickness and type of chicken you’re cooking.
Once the chicken is cooked, transfer the chicken to a clean plate, and loosely tent the plate with aluminum foil. Let the chicken rest for at least 5-10 minutes.
Chicken in crock pot
Place the chicken in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, or on high for 3 to 4 hours.
Instant pot chicken
Set the Instant Pot to “sauté” setting and spray with cooking spray. When the Instant Pot becomes hot, place the marinated chicken on the bottom of the pot and sear for 1 minute on each side or until golden brown.
Remove chicken from Instant Pot and pour a bit of chicken broth or water in the bottom of the pot to deglaze it, scraping any browned bits off the bottom if necessary. Cancel the saute function.
Place trivet in the bottom of the pot over the broth or water. Set instant pot to “Manual” and set to high pressure for 6 minutes. If cooking larger chicken breasts you may want to increase this time by 2-3 minutes.
Do a natural release for 5 minutes before switching to quick release. Allow chicken to rest 3-4 minutes before slicing.
Grilling chicken
Heat your grill to between 425 and 450°F for chicken breasts. Grill chicken breasts for about 5 minutes on each side or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F. The cooking time will depend on the size and thickness of the chicken that you’re cooking.
You can also cube the chicken and skewer the pieces to make them into chicken kabobs to grill as well.
Air-fryer chicken
Lightly coat the inside of the air fryer tray or basket with olive oil or cooking spray. Preheat the air fryer to 380°F for 2 minutes. Add the chicken breasts and cook for 10 minutes. Flip and cook for another 8-10 minutes, or until cooked through.
So many different options for making amazing flavour-packed chicken!
NOTE: Cooking times may vary if you use a different cut of chicken other than chicken breasts.
Meal Prep Tips for Marinating Chicken
- Look for chicken on sale: If you plan to meal prep these chicken marinades and make them up all at once to freeze, look for chicken that’s on sale since you’ll require quite a bit of chicken. Check your grocery store’s weekly sales brochure for deals.
- Label the bags: In order to stay organized, I recommend lining up all of your bowls/jars to mix the marinade ingredients in and labelled bags next to them on a clean counter. That way, you can quickly mix the ingredients in the bowls, dump into the bags and easily keep track of which marinade is in which bag.
- Use bag clips: If you choose to prep the chicken in large freezer bags, I highly recommend using bag clips since you can attach the bags to the clips, dump the chicken and marinade in without fumbling around trying to keep the bags open.
- Use a system: Since many of the marinades require similar ingredients, I like to work strategically and measure out the olive oil first, then mince the garlic and add, then move onto the lemon juice, and so on. It goes a lot quicker if you set up a system for meal prep.
- Use short cuts: If I’m meal prepping a large batch of recipes, I often like to use short cuts like purchasing pre-peeled garlic to save time. You can also use lemon juice or lime juice in a bottle rather than freshly squeezed to be more efficient during meal prep.
- Don’t reuse the marinade: Although tempting, don’t try to reuse the marinades for your next batch of chicken. The marinade has been exposed to the raw chicken, and is therefore contaminated and not safe to reuse.
- Marinating time: I like to marinate the chicken overnight (or longer) to get the maximum flavor before cooking. However, if I need to get a meal on the table ASAP, I’ll usually just marinate the chicken for 30 minutes to an hour.
What to serve with marinated chicken
You can serve up so many different sides with this flavour infused chicken!
- Salad: Try with this Corn Tomato Avocado Salad, Arugula Nectarine Salad or Kale Salad with Cranberries!
- Quinoa: Try this Greek quinoa salad or these Broccoli Cheddar Quinoa Bites.
- Rice: Serve along with brown rice, basmati or sub in your preferred rice!
- Potatoes: Try with these Roasted Garlic Potatoes or Baked Sweet Potato Fries.
- Veggie sides: Try with these Maple Bacon Brussel Sprouts or this Green Bean Almondine Recipe.
So without further adieu, here are some of our favorite healthy chicken marinade recipes!
How to Make Healthy Chicken Marinades
1. Honey Garlic Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons water
Directions:
Place the chicken breasts or thighs in a ziplock bag, large bowl or container. In a small bowl or jar, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the chicken and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, or package in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for later use.
2. Cilantro Lime Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Place the chicken breasts or thighs in a ziplock bag, large bowl or container. In a small bowl or jar, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the chicken and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, or package in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for later use.
3. Jerk Chicken Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon each salt and black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Directions:
Place the chicken breasts or thighs in a ziplock bag, large bowl or container. In a small bowl or jar, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the chicken and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, or package in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for later use.
4. Curry Chicken Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon curry powder
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Place the chicken breasts or thighs in a ziplock bag, large bowl or container. In a small bowl or jar, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the chicken and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, or package in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for later use.
5. Chili Garlic Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 3 tablespoons chili garlic sauce
- 3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Directions:
Place the chicken breasts or thighs in a ziplock bag, large bowl or container. In a small bowl or jar, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the chicken and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, or package in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for later use.
6. Lemon Ginger Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Dash of salt and pepper
Directions:
Place the chicken breasts or thighs in a ziplock bag, large bowl or container. In a small bowl or jar, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the chicken and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, or package in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for later use.
7. Pesto Chicken Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1/2 cup pesto, store-bought or homemade
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions
Place the chicken breasts or thighs in a ziplock bag, large bowl or container. In a small bowl or jar, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the chicken and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, or package in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for later use.
8. Greek Chicken Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Directions
Place the chicken breasts or thighs in a ziplock bag, large bowl or container. In a small bowl or jar, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the chicken and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, or package in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for later use.
9. Mexican Chicken Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- Juice of one lime
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon each salt and black pepper
Directions
Place the chicken breasts or thighs in a ziplock bag, large bowl or container. In a small bowl or jar, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the chicken and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, or package in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for later use.
10. BBQ Chicken Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup barbecue sauce store-bought or homemade
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper
Directions
Place the chicken breasts or thighs in a ziplock bag, large bowl or container. In a small bowl or jar, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the chicken and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes, or package in a ziplock bag and store in the freezer for later use.
Recipe variations:
- To make gluten-free: Any recipe that calls for soy sauce can be substituted with tamari sauce or coconut aminos to make it gluten-free.
- To make vegetarian: You can also try these marinades with a firm tofu as well.
- Switch up the sweetener: For any recipe that calls for a sweetener, you can use honey, maple syrup, agave or sub in desired sweetener.
- Use a different oil: I typically use olive oil because that’s what I have on hand, but you can also use avocado oil, canola, or sesame oil in the more Asian-inspired marinades.
- Citrus juice: Swap lemon juice for lime juice and vise versa.
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10 Healthy Chicken Marinades
Ingredients
Honey Garlic Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw chicken breasts or thighs
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons water
Cilantro Lime Marinade
Jerk Chicken Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw chicken breasts or thighs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon each salt and black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Curry Chicken Marinade
Chili Garlic Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw chicken breasts or thighs
- 3 tablespoons chili garlic sauce
- 3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Lemon Ginger Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw chicken breasts or thighs
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Dash of salt and pepper
Pesto Chicken Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw chicken breasts or thighs
- 1/2 cup pesto homemade or store-bought
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Greek Chicken Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw chicken breasts or thighs
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 1/2 tablespoons dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Mexican Chicken Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw chicken breasts or thighs
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- Juice of one lime
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon each salt and black pepper
BBQ Chicken Marinade
- 1-1.5 pounds raw chicken breasts or thighs
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup barbecue sauce store-bought or homemade
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper
Instructions
- Place the chicken breasts or thighs in a large ziplock bag, bowl or container.
- In a small bowl or jar, mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour over the chicken. Toss chicken in marinade until well coated.
- Allow chicken to marinate for at least 30 minutes or up to 24-48 hours in the fridge. Alternatively, you can store the marinated chicken in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Video
Notes
- Use bag clips: If you choose to prep the chicken in large freezer bags, I highly recommend using bag clips since you can attach the bags to the clips, dump the chicken and marinade in without fumbling around trying to keep the bags open.
- Don’t reuse the marinade: Although tempting, don’t try to reuse the marinades for your next batch of chicken. The marinade has been exposed to the raw chicken, and is therefore contaminated and not safe to reuse.
- Marinating time: I like to marinate the chicken overnight (or longer) to get the maximum flavor before cooking. However, if I need to get a meal on the table ASAP, I’ll usually just marinate the chicken for 30 minutes to an hour.
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