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    🏠Home » Recipes » Chicken Recipes

    Easy Chicken Marinade

    Jul 15, 2021 | Last Updated Jul 16, 2021 by Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

    Recipe Table of Contents    
    4.09 from 109 votes

    Quick and easy marinaded chicken breasts are great on the grill or in the oven. Bursting with outstanding flavor, they will make a great salad topping, served in a sandwich or just on the plate.

    Cut marinaded chicken breast in a green salad.

    Table of Contents
    • 🐓The Chicken
    • 🧂Optional Brine
    • 🥣The Marinade
    • 🔥The Grill
    • ♨️Optional Oven Baking
    • 📖Other Marinades
    • 🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
    • 📖Recipe
    • 💬 Comments

    Blue ribbon divider used for visual effect

    Introduction

    We all know that skinless boneless chicken breast can be tasteless. Made with lemon juice, olive oil, soy sauce, and a few other ingredients, it delivers a wonderful taste that will take your chicken to the next level.

    This could easily be a weeknight dinner recipe since 20-30 in the marinade works well—just enough time to heat, clean, and oil the grill.

    My Rating

    My rating system of a 4

    A very solid 4 and could be a lower 5 if you brine.

    🐓The Chicken

    The first tip is to try to cook chicken breasts of about the same size and thickness. If one is just thicker, you can use a meat mallet or bottom of a heavy pan to even them out. The maximum thickness you want is ¾ of an inch.

    I prefer fresh, but frozen can be fine but must be completely thawed. A few will come pre-brined, which is fine, but please do not brine or salt again.

    🧂Optional Brine

    A brine is always a good thing, and if you have time, you will be glad you did. A recommended quick brine of 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon salt for 30 minutes to 2 hours, but as little as 20 minutes, will have some effect.

    To me (a safety guy), I don’t like raw chicken at room temperature, so I always refrigerate.

    While we no longer recommend rinsing chicken, you should always rinse carefully after brining. Also, don’t add any more salt after a brine is used.

    🥣The Marinade

    Marinades are generally made up of some oil, an acid, and a variety of spices. In my house, you also must add garlic. Then, it is used to soak various meats to transfer the flavors—a wonderful and easy enhancement to many types of meat.

    Marinaded should not be confused with brines that are basically salt and water. It is used to add moisture to the meat. But you can also add flavors to brines.

    This marinade uses common pantry stables many households have in stock: olive oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, salt, and garlic. You can add other flavors if you wish.

    For safety, once used, marinades should be considered contaminated and discarded. There are ways around that, but that is another discussion.

    If you want the marinade to brush the meat during cooking, reserve a small amount ahead if there is enough or make a bit extra.

    🔥The Grill

    The most important part of this recipe is not to rush the cooking. I used a grill surface temperature of 450°, a tad above medium on most grills.  Total grill time of about 20-25 minutes but could be a bit longer depending on the thickness of the chicken and the exact grill temperature.

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

    ♨️Optional Oven Baking

    No grill, no problem. Preheat the oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional. Place them in a shallow baking dish. That is all there is to it.

    Cooking time is dependent on the thickness and size of the chicken and the oven temperature. With average size (about 10 oz) chicken breast and a 400° oven, about 25-30 minutes is a good estimate. The only real answer is to cook until 165° internal temperature—so check a little early.

    📖Other Marinades

    Garlic Lemon Marinaded Grilled Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast

    Buttermilk Grilled Skinless Boneless Chicken Breast

    Garlic Marinated Grilled Flank Steak

    The Best Steak Marinade

    This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

    Chicken Breast Recipes, Chicken Recipes, Grill Recipes
    Blue ribbon divider used for visual effect

    🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

    trimmed chicken breasts on a red board.

    Trim chicken breasts of any excess fat.

    adding chicken to the brine.

    Optional brine: If you have time, brine is always a good thing for skinless boneless chicken breasts. I suggest a brine of 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon table salt for 20-120 minutes. If you brine, remove the salt from the recipe and rinse the chicken under running water when removed from the brine.

    marinade ingredients for chicken.

    In a 1-gallon zip lock bag, combine soy sauce, brown sugar, olive oil, crushed garlic, and lemon juice. Add salt if you didn't brine. Add chicken to the bag, remove extra air, and seal. Refrigerate for 30-120 minutes, but as little as 20 minutes gives a lot of taste.

    clean and oil grill crates.

    Clean and oil grill grates and preheat to a surface temperature of about 450°, which is about medium-high on most grills. I recommend a surface thermometer to be able to control your grill well.

    marinaded chicken on a gas grill.

    Remove breasts from marinade and place over direct heat. Do not rinse off the marinade.

    two marinaded grilled chicken on a whit plate.

    Flip about every 5 minutes. Remove from the grill at an internal temperature of 165°—about 25 minutes of total grill time. Allow to rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

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    📖Recipe

    Quick Marinade For Grilled Chicken Breast from 101 Cooking for Two

    Easy Chicken Marinade

    From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
    Quick and easy marinaded chicken breasts are great on the grill or in the oven. Bursting with outstanding flavor, they will make a great salad topping, served in a sandwich or just on the plate.
    Tap to leave a Rating
    4.09 from 109 votes
    Print Email CollectionCollected
    Prep Time: 10 minutes
    Cook Time: 20 minutes
    Total Time: 30 minutes
    Servings #/Adjust if desired 2 servings

    Ingredients

    US Customary - Convert to Metric
    • 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts - well trimmed

    Marinade

    • ¼ cup soy sauce - low sodium preferred
    • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
    • 2 tablespoons olive oil
    • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
    • 2 cloves garlic crushed
    • ½ teaspoon salt

    Optional Brine

    • 2 cups water
    • 1 tablespoons salt

    Instructions

    • Trim chicken breasts of any excess fat.
      trimmed chicken breasts on a red board
    • Optional brine: If you have time, brine is always a good thing for skinless boneless chicken breasts. I suggest a brine of 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon table salt for 20-120 minutes. If you brine, remove the salt from the recipe, and rinse the chicken under running water when removed from the brine.
      adding chicken to the brine
    • In a 1-gallon zip lock bag, combine soy sauce, brown sugar, olive oil, crushed garlic, and lemon juice. Add salt if you didn't brine. Add chicken to the bag, remove extra air, and seal. Refrigerate for 30-120 minutes, but as little as 20 minutes gives a lot of taste.
      marinade ingredients for chicken.
    • Clean and oil grill grates and preheat to a surface temperature of 450°, which is about medium-high on most grills. I recommend a surface thermometer to be able to control your grill well.
      clean and oil grill crates
    • Remove breasts from marinade and place over direct heat. Do not rinse off marinade.
      marinaded chicken on a gas grill.
    • Flip about every 5 minutes. Remove from the grill at an internal temperature of 165°. About 25 minutes total grill time. Allow to rest for about 5 minutes before serving.
      two marinaded grilled chicken on a whit plate.
    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 but the photos DO NOT print.

    My Private Notes

    Click here to save your own private notes only you will see. These will print and be saved for your next visit.
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    Recipe Notes

    Pro Tips

    1. Like most chicken recipes, cooking temperature and final temperature are critical.
    2. Try to use chicken breasts of about the same size and thickness. Even them out some with a meat mallet if needed. Maximum thickness of ¾ of an inch.
    3. Brining is optional but will give more moist results. As little as 20 minutes will give good results, but 30-120 minutes refrigerated is suggested. Longer can start to affect the texture.
    4. Once used, the marinade should be discarded. If you want to brush some on during cooking, reserve a small amount or make more.
    5. Both the grill time and oven time can vary some by the thickness of the chicken and the exact cooking temperature. So check the internal temperature a bit earlier than you think.
    6. An internal temperature in the thickest part of the chicken of 165° is the minimum safe temperature.
    7. Nutrition is calculated without brine and with 10% of marinade absorbed.

    Optional Oven Baking

    1. Preheat the oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional. Place them in a shallow baking dish.
    2. Baking time will be about 25-30 minutes.

    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 : 143.4 kcal (7%) | Carbohydrates : 1.3 g | Protein : 24.2 g (48%) | Fat : 3.9 g (6%) | Saturated Fat : 0.8 g (4%) | Polyunsaturated Fat : 0.6 g | Monounsaturated Fat : 1.6 g | Trans Fat : 0.1 g | Cholesterol : 72.3 mg (24%) | Sodium : 295.8 mg (12%) | Potassium : 426.5 mg (12%) | Fiber : 0.1 g | Sugar : 1.1 g (1%) | Vitamin A : 34 IU (1%) | Vitamin C : 1.8 mg (2%) | Calcium : 7.1 mg (1%) | Iron : 0.5 mg (3%)
    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

    © 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.

    Originally published April 17, 2010. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Megan

      February 15, 2018 at 8:42 pm

      Amazing marinade! Had chicken breast in fridge and needed something to do with them and stumbled across this. Quick and easy. I did this before going to work at 9am, and let it sit all day and didn't cook it till about 8pm. The longer the better. Since I had 5 breasts I upped the number in the recipe but didn't use any salt since the soy sauce is salty enough and it came out amazing! Definitely going to use again.

      Reply
      • DrDan

        February 17, 2018 at 12:55 pm

        Hi Megan,
        This is one of those recipes I forget about for a year then use it over and over again. Then I forget about it.
        Thanks for the note.
        Dan

    2. Michelle Johnson

      January 22, 2018 at 12:34 pm

      Hi! I'm trying this tonight. Have the breasts brining right now (for two hours), then I'll marinade for two hours. Do I have to rinse the breasts after brining? I usually brine my whole turkeys and typically rinse... I'm so excited to taste this! Thanks Dr Dan!

      Reply
      • DrDan

        January 24, 2018 at 1:24 pm

        Hi Michelle,
        Sorry for the delayed reply. Always rinse off a brine. If a brine did it's job, you already have some extra salt. No need to add to that.
        Dan

    3. Serina

      December 04, 2017 at 9:03 am

      I read the ingredients and cooked this recipe without reading any instructions and my guessed ratio turned out great after marinating for around 90mins, i even cooked it in a grill pan on top stove with a little olive oil and turned a couple of times... Perfect!😊

      Reply
      • DrDan

        December 05, 2017 at 8:43 am

        Hi Serina,
        I have been known to do things like that. It is all about ratios.
        Thanks for the note.
        Dan

    4. Ferdinand lemaire

      November 18, 2017 at 8:53 pm

      My chicken was the best! Looked way better than in these pictures.

      Reply
      • DrDan

        November 18, 2017 at 8:57 pm

        Thanks for the note.
        I have excuses for the pictures. First generation digital camera and 4th month of the blog. Maybe I should redo this post next summer.
        Dan

    5. angela

      April 13, 2017 at 12:55 pm

      I can't grill at my apartment. when say use a grill pan do you mean in the oven or on stove top?

      Reply
      • DrDan

        April 13, 2017 at 1:14 pm

        Hi Angela,
        With all the sugar in this, I would not be doing it stovetop. And in the oven, the chicken will take too long and again may burn before the chicken is done. Maybe not if you filp... If you try it in the oven, it would take 30-45 minutes depending on size and oven. Cook to 165 of course. I'm not sure how good that would work.

        Dan

    6. tina

      January 05, 2017 at 9:23 am

      My grill broke & I have the chicken marinating! Can I put this in a crock pot? Please advise! Thanks

      Reply
      • DrDan

        January 05, 2017 at 9:35 am

        The crockpot would work but I would prefer the oven especially if you have a grill pan. If no grill pan than cast iron. If no cast iron then oven safe pan. A little oil in the pan to coat the pan and 350-375 degrees about 30 minutes plus minus depending on size, pan and oven. Use a meat thermometer and you are done at 165. I would probably flip after about 15 minutes. (I'm guessing at the time since this is not how I normally do this so keep an eye on it and thermometer ready. My guesses are usually fairly good.)
        You could do a pan sear method but I'm worried about burning the sugar.

    7. Lexy

      March 20, 2016 at 7:00 pm

      5 stars
      Yum! Totally transforms chicken, especially when you're short on time for a marinade. We're trying it on thin sliced pork chops tonight.

      Reply
    8. Empress

      September 27, 2015 at 10:14 pm

      Omg this marinade was perfect!! My computer won't let me rate it but I definitely give it five stars! I added everything in the ingredients exactly except garlic. Because I love garlic I doubled up but you don't have to. I Waldo seasoned the chicken on both sides first with onion powder, garlic powder, parsley, and lawrys seasoning salt and some pepper before adding it to the marinade because I like my meat really flavorful. I put it in the plastic bag and let Last night and didn't take it out until about 9 o clock tonight and it was delicious! So about a day but I'm sure if you let it sit for 4 hours or so it would still be just as good! Thank you sooooo much for this recipe I really loved the added brown sugar it balanced out all the other flavors!

      Reply
    9. Pam

      July 29, 2015 at 1:35 am

      This was EASY, QUICK and DELICIOUS. I doubled the recipe for 6 chicken breasts. Cut the cooking time to about 14 mins. by pounding them first to an "even" thickness, between 2 sheets of wax paper. Sliced and served warm over cold salad - perfect summer dinner!!

      Reply
      • DrDan

        July 29, 2015 at 8:01 am

        Hi Pam, I have started to "pound the chicken" some too but haven't decided yet if I want to do it all the time. First my wife always thinks it should be on a sandwich. Second, the times I have done this it seems dryer and I'm a careful griller. I'm not done evaluating yet.
        Thanks for the note.
        Dan

    10. Meg

      July 06, 2015 at 8:21 pm

      5 stars
      I even slightly screwed up the recipe and it still turned out great! You can check out my review here.

      https://semiunemployedgirl.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/inevitable-cooking-fail-1/

      Reply
    11. Amanda S.

      May 18, 2015 at 8:42 pm

      5 stars
      I made this tonight per instructions (I didn't get a chance to try the brining part) and I have to give the author some SERIOUS compliments! This is hands down the best chicken marinade I've ever tasted or used. It is now my go-to marinade for chicken and I especially love how quick it is to not only make but use considering I rarely think too far ahead for the need to marinate the meat I cook. It's usually just an afterthought so I love that this had the chicken ready in a short time. Thanks so so much for posting this! And now I can't wait to look at your other recipes.

      Reply
      • David

        February 21, 2016 at 5:47 pm

        I buy chicken breasts in bulk packages, make a big batch of this marinade then vacuum pack and freeze for later use. By the time the chicken thaws it maninated perfectly and makes a quick clean up.

    12. Mary

      September 18, 2014 at 7:58 pm

      5 stars
      this is a keeper, it was really good!!! I let it marinade for a couple of hours and will definitely be making this again for more people :)

      Reply
    13. Sarah

      August 22, 2014 at 12:19 pm

      Thanks! I tried this last night and loved it. It gave a good amount of flavor after 30 minutes of marinating (will try it for longer next time if I can!). I've never tried brining before, so that information is useful for me as well. I'll have to give that a shot one of these days.

      Reply
      • DrDan

        August 26, 2014 at 8:17 pm

        Do try the brine, you won't believe the change in moisture. I was using this recipe last weekend again. I really like that I always have the ingredients.
        Thanks for the comment
        DrDan

    14. Leah Noble

      June 01, 2014 at 7:13 pm

      Did you use a tablespoon or teaspoon for sugar, lemon juice, oil and salt? I used teaspoon since there is a lower case "t" by the ingredients, but it tastes very soy saucy…. just checking! Thanks!

      Reply
      • DrDan

        June 01, 2014 at 7:49 pm

        I went back to my original notes. You are right... And the garlic was left out. Fixed and please accept my apology. That was apparently a bad day.
        DrDan

    15. todd little

      March 29, 2014 at 5:00 pm

      very good marinade. upping the brown sugar next time and marinading for more than 1/2 hour

      Reply
      • DrDan

        March 29, 2014 at 6:15 pm

        Thanks for the note. I will try upping the brown sugar next time. If my grill ever gets out the the snow. Longer is better but 30 minutes still gets very good results but not more than a couple of hours with this.
        Again thanks for the comment.
        DrDan

    16. todd little

      March 24, 2014 at 6:22 am

      my bad I see now that the info is indeed there - sorry! trying this tonight!

      Reply
      • DrDan

        March 24, 2014 at 6:49 am

        Sorry for the confusion. This recipe is still in the format from Blogger and need converted so it looks better and is less confusing. I have about 2/3 of 300 done. They take 15 minutes each and I'm still working on it.
        DrDan

    17. todd little

      March 24, 2014 at 5:48 am

      would be real helpful for us newbs to know exactly how much of each ingredient goes in the bag to make the marinade instead of saying combine.

      Reply
      • Robert Pulley

        June 10, 2018 at 9:14 pm

        Its all in the recipe above. Check it.

    18. Chris

      April 18, 2010 at 7:51 pm

      Brining is a definite plus for boneless skinless breasts. I like the marinade, good flavor profile.

      Reply
      • Ray

        June 23, 2018 at 6:39 pm

        I need a nice quick marinade for tonight. I can't wait to try this.

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