Garlic Lemon Marinade for Chicken

It tastes as good as it sounds. Quick and easy, this chicken marinade has butter, lemon, garlic, and spices. Use it with grilled chicken breasts or thighs. Cook the chicken over direct heat for speed and a little bit of "crunchy" and out of this world taste.

Table of Contents

• 🥣The Marinade
• 🐓The Chicken
• Chicken Safety
• ♨️The Grill
• 📖Grilled Chicken Recipes
• 🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
• 📖Full Recipe

Introduction

This was our standard grilled chicken breast recipe when the kids were young. The components are always in the house, so not much thinking ahead.

We have used this recipe for about 45 years, and it remains one of our favorites.

My Rating

A solid 5 for us.

🥣The Marinade

This marinade is extraordinarily tasty and has soy sauce, brown sugar, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and a little salt. The combinations of flavors will make that bland chicken full of flavor.

The ingredients are not fancy. Yes, you could use freshly squeezed lemon and crushed garlic but that makes for too much work for this summer laid back summer recipe.

The marinade is enough for 4 breasts.

Try to let the marinade cool some before adding the chicken or it will cook the chicken some. No big problem but will tend to make the outside tougher.

🐓The Chicken

This is for skinless chicken breasts or thighs and not for the skin on chicken.

The first tip is to try to cook chicken breasts of about the same size and thickness. If one is just thicker, a meat mallet or bottom of a heavy pan can be used to even them out.

Sometimes, I scored the smooth side of the breasts which is to allow the marinade to penetrate better. I think it does a bit but really mostly we do this without the scoring.

Due to the salt in the marinade, I do not recommend brining the breasts or thighs before using this marinade.

The leftovers are great on a salad.

Chicken Safety

We no longer recommend rinsing chicken. See Chicken... To Rinse or Not To Rinse?

For safety, all chicken should be cooked to 165°. If you use thighs, you will want to cook to 180° for texture issues but they are safe at 165°.

The last safety comment is that is you want to use some of the marinades to baste the chicken while cooking, reserve some before adding the chicken so it is not contaminated.

♨️The Grill

The grilling method is my standard grilling method for skinless boneless chicken breast. You need to control your grill heat. Too hot and you will make hockey pucks.

Grill surface temperature needs to be about 450° which is medium or a bit above on most grills. See A Beginners Guide to Grill Temperature on a Gas Grill for more information.

Total grill time of about 30 minutes but is dependent on the exact grill temperature and the chicken.

If you have questions about controlling your grill temperature, please check my A Beginners Guide to Grill Temperature on a Gas Grill.

📖Grilled Chicken Recipes

How to Grill Chicken Breasts on a Gas Grill

How to BBQ Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast on a Gas Grill

Grilled Chicken Tenders

Quick Marinade For Grilled Chicken Breasts

Buttermilk Grilled Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast

🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

In a medium-size saucepan, melt 6 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons (about 6-8 cloves) minced or crushed garlic and bloom for 1 minute. Add 6 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon Lowrey's (or other) seasoning salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper.  Simmer over low heat for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Trim chicken. Skinless boneless breasts or thighs will be fine.

Add chicken breast smooth side down, stir well and be sure the breasts are covered with liquid. Marinade for 10-15 minutes.

Preheat the grill for 10 minutes on medium-high for a surface temperature of about 450°. Clean well and oil.

Place breasts over direct heat with lid closed for 5 minutes per side. Continue to cook until the internal temp of 165°. (about 30 minutes total cooking time).

Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

📖Full Recipe

Garlic Lemon Marinade for Chicken

From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

It tastes as good as it sounds. Quick and easy, this chicken marinade has butter, lemon, garlic, and spices. Cook the chicken over direct heat for speed, a little bit of "crunchy" and out of this world taste.

Tap to leave a Rating

4.5 from 12 votes

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Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Servings #/Adjust if desired 4 servings

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Ingredients

US Customary - Convert to Metric

• ▢ 4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
• ▢ 6 tablespoons butter - ¾ stick
• ▢ 6 tablespoons ReaLemon juice
• ▢ 2 tablespoons garlic - sub 6-8 cloves crushed garlic
• ▢ 1 tablespoon seasoning salt - Lowrey’s
• ▢ ½ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

• In a medium-size saucepan, melt 6 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons (about 6-8 cloves) minced or crushed garlic and bloom for 1 minute. Add 6 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon Lowrey's (or other) seasoning salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper.  Simmer over low heat for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes
• Trim chicken. Skinless boneless breasts or thighs will be fine.
• Add chicken breast smooth side down, stir well and be sure the breasts are covered with liquid. Marinade for 10-15 minutes.
• Preheat the grill for 10 minutes on medium-high for a surface temperature of about 450°. Clean well and oil.
• Place breasts over direct heat with lid closed for 5 minutes per side. Continue to cook until the internal temp of 165°. (about 30 minutes total cooking time).
• Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions.

Recipe Notes

Pro Tips

1. Use boneless chicken breasts or thighs. For breasts, cook to 165° and for thighs, cook to 180° for texture.
2. Let the marinade cool before adding the chicken.
3. You can use the marinade for basting the chicken while cooking but to do this you must reserve some before adding the chicken to the marinade for safety.
4. I occasionally lightly score the smooth surface of the raw chicken to allow the marinade to penetrate better.
5. No brining allowed here. There is lots of salt in the marinade.
6. Leftovers are wonderful on salad.
7. Nutrition is calculated for chicken breasts and some absorption of the marinaded.

To adjust the recipe size:

You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories : 155 kcalCarbohydrates : 1 gProtein : 24 gFat : 6 gSaturated Fat : 2 gCholesterol : 80 mgSodium : 251 mgPotassium : 418 mgSugar : 1 gVitamin A : 121 IUVitamin C : 1 mgCalcium : 6 mgIron : 1 mg

Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.

Course :Main Course

Cuisine :American

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Originally Published May 20, 2010. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos and a table of contents to help navigation. Some photos may be from other recipes to illustrate the discussion.