A good marinade is a magic elixir that can elevate the blandest of chicken breasts into tender, flavor-packed protein. Whipping one up takes mere minutes, but you can make it even quicker by using a pantry sauce (like teriyaki, BBQ, ranch, or hot sauce) as your base. To turn your sauce into a marinade, simply loosen its consistency with an acidic tenderizer, add a dash of water or oil, and balance the seasonings.
Learn the key differences between a marinade and a sauce, and you can transform any dressing or condiment into a flavorful emulsion. First, a marinade generally has a thinner viscosity, bolder flavor, and saltier intensity than a sauce. This allows it to fully coat the surface of meats and deliver as much flavor as possible. A marinade also features an acidic element, such as vinegar, citrus, buttermilk, or yogurt, which tenderizes meat by breaking down its tough connective tissue (a process known as denaturing). Finally, marinades are supposed to be cooked, so they can contain raw aromatics, like garlic, whereas sauces are poured over foods just before serving.
You’ll need to incorporate an acid into your sauce and loosen it up with a little water or oil to transform it into a marinade. The best acid to select will depend on what you’re cooking; lemon is ideal with chicken, and soy sauce is an awesome way to add more flavor to pork chops.
Increase a sauce’s volume by diluting with oil and acid
Most sauces or dressings can moonlight as a marinade with a little tinkering. For example, store-bought salad dressing can tenderize beef as it already contains vinegar or lemon juice. Similarly, teriyaki sauce features soy, which is naturally acidic via fermentation. While your sauce may already contain an acidic ingredient, bear in mind that you’ll need to increase its volume so your meat can be fully submerged as it sits. You can do this with water or a glug of oil, which happens to be a fantastic flavor carrier (it will readily take on the character of anything else you choose to add to your blend, such as bruised herbs, chopped garlic, jalapenos, or capers).
However, if you’re using yogurt, fruit juice, or buttermilk as your tenderizer, your marinade may already be thin enough without the need for additional liquid. These ingredients will also mellow out the saltiness of the marinade, so experiment with your seasonings to balance out the flavors. If you want to boil the leftover marinade down to cook out any raw ingredients and turn it into a serving sauce, avoid salting it as the flavors will concentrate once it’s thickened. Remember, it’s a bad idea to reuse leftover marinade without boiling it first to kill off bacteria.
