5 Healthy and Easy Chicken Marinades

A good chicken marinade can make or break a grilled entrée. Bottled BBQ sauces, as delicious as many of them taste, are also notoriously high in sugar and sodium. For instance, at 2 tablespoon serving of Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce contains 15 grams of sugar and 300 mg. of sodium. I used to be stuck on bottled Italian dressing every single time, which gets boring. It’s easy to whip up your own marinades at home. Switch it up with any of these 5 marinades- pesto, lemon Greek, balsamic herb, Hawaiian garlic soy or fajita chicken. They take less than 5 minutes to make each one and they all taste so delicious! Bye-bye boring chicken.

Pesto Marinade

Pesto is so delicious on chicken! Enjoy as is or slice over pasta or a salad with mozzarella cheese and tomatoes. You can use whatever you want for the nuts. Pine nuts, walnuts, pepitas or sunflower seeds will especially work well. This pesto freezes really well so feel free to double or triple the batch and save it for a future meal. This pesto is also delicious on steak kabobs, chicken sandwiches or flatbread pizzas. 

Lemon Greek Marinade

This is my family’s #1 go-to chicken marinade. It is really easy to make, we always have all of the ingredients on hand and the chicken pairs well with most foods. Lemon Greek marinated grilled chicken is delicious on a salad or in a Greek bowl with rice or orzo pasta, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers and more.

Hawaiian Garlic Soy Marinade

Garlic soy marinade has Asian flavors and is great for grilled Asian chicken kebabs and also works well on steak. You can serve this grilled chicken over rice with other grilled or sautéed veggies. Hawaiian Chicken Kebabs are a family favorite.

Fajita Marinade

If you love Mexican flavors, you will love this fajita marinade. Loaded with lots of chili powder, onion, garlic, cumin and lime juice, this chicken marinade is not short on flavor. This chicken is amazing with grilled peppers and onions, on a taco salad or sliced and enjoyed in tacos.

Balsamic Herb Marinade

This marinade in a great go-to marinade if you want a grilled chicken breast that can be paired with anything. It is simple with olive oil, herbs, garlic and balsamic vinegar. Enjoy with a tomato mozzarella salad with balsamic or truly, on anything. It’s an easy one to make with ingredients most people have on hand. 

These 5 marinades will make your summer grilling so much more delicious and exciting! Enjoy these simple but loaded with flavor marinades for your next barbecue. Pair it with a delicious strawberry salad  or other green salad for a meal.  

–Amanda Hernandez

Amanda Hernandez, MA, RD of www.nutritionistreviews.com