Armenian Herb Marinade Grilled Chicken Breasts Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

How many hours should you marinate chicken breast? ›

(The acidic ingredients can begin to "cook" the chicken and make it tough, too.) As a general rule of thumb, follow these timelines as you perfect your skills in how long to marinate chicken: Boneless chicken: 30 minutes to 2 hours. Bone-in chicken breasts, drumsticks, wings, or thighs: 1 to 12 hours.

In fact, a marinade will never really penetrate much past the surface of the meat—and that's OK! The purpose of a marinade is to be the first thing that cooks when the meat hits the pan or grill. The heat develops the flavors of the salt, sugar, and acid in the marinade and helps to create a nicely caramelized crust.

With a fork, poke holes all over the chicken (this will allow the marinade to absorb).

Place the chicken on the high heat side of the grill, close the lid, and grill until it browns on the bottom, 2 to 3 minutes. Then flip the breasts over, and move them to the medium-low heat side to finish cooking (with the lid closed); it will take 10 to 15 minutes to reach 160°F.

Eventually, all of the proteins in the chicken will break down, leading to the meat having a mushy texture. Always marinate chicken in the refrigerator instead of allowing it to sit at room temperature where bacteria can begin to form.

A typical marinade is made up of three essential components: an acid (such as vinegar, wine, or citrus), an oil (such as olive oil or sesame oil), and a flavouring agent (such as herbs and spices).

If you are big on marinades, shaping the meat in this way will help your marinade affect all of the chicken breasts evenly, rather than not penetrating the breast's thicker meat.

Marinades must contain an acid to be effective. Some of our favorites are yogurt, buttermilk, citrus juices, wine or even store bought salad dressings. We love this recipe for Marinated Chicken Breast (pictured above) that calls for any vinegar you have in the pantry.

Making a mouth-watering homemade marinade isn't rocket science! You simply need to follow this simple formula: an acidic ingredient to tenderize the meat (think vinegar, juice, yogurt, or mustard), fresh herbs and spices for added flavour, and a fatty ingredient, such as oil or butter.

Add the chicken pieces and submerge them in the marinade. To ensure that the flavor gets into the meat, you could slash the meat a few times with your knife beforehand, but it's not essential. Close the container and transfer it to the refrigerator to marinate for a maximum of 24 hours.

Should you drain chicken from marinade? ›

Remove Marinade Before Cooking: To prevent flare-ups on the grill and ensure properly browned meat when sautéing or stir-frying, wipe off most of the excess marinade before cooking. Keep just a little marinade on the meat surface to maximize flavor.

Cook your chicken breast on the grill for 6-8 minutes on one side. Flip your chicken. After 6-8 minutes open your grill lid and flip your chicken breast with tongs. A great tip is to only flip your chicken breast once so that it stays nice and juicy (and creates delicious grill marks!)

Pound the chicken thin.

Working with 1 chicken breast at a time, place a breast inside a gallon zip-top bag. Use the flat side of a meat mallet or rolling pin and pound until 1/4-inch thick. Set the flattened chicken breast aside and repeat with remaining breasts.

Grill over indirect heat.

Place seasoned chicken on your grill grates over indirect heat and close the lid. Cook until the internal temperature reads 155 degrees F with an instant read thermometer. This step typically takes 25-30 minutes, but will vary based on grill temperature, meat thickness, etc.

Give it 5-6 hours for the best flavour and texture – if you don't have that long, even 10 minutes of marinating will give flavour to the outside of chicken. Marinades without acid can be left longer but won't make them work any better, so stick to 24 hours as a maximum. Try one of our delicious marinade recipes.

When marinating meat, longer is not always better. And in fact, depending on certain variables, there is a point at which the quality of that meat will start to deteriorate if you marinate it for too long before cooking. Instead of flavorful, tender meat, you could end up with a mushy mess.

Your best bet for achieving marination magic is to soak your chicken, pork chops or loins and steak at least 30 minutes, but never longer than overnight. The risk of a lengthy bath in the marinade comes back to acid.

Marinades otherwise are just a surface treatment, adding flavor and enhancing browning, though this is a benefit that does not improve over time as the marinade will not penetrate the meat in a significant way.