Citrus Grilled Chicken Marinade Recipe

This Citrus Grilled Chicken Marinade recipe makes a juicy, flavorful dinner that tastes like the golden hour on a warm summer evening. Fresh orange juice, garlic, tarragon, and a touch of Dijon mustard come together for such a simple blend of summer flavor!

Marinade for Chicken that Actually Works!

Have you ever felt like a marinade looks and smells amazing but totally disappears once you cook the meat?

This easy healthy citrus grilled chicken recipe marinade is your answer to bold flavor with minimal fuss. It’s juicy, tender, and just looks fancy enough to make a weeknight feel special, even though you barely lifted a finger.

Healthy BBQ Dish that ISN’T a Burger

This is our go-to recipe for summer cookouts when burgers feel a little too expected. The bright citrus, fresh tarragon, and smoky char make this marinated chicken a total crowd-pleaser. With just 10 minutes of prep time and totally make-ahead friendly, it’s your weeknight dinner hero.

This chicken marinade is great served with 5 Minute Grilled Peach Caprese Salad, Lemon Orzo, or Strawberry Cucumber Salad!

Ingredients for Citrus Grilled Chicken Marinade

This easy marinade keeps things simple, using citrus, herbs, and garlic to add fresh, vibrant flavor to any cut of chicken. Low in calories, low in sodium, and lean protein, it’s a great option if you’re trying to eat lighter or stick to a healthy routine!

• Chicken Breasts: High protein and easy to buy. Chicken thighs work too!
• Dijon Mustard: Adds zip and helps the marinade stick.
• Orange Juice: Try lemon juice or lime for an even tangier twist.
• Orange Zest: Boosts citrus flavor and adds freshness.
• Olive Oil: Keeps the chicken moist and helps the marinade work its way in.
• Fresh Tarragon: A soft, slightly sweet herb with a hint of anise – perfect with citrus. (Swap with fresh thyme or basil if needed.)
• Sugar: Balances the acidity.
• Garlic Cloves: For that essential savory punch.
• Salt: Enhances flavor and keeps the chicken juicy.

How to Make Citrus Grilled Chicken 

This easy marinade delivers juicy, flavorful grilled chi

Citrus Greek Chicken [+ Video]

Simple marinated citrus Greek chicken with a two ingredient sauce. It’s perfect all year round and you only need one skillet to make dinner in 30 minutes!

Marinated chicken is where it’s at! Whether it’s our simple marinated grilled chicken breasts or our smoked marinated chicken thighs, marinating chicken adds so much flavor and tenderness. The marinade for this citrus Greek chicken packs this recipe with outrageous flavor and is so simple!

This citrus Greek chicken looks like something you’d be served in your favorite restaurant, but it’s the easiest recipe ever. However, I’ve got rules so listen up!

Tips for the Best Citrus Greek Chicken

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts should not be overcooked. Ever. Here’s a really simple way to have perfectly cooked, perfectly moist chicken every single time.

I cringe when I hear about chicken breasts in the oven for an hour or a half hour on the stove top. Please, please don’t do that. Your dinners will be 100 times better if you cook the chicken properly.

Marinated meat is an easy way to have flavor without extra calories or effort, but it must have time. We like to marinate our chicken at least two hours or up to overnight. You pick what works for you.

And finally, oil packed sun dried tomatoes should always be in your fridge. They are amazing. The end.

Ingredients for Citrus Greek Chicken

I’m going to list the ingredients for the chicken marinade first, and then the simple 2 ingredient sauce that we will use to pour over the chicken. Here is what you will need:

• Chicken Breasts: boneless, skinless
• Olive Oil: help tenderize the chicken as it marinates
• Orange Juice: If you have the time, juice your own oranges so you have pure fresh orange juice without any added sugar.
• Greek Seasoning: We prefer McCormick brand, but if you like a different brand or want to make you’re own, we’ve included a recipe below.
• Salt: adds flavor
• Pepper: adds flavor
• Garlic: adds flavor

For the Sauce

• Packed Sun-dried Tomatoes: adds texture, flavor and color to the chicken
• Orange Juice: adds bright citrus flavor to the chicken as it cooks

The measurements for all of the ingredients can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

3 Ingredient Easy and BEST Grilled Chicken Marinade

Want the juiciest chicken recipe ever?? Then you’ve got to make this 3 ingredient chicken marinade. It’s the most simple combination of garlic and herbs, a hint of buttery-melt-in-your-mouth flavor and then that pop of the champagne vinegar. Which is a must if you haven’t ever tried using different vinegars.

Last summer we were crazy busy trying to move and I needed some fast and easy dinner recipes. On a whim I bought a bottle of Champagne vinegar and whipped up a lazy, 3 ingredient chicken marinade that ended up being the best chicken marinade EVER. In fact, I even caught a short little video of the process so scroll down and check out a blast from the past in our old house.

(PS, fun fact! Did you know we write our blog posts an entire year out? So right now it’s September 2022, and I’m sitting at the counter of the rental house we finally found after the most insane summer. Did you follow that story? Talk about stressful chaos! I wonder, by the time this recipe goes live, will we have found our future home and be getting ready to settle in? I can’t wait to see where life takes us so leave a comment if you want an update!

Chicken Marinade Ingredients

You can’t get any more simple than just 3 ingredients for the most delicious chicken marinade! This is all you will need:

• Olive Oil – the base of the marinade and helps the chicken stay moist and juicy
• Champagne Vinegar – this can be hard to find sometimes, but it really is the best flavor for this marinade
• Kinder’s Buttery Steakhouse Seasoning – we buy ours at Costco, but I’ve seen it at Walmart and Smith’s, and of course there is always Amazon

The measurement for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

How to Make a Grilled Chicken Marinade?

I like to throw all three of the ingredients into a shallow baking dish and to whisk it all together. Then place the chicken breasts into the marinade and give them a flip to coat both sides. Then let it marinade in the fridge.

You can also use a ziploc bag to marinate the chicken. Just whisk all the ingredients together in a glass measuring cup and pour the marinade over the chicken in the bag and let it sit in the fridge until you’re ready to grill.

Can Other Types of Vinegar Be Used?

The best substitute for champagne vinegar is Asian rice vinegar. White wine vinegar or sherry vinegar are also good substitutes.

Red wine or apple cider vinegar are ok substitutes but they are less sweet and pack bolder tangy vinegar flavor.

Can Other Cuts of Chicken Be Used?

You can absolutely use this marinade on chicken thighs, wings, or drumsticks.

How Long to Marinate Chicken

Marinating chicken for even just 15 minutes can add so much flavor to chicken. I have found the sweet spot for this marinade is from 2-6 hours. For the best f

This chicken thigh marinade is the perfect blend of mustard (2 kinds!), garlic, maple syrup, brown sugar, vinegar and seasonings. It is so simple and so good, it could be used to marinate socks!

This is one of those marinade recipes that’s wonderful on every single kind of meat you could consume — salmon, steak, pork tenderloin, chicken in all its varieties, etc. I love when when I find a fail-proof marinade recipe like that! We used to make this chicken all the time when the blog first began, but over the years you slowly start to try new things and before you know it, without even meaning to, you’ve forgotten some of the things that you love the most. 

Boy, if that’s not symbolic of life, I don’t know what is!

This chicken thighs marinade recipe is one that is simply whisked together, can easily be adapted if needed (see notes below) and works just as well marinating 30 minutes as it does for hours. But beware, not all meats can handle it the same, so check out the entire post. 

And if you haven’t already, you absolutely must take a second to pin our other marinade recipes like:

• The Best Steak Marinade
• Marinated Chicken Breasts
• Asian Steak Marinade
• Steak Fajitas Marinade
• Marinated Smoked Chicken

Family Dinners

We are about to send our first off to college in a year, another is deep in the waters of Jr High and still our caboose is entering the battlefield of the elementary school playground. If there’s one thing I know for certain it’s that family dinners are an absolute must to stay connected to one another. I would bet that it’s even life-saving for families. But with three kids at three different schools and totally different needs I can easily feel like I’m running around and never slowing down. This recipe is loved by everyone around the dinner table!

Ingredients for Chicken Thigh Marinade

The best marinades have a little salt, a little sweet, a little acid, and a little spice. This marinade recipe checks all the boxes. Here is what you will need:

• Chicken Thighs: boneless, skinless
• Dijon Mustard: pale yellow in color but bold in tangy flavor
• Stone Ground Mustard: adds texture to the marinade and the teeny tiniest bit of heat
• Garlic: adds flavor
• Dark Brown Sugar: light brown can be used, dark brown just has a richer flavor
• Maple Syrup: be sure to use the real stuff, Grade A
• Oregano or Marjoram: I used dried herbs for this recipe, but you can use fresh if you want. You’ll want to half the amount down to 1/2 teaspoon.
• Rice Vinegar: add

Asian Steak Marinade

We love our steak fajitas marinade recipe but I couldn’t stop thinking about putting an Asian twist on it, and thus, our Asian steak marinade was born!

We have a little secret with the steak too, so keep reading to get all the dets.

The Secret is in the Steak

I couldn’t find plain skirt or flank steak at the store, so I bought carne asada instead. Just the store brand raw meat but it was already flavored. Worked amazing!!! So if you’re short on time, definitely go with this option. If you want to go totally homemade, I’ll include our own spice rub recipe in the recipe card below. You’ll apply the rub before putting the steak in the marinade.

Ingredients for Asian Steak Marinade

This dry rub and marinade is so easy! All you do is combine everything together and rub it on the steak and then pour the marinade on the steak in a plastic bag.

• Skirt or Flank Steak – either one will work, and look for a pre-seasoned one for extra easy cooking

For the Rub

For the Marinade

• Rice Vinegar – adds acidity
• Pineapple Juice – adds a little sweetness and tang
• Soy Sauce – low sodium, great for tenderizing the meat because it breaks down the tough proteins
• Garlic – freshly minced
• Ginger – adds that signature Asian flavor
• Light Brown Sugar – adds sweetness and richness
• Red Chili Flakes – adds a little heat, feel free to add more if you like it spicy
• Scallions – for garnish

The full recipe with the measurements and complete instructions can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.