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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:

Chipotle Lime Grilled Chicken

Garlic Balsamic Chicken Kabobs

Tropical Salsa Grilled Chicken

Pesto Steak Kabobs with Blistered Tomatoes & Peppers

Grilled Orange Chicken

Italian Marinated Chicken

4.98 from 38 votes

Ultimate Marinated Grilled Chicken

By Christina
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!
Prep: 45 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Total: 1 hour
Servings: 4 people

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
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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.

Notes

Calculating nutrition information for marinated chicken is always tricky because you don’t actually use all of the marinade. The nutrition information calculated here does assume that all marinade is used which won’t be the case so you can reduce the calories if you are someone who tracks them. Based on my own personal research and the magic of Google I’d estimate that each chicken breast only truly absorbs approximately 1 to 2 tbsp of the marinade.

Nutrition

Serving: 1chicken breast, Calories: 344kcal, Carbohydrates: 11g, Protein: 48g, Fat: 9g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 144mg, Sodium: 1547mg, Potassium: 901mg, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 415IU, Vitamin C: 3.9mg, Calcium: 36mg, Iron: 1.8mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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52 Comments

  1. Angie says:

    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.

  2. Debo Akeredolu says:

    I cooked this recently. Loved it!

  3. Michelle Anderson says:

    Easy & delicious! I had everything on this recipe in my kitchen already!

  4. Amber says:

    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! 

  5. Elaine Hewatt says:

    My husband I LOVE this‼️ And I prefer it over unhealthier versions of marinade. Thank you for this recipe. 

  6. Garrett Cooley says:

    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.

  7. Michele G says:

    DELICIOUS!! We make this all the time when we have guests and it’s always a big hit

  8. Sue says:

    This marinade is so delicious.  I used chicken thighs and roasted since I don’t have a grill.  So good!!!

  9. DW says:

    It was great. The children liked it as well. We subbed apple cider vinegar for balsamic.

  10. Suzanne M says:

    This marinade was insanely good on grilled chicken thighs. Will be on repeat this summer!