The Best Ever Chicken Marinade

This is the best chicken marinade recipe with southwestern flavors. It makes your grilled chicken juicy and flavorful without any heat.

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We joined a pool this year for the first time ever. It's a magnificent pool with a large green space, lots of pavilions with gas grills, three pools, and a splash pad with a large water slide.

We have spent many a summer day at the pool this year and, thanks to all those gas grills, we have eaten many grilled chicken breasts and hamburgers and hot dogs.

I personally prefer grilled chicken because it has the least calories and the most protein, but grilled chicken day after day was getting a little (or a lot) boring.

I don't eat BBQ sauce in general because of its sugar content, so I asked Joe to come up with some marinades that would make the chicken more flavorful and interesting. Being the dutiful husband that he is, he came up with some.

The first marinade he used was Gazebo Room's Original Greek Salad Dressing which was wonderful. Gazebo Room is a local company that makes the best Greek salad dressing you can buy, and it makes a wonderful marinade. If you live in the Harrisburg area, you MUST look for it at the grocery store. You will not regret it. If you are not in the Harrisburg area, you can get it on Amazon.

But, day after day and week after week of Greek marinated chicken got a little old, too. So he made me something new.

I was dubious about this Southwestern Marinade when I heard the ingredients. Since when does balsamic vinegar participate in southwestern flavors?! But Joe insisted that it would be good, and so I agreed.

It was amazing. I ate my southwestern chicken with half an avocado and some grilled zucchini, and I was pretty much in heaven. I could eat that a lot before getting tired of it. Actually, it's been a couple of months, and I still haven't gotten sick of it, so I think we're in the clear.

Alternating southwestern chicken with Greek chicken has proven very helpful, and I still love them both. So, if you are looking for a marinade to make your grilled (or even pan fried) chicken more flavorful, look no further. You have found it.

Here are a few recipes to pair with grilled chicken:

• The Best Instant Pot Sloppy Joes
• Cucumber Pasta Salad
• Grilled Zucchini Squash
• Spinach Pasta with Creamy Red Sauce
• No Crunch Macaroni Salad
• Homemade Black and Blue Cheese Burgers

The Best Ever Chicken Marinade

This is the best chicken marinade recipe with southwestern flavors. It makes your grilled chicken juicy and flavorful without any heat.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 5 mins

Total Time 1 hr 5 mins

Course Gluten-free, Main Course, Main Dish

Cuisine American

Servings 6 servings

Equipment

• Garlic press

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic minced in a garlic press, or else use 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1-1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breast raw

Instructions

 

• Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl.
• Place raw chicken into a zip-top plastic bag. Pour the marinade over top and squish it around to coat.
• Place the bag in the refrigerator for 2 hours to overnight. We prefer overnight, but you could do less time and still have it turn out nicely.
• Pull chicken out of the bag to cook; discard marinade.
• Grill chicken. If you want to use the sauce to baste the chicken while grilling, you will have to make a second batch. It's not safe to use the marinade that the raw chicken was in.

Notes

Note: If you are marinating shrimp, you should only marinate for 30 minutes. If you are marinating steak, you can do the 2 hours to overnight time frame and be fine.

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This southwestern marinade is my new favorite way to grill chicken, and I'm sure you're going to love it too. Give it a try today!