This Quick and Easy Chicken Marinate is the fast way to the best healthy chicken on the grill or in the oven. Perfect on a salad or simple dinner.
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Bursting with outstanding lemon garlic flavor, they will make a great salad topping, served in a sandwich or on a plate.
We all know that skinless boneless chicken breast can be tasteless. Made with lemon juice, olive oil, soy sauce, and a few other ingredients, this marinade 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. It will fit a healthy diet like a low-calorie or low-fat diet or even a low-carb keto diet.
Serve these flavorful marinated chicken breasts on a salad, in a sandwich, or with Convection Oven French Fries using fresh or frozen fries, Simple Spinach Salad with bacon, or Grilled Mixed Vegetables.
Check out some other flavorful chicken recipes, like Garlic Lemon Butter Marinaded Grilled Chicken Breast, Grilled Buttermilk Chicken, Grilled Honey Garlic Chicken, or Italian Grilled Chicken Breasts.
Ingredients for Chicken Marinade
- Soy sauce - low sodium preferred
- Brown sugar
- Olive oil
- Lemon juice
- Salt—if not brining chicken
👨🍳How to Make and Use Chicken Marinade
- Trim and flatten chicken breasts to ¾ inch and brine (optional) before adding to the marinade. Brine if you wish.
- In a 1-gallon zip lock bag or airtight container, combine soy sauce, brown sugar, olive oil, crushed garlic, and lemon juice. Add salt if you didn't brine the chicken.
- Add the chicken to the marinade and refrigerate for 30-120 minutes, but as little as 20 minutes gives a lot of taste.
- Remove leaving the marinade on the chicken for cooking—do not rinse or pat off. Cook on the grill or in the oven.
🐓How to Cook Marinaded Chicken
Try to use chicken breasts of about the same size and thickness. If thicker than ¾ inches, use a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy pan to even them out. Chicken thighs can be used—see FAQs.
🔥How to grill marinated chicken breasts
- Clean and oil grates. Preheat the grill to 450° surface temperature.
- Grill and flip every 5 minutes until you reach 165° internal temperature—about 10 minutes.
- For a more detailed discussion, please see How to Grill Chicken Breast on a Gas Grill.
If you have questions about controlling your grill temperature, please check my Guide to Controlling Grill Temperature.
♨️How to oven-bake chicken breasts
- Preheat the oven to 400° convection or 425° conventional.
- Place them in a shallow baking dish and bake to 165° internal temperature—about 25 minutes.
- More details at How to Bake Chicken Breasts in a Convection Oven.
Cooking time is dependent on the thickness and size of the chicken. With an average size (about 10 oz) of chicken breast and a 400° oven, about 25-30 minutes is a good estimate to reach a 165° internal temperature—so check a little early.
❓FAQs
Yes. Chicken thighs should be skinless, but bone-in or boneless will both work. Cook to an internal temperature of 185° instead of 165° for the breasts.
Skinless chicken breasts can quickly dry during cooking, especially if previously frozen. So if you have time to brine, you should for moister results.
A suggested brine would be two cups of water and one tablespoon of table salt for an hour or two. If you brine, rinse and skip the salt before brushing with the honey mixture.
All salt is not equal in volume due to crystal size. 1 teaspoon table salt = 1 ¼ teaspoon Morton kosher salt = 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Marinades are generally made of oil, acid, herbs, and spices. In my house, you also must add garlic. Then, it is used to soak various types of meat to transfer the flavors—an excellent, quick, and easy enhancement to many kinds of meat.
For safety, once used, marinades should be considered contaminated and discarded. 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.
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Have you tried this recipe, or have a question? Join the community discussion in the comments.
Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
Trim chicken breasts of any excess fat and thin to ¾ inch thick with a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy pan—for safety, protect yourself with plastic wrap or a large ziplock bag.
Optional chicken brine: If you have time, brine is always good for skinless boneless chicken breasts. A brine of 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon table salt for 20-120 minutes. If you brine, remove the salt from the marinade recipe and carefully rinse the chicken under running water when removed from the brine.
Mix the marinade a 1-gallon zip lock bag or airtight container, combine soy sauce, brown sugar, olive oil, crushed garlic, and lemon juice. Add salt if you didn't brine.
Add chicken to the marinade, remove extra air, and seal. Refrigerate for 30-120 minutes, but as little as 20 minutes gives a lot of taste.
Remove breasts from the marinade, do not rinse off the marinade. Cook on the grill or oven-bake to 165° internal temperature.
📖 Recipe
Quick and Easy Chicken Marinade
Ingredients
- 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 and thin to ¾ inch thick with a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy pan—for safety, protect yourself with plastic wrap or a large ziplock bag.
- Optional chicken brine: If you have time, brine is always good for skinless boneless chicken breasts. A brine of 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon table salt for 20-120 minutes. If you brine, remove the salt from the marinade recipe and carefully rinse the chicken under running water when removed from the brine.
- Mix the marinade in a 1-gallon zip lock bag or airtight container and combine soy sauce, brown sugar, olive oil, crushed garlic, and lemon juice. Add salt if you didn't brine. Add chicken to the marinade, remove extra air, and seal. Refrigerate for 30-120 minutes, but as little as 20 minutes gives a lot of taste.
- Remove breasts from the marinade, do not rinse off the marinade. Cook on the grill or oven-bake to 165° internal temperature. See cooking instructions in the post.
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Recipe Notes
Pro Tips
- Like most chicken recipes, the cooking temperature and final temperature are critical.
- 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.
- 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.
- Once used, the marinade should be discarded. If you want to brush some on during cooking, reserve a small amount or make more.
- Both the grill time and oven time can vary by the thickness of the chicken and the exact cooking temperature. So check the internal temperature a bit earlier than you think.
- An internal temperature in the thickest part of the chicken of 165° is the minimum safe temperature.
- Nutrition is calculated without brine, with 10% of marinade absorbed and a 10 oz. skinless boneless chicken breast.
Your Own Private Notes
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
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Originally published April 17, 2010. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
Serina says
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!😊
DrDan says
Hi Serina,
I have been known to do things like that. It is all about ratios.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Ferdinand lemaire says
My chicken was the best! Looked way better than in these pictures.
DrDan says
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
angela says
I can't grill at my apartment. when say use a grill pan do you mean in the oven or on stove top?
DrDan says
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
tina says
My grill broke & I have the chicken marinating! Can I put this in a crock pot? Please advise! Thanks
DrDan says
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.
Lexy says
Yum! Totally transforms chicken, especially when you're short on time for a marinade. We're trying it on thin sliced pork chops tonight.
Empress says
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!
Pam says
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!!
DrDan says
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
Meg says
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/
Amanda S. says
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.
David says
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.
Mary says
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 :)
Sarah says
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.
DrDan says
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
Leah Noble says
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!
DrDan says
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
todd little says
very good marinade. upping the brown sugar next time and marinading for more than 1/2 hour
DrDan says
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
todd little says
my bad I see now that the info is indeed there - sorry! trying this tonight!
DrDan says
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
todd little says
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.
Robert Pulley says
Its all in the recipe above. Check it.
Chris says
Brining is a definite plus for boneless skinless breasts. I like the marinade, good flavor profile.
Ray says
I need a nice quick marinade for tonight. I can't wait to try this.