3 Mediterranean Chicken Marinades

Looking for an easy chicken marinade? Chicken breast can be dried out if you don’t marinate it. When you marinate chicken, it adds so much flavor and enhances the flavor of the actual chicken. These are three marinades that I make all the time because they’re quick, I have the ingredients on hand, and the chicken always comes out tender and flavorful. You can use these marinades for other meat, but chicken works best. All of these marinades are adaptable to your taste. If you add or subtract an ingredient, they’ll still work great. For the yogurt-based marinades though, don’t take out the yogurt. Yogurt tenderizes the meat and chicken breast especially works really well with yogurt. Greek yogurt is recommended but plain yogurt would work too. I like to grill up a ton of chicken on Sunday with one of these marinades and eat the chicken throughout the week. Shred the leftover chicken up for a salad, make a nice sandwich with fresh veggies and good bread, or even throw it in a soup.

Yogurt and Smoked Paprika Marinade

• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 Tablespoons Smoked Paprika
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons dried mint
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Balsamic Rosemary Marinade

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• Splash of white wine
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon italian seasoning
• 2 Tablespoons dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Yogurt, Cumin, Fresh Mint Marinade

• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 Tablespoon cumin
• 1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

With all of these marinades I recommend a minimum marinating time of 1 hour (in the fridge), but 4 hours or more is ideal.  I usually use ziploc bags for the chicken and the marinade.  Make sure the chicken is completely saturated with marinade.  Enjoy!

Salad dressings work great as marinades too! Check out these 7 Mediterranean salad dressings!