Chicken breast is a healthy dietary meat, which is recommended for those who seek a healthy lifestyle, and those who hope to get rid of a few extra pounds.
However, often the breast is too dry and stiff. How to avoid this? Most chefs advise you to follow a few rules, of which the first is to use the right marinade for chicken breasts.
General principles for the preparation of marinade for chicken breasts
It is undesirable to add mayonnaise and other mixtures containing vinegar to it. If the marinade for barbecue from chicken breasts contains a lot of acid, then the meat will acquire a sharp taste and will be harsh. In general, do not make the mixture too acidic, regardless of what you decide to add: vinegar, the juice of some citrus or kefir.
Too generously salt marinade for chicken breasts in the oven is also not worth it. Salt helps the meat to quickly lose juice and become "rubber". It is better to salt near the end of the pickling process, 10 to 15 minutes before baking.
If you want to get a juicy and soft dish, buy chilled, not frozen chicken, and the one that was frozen and thawed several times will not save any marinade for barbecue from chicken breast! Not to mention the fact that such meat can easily be poisoned. So take the product only in a trusted store.
Using a marinade for chicken breasts, you can bake a whole chicken in the oven, you just need to marinate it for much longer, it is best left overnight. But bake chicken so that it turns out not dry, but juicy, better in the sleeve. If you like a crust, then you can incise the sleeve (carefully so as not to burn yourself!) And make the temperature higher.
In the marinade for chicken breasts put various spices. This, of course, depends on the taste, but the following are commonly accepted seasoning options:
Curry;
Pepper;
Garlic;
Mint;
Sage;
Ginger;
Coriander;
Basil;
Thyme.
You can use ready-made mixtures or make your own. And you can cook marinade for barbecue from chicken breast or baked dish, limited to just one. For example, thyme gives an interesting taste to the dish, often curry also appears “solo” (although it may be wrong to talk about solo in this case, because curry is a mixture of seasonings). But with spices it is important not to overdo it, otherwise the marinade for chicken breasts in the oven will hammer the taste of the bird itself!
It is necessary to marinate the breast from an hour to two, it does not make sense to hold it longer.
Faster, it is marinated at room temperature, but if this "room temperature" is too high, it is better to put a bowl of chicken in the refrigerator.
Make sure the chicken breast marinade covers the meat completely. If this is not the case, you should periodically remove the bowl and mix the contents, ensuring that the chicken is completely coated with the marinade.
Recipe 1. Kefir Chicken Breast Marinade
Ingredients
Garlic - 2 cloves (3 if small)
Lemon - about a third of a small citrus
Kefir 1% fat - a quarter liter
Onion - half a small onion
Thyme, mint, a little black pepper
Mustard - tablespoon
Salt to taste; add one hour after the start of pickling chicken
Cooking method
Peel and chop the garlic, squeeze the juice from a third of the lemon. Peel the onion and chop it very finely. Using a whisk, mix kefir with garlic and onions, then carefully mix in the lemon juice, and after it - mustard and black pepper. If you use fresh herbs, it should be chopped as small as possible, you can even chop it with a blender. If dry - rub it between your fingers. Then add chopped herbs to the marinade.
Put the chicken breast in the marinade and keep in it for about an hour, turning it now and then. Then add salt, mix again and marinate the chicken for another 15 minutes.
Bake in the sleeve or cook kebab.
Recipe 2. Honey marinade in the oven with honey
Ingredients
Honey - 4 tablespoons
Dry spicy greens (thyme, basil, rosemary, etc.) - 1 tablespoon
Soy sauce - 2 tablespoons
Olive or corn oil - 5-6 tablespoons
Black pepper to taste
There is no need to add salt to this chicken breast marinade - soy sauce will add saltiness
Cooking method
Melt the honey in a water bath (put a bowl of honey in a saucepan with water, and one in the gas; warm it, stirring the honey continuously).
Mix the liquid honey with soy sauce, then add vegetable oil and mix well. Add dry herbs and pepper.
Marinate the breast in this composition for about an hour, and then bake in the sleeve. It’s nice to add new potatoes and pour all the rest of the marinade - you get a delicious dish in a somewhat oriental style.
Recipe 3. Dry Chicken Breast Marinade
This variant of chicken breast marinade is especially suitable for those who like the taste of the chicken itself, and not spices.
Ingredients
Salt - spoon
Sugar - a spoon
Vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons
Cooking method
Mix salt and sugar with butter and grate the chicken breast mixture. Place under a small load and keep it for about an hour, and then bake in the sleeve.
Recipe 4. Spicy chicken breast barbecue marinade
Ingredients
Vegetable oil (it is better to take olive) - 2 tablespoons
Lemon - 1/2 small
Sugar - 2 large spoons
Garlic - 4-6 cloves of medium size
Ginger - a piece about three cm long
Soy sauce - 2-3 tablespoons
Lime slice (you can use lime juice - a full teaspoon)
Black pepper
If it seems to you that the sauce is not salty enough, add a little salt.
Cooking method
Remove the zest from half a lemon, then squeeze the juice. Pass the garlic through the press. Peel and finely chop the ginger (but it is better not to grate).
Mix lemon and lime juice with soy sauce and vegetable oil, put ginger and garlic, mix, add pepper and, if necessary, salt. Put the lemon peel, which was lightly cut with scissors.
Place the chicken breast in the marinade for an hour and a half, and then cook in any way.
Recipe 5. Marinade for chicken breast in the oven with sour cream
Ingredients
Sour cream - half a glass (it is better to take 20% fat)
Mustard (you can take ordinary, Russian, or you can prefer some delicious softer) - a teaspoon with a top
Dry paprika powder - a teaspoon
Garlic - 3-4 cloves
Curry - about one and a half teaspoons
Lime or lemon juice - about a teaspoon
Any spicy herbs, to your taste, you can Italian or Provencal mixture - half a teaspoon
Cooking method
Peel and mince the garlic.
Into the sour cream, drop the whole citrus juice in a drop, then, continuing to stir with a whisk, put the garlic, curry and paprika, add the herbs, rubbing them slightly between the fingers.
Coat the breast or slices of chicken breast with this marinade and keep it for about an hour and a half, making sure that the chicken is covered with sauce on all sides, if necessary, turn side to side.
Recipe 6. Pineapple Chicken Breast Marinade
Ingredients
Grain mustard - 1 spoon
Mustard ordinary - 1 spoon
Half a tin (400 gram) canned pineapple
Sour cream 15 - 20% - 3 spoons
Pepper mix - half a teaspoon
Onion - half a small onion
Salt - from half to a whole teaspoon
Apple cider vinegar - 1 spoon
Cooking method
Peel and chop the onion quite finely; You can also chop the onion with a grater or combine, a blender, and the like.
Pineapples and syrup put in a blender bowl, then grind in liquid puree. You can, however, leave larger pieces, and not quite mashed potatoes.
In a bowl, mix sour cream with pineapple puree and mustard in a blender or whisk. Then add the onion and pepper mixture, again mix well. And only at the end add salt and vinegar (you can do without it).
Chicken breast marinated in pineapple marinade makes sense to continue cooking with pineapples, for example, you can bake a breast with pieces of pineapple and cheese.
Recipe 7. Chicken breast marinade in the horseradish oven
This is actually a comic name. Marinade is very tasty, it just includes horseradish. It’s better to take a piece of horseradish root, but if this is not possible, the usual horseradish in a jar is suitable, the simplest one is better, without beets or cream. However, you can use them.
Ingredients
Horseradish - a piece of the root of the centimeter in 3 - 4 (or 2-3 spoons of the finished horseradish from a jar)
Sour cream 20% - half a glass
Tomato paste - 1 spoon
Parsley (fresh; if not, you can take dried)
Salt - a teaspoon
Cooking method
If you use fresh horseradish root, wash and peel it, then grate it or grind it using any suitable kitchen appliance.
Finely chop the fresh parsley, and grind the dried parsley with your fingers, you can crush it in a mortar.
Mix sour cream (you can take more fat, but less fat is already undesirable) with horseradish, freshly grated or from a jar, add parsley and tomato, and later salt.
Marinate the chicken breast in this composition for about two hours.
Recipe 8. Chicken breast kebab marinade with white wine
One of the most delicious and delicious chicken marinades.
Ingredients
Orange - 1 piece
Lemon - Half Average
Honey - 2 - 3 tablespoons
Ginger - a slice of about 3 cm
Table white wine - ¾ cup
Greens (dill, thyme, basil and the like fresh) - a small bunch
Cooking method
Wash the orange very carefully with a brush. Remove the zest from it and cut with a pair of millimeters using kitchen scissors.
Cut the lemon into thin slices.
Melt the honey in a water bath so that it becomes completely liquid.
Wash ginger under running water, peel and thinly cut into small plates.
Squeeze juice from an orange.
Rinse greens thoroughly, dropping first into water, and then under running water. Chop as small as possible.
Put honey in orange juice and mix them thoroughly until smooth. Top up the white wine. Again, mix well and even beat a little.
Now you can add solid ingredients - slices of zest and lemon, greens.
Stir the marinade again and dip the chicken breast into it. Leave to marinate for at least an hour and a half.
Chicken Breast Marinade: Tips and Tricks
- It can sometimes be difficult to chop garlic sufficiently finely, especially young garlic. To simplify your task, crush a clove by pressing it flat with a knife.
- It is advisable to add fat to any marinade. Corn oil is best, but any other or sour cream, fat cream, and so on.
If there is no sleeve, you can bake chicken breast in sauce or in a form covered with foil.
