Avoid These 10 Mistakes to Marinate Chicken Perfectly

Chicken is a staple protein in many kitchens, and as much as we use it, it’s not known for having a big flavor on its own. It’s more like a blank canvas that takes on the taste of whatever you cook it with. How can you turn your bland chicken into a tasty dish you’ll enjoy? Enter marinades. Marinating can increase flavor and tenderize chicken, turning a basic protein into an exceptional dish. Giving your chicken a bath in a delicious blend of herbs, spices, oils, and other ingredients will produce chicken that’s moist, tender, and full of flavor.

You can mix up an easy chicken marinade in minutes with a handful of ingredients you likely already have in your pantry or fridge. Whether your taste buds are in the mood for something spicy, smoky, or citrusy, there’s a marinade recipe for you. You can even repurpose your favorite salad dressings as marinades. If you’re not already marinating your chicken in ranch dressing, you should be! As simple as marinades are to put together, there are some mistakes everyone makes when marinating chicken. Here’s how to avoid them and get your marinade right every time.

Sometimes, keeping it simple in the kitchen can seem boring or bland, but that doesn’t have to be the case, especially when it comes to making a marinade for your chicken. While you might have the urge to load your marinade with tons of ingredients with big, bold flavors, that’s not what’s required to create a delicious dish. You can have too much of a good thing, and too many competing flavors in a marinade can ruin your chicken.

The best marinades enhance the flavor of chicken without overpowering it. To achieve this balance of tastes, it’s best to keep things simple when it comes to a marinade. Yes, you want to infuse as much flavor as possible into the chicken, but keep in mind that the goal is to enhance the taste of the chicken, not cover it up. The absolute best marinated chicken is made by sticking with a primary ingredient or flavor theme. A sriracha-lemon-ginger-rosemary-chili powder mix might seem like it would be an exciting combo, but in reality, your chicken will be better off if you use one or two of those as a base and save the others for another day.

Marinades work by surrounding food with flavor. By coming into direct contact with the chicken, marinades make it easy for the chicken to take on all of the deliciousness you’ve mixed into them. While the chicken won’t technically absorb the marinade, they create a tasty flavor force field on the chicken’s surface that can yield big flavor benefits when the chicken is cooked. To give your chicken the most flavor, it’s important that you get the amount of marinade just right.

The goal is to prepare enough of your marinade to completely cover the chicken. Any less and your chicken will wind up only partially seasoned, with the uncoated sections lacking in taste. This doesn’t mean you should mix your marinades by the gallon, but as a general rule, you should plan to prepare at least ½ cup of your marinade for each pound of chicken you’re cooking. If you’re marinating your chicken in a resealable plastic bag, use your hands to massage the bag to help spread the marinade evenly over the poultry. If a baking dish or bowl is your marinating dish of choice, flip the chicken frequently to make sure all sides get equal exposure. Keep in mind that skimping on the amount of marinade you use is akin to skimping on flavor.

We all know salt as the ingredient that enhances the flavor of the food it’s added to. In culinary school, the easiest way to have points deducted from any dish you prepared for the chef instructor was to be stingy with the salt. The goal is to add enough to bring out the best taste of what you’re cooking without having the salt overpower the dish’s natural flavor. When it comes to making a marinade, be careful not to overdo it because too much salt can ruin a marinade.

Too much salt in a marinade can do more than make your chicken taste too salty. It can also negatively impact your chicken’s texture. When salt is added to food, it causes the food to release any natural oils or moisture the food contains. Adding too much salt can make your chicken release too much moisture, leaving you with dry chicken that’s unpleasant to eat. In addition to drying out your chicken, oversalting can also toughen the meat.

If you want to build a marinade that will give your chicken the biggest flavor booth, don’t forget the aromatics. Aromatics are the building blocks of flavor in your marinade, so you don’t want to skimp when it comes to them. Don’t be intimidated by the terminology. If you’ve spent any time in the kitchen, you’ve likely already been using aromatics. They’re the herbs, spices, and vegetables that give food, marinades included, their flavor. If you’ve ever added onion and garlic to a dish, you’ve cooked with aromatics. Carrots, celery, leeks, ginger, scallions, bay leaves, parsley, and peppercorns are other commonly used aromatics.

There’s more to adding aromatics to your marinade than just dropping them into the dish or resealable plastic bag you’re marinating in. To extract the most flavor from them, you need to prep them properly. If you’re using fresh herbs, rub them between your fingers or crush them with the side of your knife to bruise them before adding them. Smash your garlic cloves and toast your spices. Doing this makes it easier for them to transfer the oils and flavor they contain to your marinade.

Oil serves many purposes in the kitchen. It’s a key ingredient in vinaigrette salad dressings, the perfect way to coat your pan before you start to cook, and it’s a staple you don’t want to leave out of your chicken marinade. Oil helps make it easier to spread the marinade ingredients evenly over the surface of the chicken. It serves as a delivery system for all of the flavor you’ve built into your marinade. It can also impact your marinade’s texture and taste, helping to keep your chicken moist and cutting the sharpness the acid brings to the mix.

Choosing the right oil for your marinade can be overwhelming since there are many oils to choose from. Most marinade recipes call for vegetable or canola oil, but the best type of oil for marinating will depend on the cooking method you’re going to use. High smoke point oils, which can withstand higher cooking temperatures like those that come with grilling, are great overall choices for marinades. Canola, peanut, and safflower oils are common options.

A perfect marinade has a delicious blend of balanced tastes. Aromatics, spices, and olive oil combine to add layers of flavor to your chicken as it marinates. While those ingredients will season your chicken, there’s an additional ingredient you don’t want to leave out — an acid. Expertly marinated chicken always contains an acid. Acids include all types of vinegar, citrus juice, and fermented dairy products like sour cream, buttermilk, and yogurt. It’s no coincidence that so many chicken marinade recipes include lemon, lime, or orange juice. They add brightness to foods and enhance the flavors of the other ingredients in your marinade.

Acids play another important role in marinating chicken: They can also help tenderize your chicken.  A less common but equally delicious acid you should consider adding to your next marinade is wine. Both red and white wines are flavorful choices that will add a delicious crispness to your marinade and your chicken.

Food safety should be top of mind when you’re cooking chicken, especially when you’re marinating it. In order to avoid what’s known in professional kitchens as the temperature “danger zone,” the temperature range where bacteria can grow and thrive, you should always marinate your chicken in the refrigerator. This is a crucial food safety rule everyone should follow when cooking with chicken or other meats and poultry. Food, especially chicken, is more susceptible to bacteria growth when it’s stored at temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Room temperature falls in the middle of this temperature range, so it’s not a healthy environment for marinating poultry.

Many recipes recommend bringing your chicken to room temperature before cooking it. Remove the chicken in the marinade from the fridge 20 minutes before you’re ready to cook it. This will give it time to get to room temperature without spending an extended amount of time in the temperature danger zone.

Marinades are not only excellent ways to infuse chicken with flavor, but the same ingredients and flavors can also make a delicious sauce for basting the chicken. Basting is the process of brushing meat or poultry with either the drippings from the pan or a flavorful sauce as it cooks. It helps keep the food moist and adds additional flavor. Once you’ve removed your chicken from the marinade, it might seem like a good idea to repurpose the marinade and use it to baste the chicken, but doing so could be dangerous.

Raw chicken can sometimes contain bacteria that can be harmful when consumed. Cooking the chicken to a temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit typically kills any bacteria present. Using the marinade you’ve used to tenderize and season your chicken for basting can pass any bacteria back to the chicken. It is possible to safely use your marinade for basting or as a sauce once the chicken has been removed. To eliminate any bacteria the chicken may have left behind, you’ll need to bring the marinade to a boil. Boiling the marinade will kill the bacteria, making it safe to continue using. Another option is to set aside some of your marinade before you add the chicken and use that for basting or as a sauce.

The goal of marinating chicken is to transfer as much flavor as possible, so it may seem logical that the longer you leave the chicken in the marinade, the more flavorful it will be. That’s accurate to a point, but it is possible to under- and over-marinate chicken.

Under-marinating occurs when the chicken’s not given enough time in the marinade. When you don’t marinate chicken long enough, you’ll likely end up with a finished dish lacking in flavor. To avoid this, as a general rule you should marinate your chicken for a minimum of 30 minutes. Bone-in pieces should marinate for at least an hour.

Over-marinating chicken can also lead to less-than-ideal results. If your marinade contains an acid, and most do, the acid can leave your chicken mushy or tough if the chicken is left in it for too long. According to the USDA, it’s safe to marinate chicken in the fridge for up to two days, but your chicken likely won’t need that much time to absorb the marinade’s flavors. Aim for up to two hours of marinating time for boneless pieces of chicken and up to 12 hours for bone-in pieces.

The container you choose to marinate your chicken in may not seem like a huge concern, but there are some options that will work better than others, and some you should avoid altogether. Resealable plastic bags are the easiest and most convenient choice. They make it easy to keep the marinade contained and to make sure it coats the chicken evenly. Plastic bags also make cleanup a breeze; simply throw the bag away once you’re done. Plastic and glass containers with tight-fitting lids are also good choices for marinating chicken, and, unlike single-use plastic bags, they have the added benefit of reducing waste.

There’s one primary reason why you should avoid marinating your chicken in containers made of metal. The acid in your marinade can cause a chemical reaction with the metal, which can negatively impact both the color and flavor of your chicken. There are exceptions to this rule. Bowls or pans made of non-reactive metals, like stainless steel, are safe but steer clear of marinating in copper or aluminum.