Ultimate Marinated Grilled Chicken
This Ultimate Marinated Grilled Chicken is the absolute best grilled chicken and made with only good for you ingredients. You’re going to love how flavorful it is thanks to an easy marinade!
I am heading to the Everything Food Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah this week. (I am actually on the plane while typing this!) Of course I’m still going to deliver new recipes to you this week because it’s grilling season, friends, and that always leaves me feeling extra inspired!
I have several marinated chicken recipes on my blog but this Ultimate Marinated Grilled Chicken includes my favorite flavorful marinade. You can (and should) use it for everything.
This is the chicken we have almost weekly when the weather is warm. In the morning I just dump the marinade ingredients in a bag with the chicken. Then toss it on the grill in the evening. Super easy and super delicious.
Plus it includes no sugar (or honey or maple syrup or any sweeteners really). It’s also dairy free, gluten free, and Whole30 compliant. So enjoy it as often as you want!
How long should you marinate?
I always like to marinate chicken for at least an hour and up to 12 hours. The longer you marinate the more pronounced the flavor will be. You can of course marinate for as little as 30 minutes. I don’t recommend longer than 12 hours because your meat can start to breakdown and the texture changes if it sits in a marinade for too long. (That goes for any marinade.)
How can you prevent your chicken from sticking to the grill?
Since this marinade does not include olive oil I like to add a little olive oil to the outside of my chicken just before placing on the grill. If you try to flip your chicken and you notice it’s sticking a bit just give it another minute before flipping and the chicken will usually release better then.
More recipes like this:
Garlic Balsamic Chicken Kabobs
Tropical Salsa Grilled Chicken
Pesto Steak Kabobs with Blistered Tomatoes & Peppers
Ultimate Marinated Grilled Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- 4 chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp olive oil, This is to keep the chicken from sticking to the grill.
- salt & pepper
Marinade
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup Coconut Aminos
- 1 tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp dried parsley
- 1 tbsp dried basil
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
- In a gallon Ziploc bag or large covered bowl combine chicken and all marinade ingredients. Flip occasionally so marinade is coating all parts of the chicken. Let marinate for a minimum of 30 minutes or as long as 12 hours.
- Preheat grill to medium high heat.
- Brush marinated chicken with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add chicken to grill. Discard the remaining marinade.
- Grill chicken, turning occasionally, until completely cooked through. (For perfect grill marks try to only flip the chicken once.) Grilling time is typically around 10 minutes total but time varies depending on the thickness of your chicken.
- Serve immediately.
52 Comments on “Ultimate Marinated Grilled Chicken”
This looks amazing! We don’t have a grill, could I cook this in the oven? How long?
This delicious marinade deserves a review! A little sweet and a little tangy, a similar taste between teriyaki and Caribbean jerk. Lots of yummy spices that come forward on the grilled chicken. And super healthy! This will be my new go-to marinade. I marinated 24 hours.
Easy and flavorful
We didn’t change anything. Delicious marinade. I used it for chicken breast only because that is what we had on hand. My family does not love chicken breast ( I do), but they loved it and ate it all up! Only marinaded for an hour because I found the recipe rather late in the day, but still turned out delicious.
Excellent marinade with chicken! Next time I will cut the tsp of salt as it was too salty for us. Very flavorful , I served it with cauliflower rice and balsamic glazed roasted Brussels sprouts. Good combo, it would not be good with other strong flavors.
I’ve made this Chicken at least 5 times! So easy and delicious. Lots of flavor
This marinade is so good! I used it in chicken thighs and only marinated them for about 20 minutes, but the marinade still added so much flavor!
So delicious!! And easy peasy to whip together.
This was sooo good! and easy! My chicken actually looked like the chicken in the recipe. That never happens! We used smaller chicken breasts so I cut recipe in half and still had plenty for veggies. The heat from peppers really came through on the veggies. I only had time to let it marinate for about an hour & a half. so good!
This is amazing! Grilled some pineapple up too! Yum! I will make this again! Thanks for the recipe 😊
We eat this weekly! It is amazing!!
I make this ALL the time–to put on salads, with veggies. It’s perfect!
This was do delicious! I only had about 45 minutes to marinade it, and it was still so flavorful. I definitely will make this again.
I love this chicken marinade. Have been trying to keep cooked chicken breast on hand to help me make healthier choices when I am tired or just want a simple meal. This has been my go-to marinade lately and it’s just perfect on a salad or in a wrap. Sometimes make an easy chicken salad with it-the list goes on and on. Have even used it in chicken enchiladas and nachos and its always great!
Another winner!! My husband absolutely loved this marinade! Said he would eat shoe leather if it had this marinade. I probably won’t go that far, but will definitely make this again.
Hahaha well that’s quite a compliment! Thank you!
Will it taste ok without coconut aminos? Is there something I can substitute?
Soy sauce is the best coconut aminos substitute.
The name of this marinade really is accurate! It really is ultimate! This marinade is by far the best homemade marinade I have ever made. It’s great on breasts or thighs. Every time I put this on our weekly menu, my husband get excited as well; it’s one of his favorites! Thanks for this awesome recipe!
The whole family enjoyed this. And it’s on my menu again for the 2nd time in as many weeks!
This was by far one of my favorite marinades!!! Every one in my family ate it!!!! Delicious!
My favourite way to make chicken breasts! Love that I stumbled on this recipe 🙂
Every time my husband decides he wants to grill he asks me to prepare the chicken with this marinade. Not too vinegar-y but lots of flavor.
I cooked this recently. Loved it!
Easy & delicious! I had everything on this recipe in my kitchen already!
The. Best. Marinade. Hands down! The only thing about this recipe that left me feeling disappointed was the amount of time I wasted before trying it! It’s that good!
My husband I LOVE this‼️ And I prefer it over unhealthier versions of marinade. Thank you for this recipe.
Stumbled upon this because I wanted to marinade some chicken but the only thing I had on hand was coconut aminos randomly. I googled coconut amino marinade recipes and this came up, and it completely blew us away. Not only does it have a sweet/tangy kick that is incredibly flavorful, but it’s also a really clean and healthy recipe! We’ve made this for large groups of friends when they come over and everyone is always asking me for the recipe. I’ve never left a recipe review before but felt I had to because this has become our new go-to chicken marinade.
Side note: I make this with boneless skinless chicken thighs because we prefer that meat to chicken breast. I also take a fork and stab the thighs a bunch of times before adding the marinade and it really allows it to absorb into the meat.
DELICIOUS!! We make this all the time when we have guests and it’s always a big hit
This marinade is so delicious. I used chicken thighs and roasted since I don’t have a grill. So good!!!
It was great. The children liked it as well. We subbed apple cider vinegar for balsamic.
This marinade was insanely good on grilled chicken thighs. Will be on repeat this summer!
We had this for dinner last night!! It was incredible!! So moist and tender with just the perfect amount of seasoning! We had as a Caesar salad and it was amazing!! What else can I say!!
That thrills me! Love that you added it to a caesar salad! YUM!!!
Love this marinade. I’ve used it twice and it’s easy and delicious.
Yay! I am never bored of this chicken! So glad you’re enjoying it too!
I saw these being cooked up on Instagram stories so I had to give this recipe a try and oh boy- this is indeed the ultimate chicken! The marinade was SO delicious and really infused the chicken wonderfully. We live in an apartment so no grill, unfortunately- I used tenders instead of whole breasts and baked them in the oven. I think they had about 2 hours in the marinade. They came out so tender and flavorful- this is my new favorite way to prepare chicken. Thank you!
Yay!!! I’m obsessed with this chicken!! Thank you, Andrea!
This is my new go-to marinade! No more Italian dressing. The chicken was delicious and juicy.
OMG.. so delish. I didn’t think I liked balsamic vinegar but decided to try it any way. So glad I did as this made the best chicken ever. Thank you so much.
I’m so glad it surprised you! Thank you for the kind comment, Kathleen!
Delicious! I’ve made it 3 times in 2 weeks. Thus last time they day went awry and it sat in the marinade until the next evening and was still delicious.
You sound like me making this 3 times in 2 weeks! I never tire of this chicken! 🙂 Thanks so much, Bren!
This has been my favorite way to prepare and serve chicken this summer! So flavorful, my entire family loves it!
You and me both! 😉 Thank you so much!!
Why did I wait so long to fix this? YUM. This is so good. My edits: 1/2 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes. We served this with stir-fry veggies and barley – would taste delicious with any sides. Will make again and again and again. I also want to try it on pork chops!
Wow – been watching you make this on insta all summer and finally made it myself. So tasty! Been telling everyone about it 🙂 – next time I won’t wait so long to make one of your “go to” recipes 🙂
Hahaha I’m so glad you finally tried it! I can’t even guess how many times I made it this summer! SO MANY
This marinade is insanely delicious!! It’s the only way I want to eat grilled chicken now. Family approved too!! It’s on rotation at our house!
This is the BEST chicken marinade I’ve ever used! It’s so easy to put together and makes delicious chicken. Thank you for the recipe!
This chicken marinade is so flavorful and easy! So delicious that even my kids skipped using ketchup for their chicken (which is unheard of lol!). We make this chicken so often throughout the summer and love it every time.
Can’t believe this passed the ketchup test LOL! Thank you for the kind comment, Amanda!