The Best Greek Chicken Marinade

Greek Chicken Marinade: 

Bright lemon, rich olive oil, warm herbs…sun-soaked Mediterranean flavors work all year round. Whether you want to grill outside, lighten up with a salad, or roast chicken on a cold night, this easy and versatile Greek chicken marinade recipe will carry you away to a shady patio by the sea.

Greek cooks are resourceful. So when a flavor combination is truly great, they’re going to find lots of different ways to use it, right?  Enter Greek chicken marinade. Sure, you can call it Greek chicken kabob marinade. Or Greek chicken salad marinade. Or Greek chicken marinade for gyros. Or be like a true Greek cook: just put the chicken and marinade in a bag in the morning and figure something when you get home. It’ll be great.

I am obsessed with this marinade, and greek chicken. And will be sharing so many ways to use it both as a marinade and a dressing over the next few months. It is so easy to whip up a batch, so versatile. And you can keep it on hand for those busy weeknights when you need something quick!

How do you make your own marinade?

One of these days I’m going to count how many bottled marinades I can find at neighborhood grocery store. It’s…a lot. Which is crazy, because making marinade is soooo easy, the flavor profiles are unlimited, and homemade marinade is free of chemicals and additives. How easy? Whisk-everything-in-a-bowl easy. Dump-everything-in-a-bag easy. That’s easy.

How long do you marinate chicken?

Chicken is really forgiving about sitting in marinade. If it’s cut up in smaller pieces, it can absorb a lot of flavor in as little as two hours. (Cutting it up is good for getting lots of flavor, period.) Or if your evening plans change, no worries—you can marinade chicken for as long as two days, according to the U.S.D.A.

How long can you marinate chicken in salad dressing?

Yup, salad dressing works great as a marinade as well! Vinaigrettes have essentially the same proportions of oil and acid that basic meat marinades do, so if you see a great bargain, or love a flavor combination and find that you have an extra bottle around, use it. Marinate the chicken just as you do with bottled or homemade marinade, anywhere between two hours (for small pieces) and two days.

Can you pan fry marinated chicken?

Yes! Follow these steps:

1.       Add a little peanut or canola oil to a heavy pan, on medium heat, and heat it until the oil starts to ripple.
2.       Use tongs to put the chicken in the pan (the marinade may spatter, so keep your distance).
3.       Cook the pieces on one side until golden brown, then turn and repeat on the other side. 

Cooking time will vary depending on what size pieces you’re cooking. In general, a small chicken breast takes about 5-7 minutes per side. If the pieces are very thick, cook over lower heat, or lower the heat when you turn them if you can see that they’re darkening before they’ve cooked through.

How Much Marinade Does This Make?

This recipe makes enough marinade for 2-3 lbs of chicken. It makes about 1 cup of marinade. It can easily be doubled or tripled.

Sometimes I like to use it as a salad dressing, so in those cases I will double the recipe, and remove half and reserve for salad dressing, while the other half gets poured over the chicken to marinade it.

How can I use marinated Greek chicken?

The flavors in this Greek marinated chicken recipe make it a versatile anchor to lots of dishes.

• Thread strips onto skewers for souvlaki, or Greek Chicken Kabobs or Skewers then grill them outside or on a griddle. Serve them as appetizers, or lay out tzatziki, hummus, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olives, tabbouleh, and warm pitas for diners to build their own pita wraps.
• You can use this marinade for this Instant Pot Greek Chicken Gyros.
• You can also saute the chicken and serve with this Easy Greek Pasta Salad.
• My favorite way to use this greek chicken marinade is in these Greek Chicken Meal Prep Bowls. I make a few up and eat them for lunch all week long. Yum! 

No matter how you use this greek chicken marinade, enjoy!

See How it Is Made

Greek Chicken Marinade

Whether you want to grill outside, lighten up with a salad, or roast chicken on a cold night, this easy and versatile Greek chicken marinade recipe will carry you away to a shady patio by the sea.

3.33 from 31 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Salad Dressing

Cuisine: Greek

Keyword: greek chicken marinade, greek chicken marinade recipe

Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 4 hours hours

Total Time: 4 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 116kcal

Author: Rachael

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Tbs minced garlic
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried dill
• 1/2 tsp each: dried basil dried thyme, crushed rosemary, salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 ½ tsp dijon mustard

Instructions

• Whisk together all of the Greek Marinade ingredients

As a Marinade

• in a large freezer bag and add chicken.
• Marinate 4-8 hours..
• Remove chicken from marinade before grilling, baking, or cooking in a skillet.

As a dressing

• Pour over favorite salads, power bowls, rice bowls, etc.

Nutrition

Calories: 116kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 23mg | Potassium: 20mg | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 15IU | Vitamin C: 8.5mg | Calcium: 16mg | Iron: 0.4mg

Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.

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