Asian chicken marinade

This Asian chicken marinade is easy to assemble and delicious with punchy ginger, garlic, spicy chilies, honey, and fish sauce. We like to use this Asian marinade for chicken thighs, drums and wings, but it’s also great with chicken breasts or other meats and seafood.

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Marinades are a great way to add flavor and seasoning to meat, poultry and seafood. Our favorites include this Mojo Criollo Marinade, Homemade Teriyaki Marinade, and Brown Sugar Bourbon Marinade for steak, chicken, and pork.

When you want to jazz up plain chicken with oriental flavors, this Asian chicken marinade is our pick. It uses pantry staples and a few convenience items to save time and season poultry with a tongue tingling depth of flavor you’ll love.

My time-saving secret for this marinade is Spice World’s line of pre-chopped and minced onion, garlic and ginger. They add a real flavor punch to this simple seasoning and saves me the trouble of peeling and chopping, which is great because it only takes about 5 minutes to assemble the Asian chicken marinade.

Why this recipe works:

• Spice World’s minced ginger, garlic and onion, save time on chopping, and you’ll also use just what you need instead of having leftover bits languishing in your fridge.
• The ingredients play on all parts of your tongue at once, incorporating sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami for well balanced flavors.
• The longer your chicken soaks in the Asian marinade, the deeper the flavors will be.
• I use the Asian marinade for chicken, but it works equally well with pork tenderloin, beef flank steak or even firm tofu to add a bold oriental kick.
• It’s ready to use in 5 minutes.

Directions:

1. Add the minced onion, garlic and ginger to a glass bowl.
2. Zest and juice the lime and add them to the garlic mixture.
3. Add the soy sauce, honey, fish sauce, chopped chiles, and whisk to combine.

That’s it. With Spice World chopped onion, minced ginger, and garlic, this easy Asian chicken marinade is ready for use in 5 minutes. You’re welcome.

Pro-Tips:

I like to marinate chicken in a large zip-top storage bag.

1. Add the chicken pieces (or whatever type of protein you using and pour the Asian marinade over the meat.
2. Squeeze excess air out of the bag and seal.
3. Massage the marinade into the meat and transfer to the refrigerator, flipping every few hours to ensure it’s well coated.

Before cooking, use paper towels to pat the meat dry, allowing it to sear and develop a good crust.

Variations

• Instead of Thai chiles, use other hot red peppers or sliced jalapenos or serrano chilies.
• Swap fresh chiles for your favorite hot sauce or crushed red pepper flakes according to how spicy you like it.
• Add fresh chopped herbs like cilantro, or Thai basil and reserve extra for serving.
• Add crushed lemongrass in lieu of lime.
• Add chopped green onions for more punchy flavors.
• Make it gluten-free by swapping tamari for soy sauce.

FAQ’s

How long to marinate

I love to use this Asian marinade for chicken thighs because they’re juicy, tender and the dark meat stays moist when cooking.

Depending on the chicken cut (bone-in skin on or boneless skinless chicken thighs), you’ll get good flavor from this mix in as little as two hours of marinating, but for a flavor that develops throughout the meat, I recommend a soak of 8 hours or overnight.

Use the Asian marinade for beef flank steaks, pork tenderloin, ribeye steaks etc.

You can also season seafood like salmon or shrimp in the oriental marinade; the flavors will be pronounced in as little as 1-2 hours.

How to cook

Once your protein has been seasoned, you can bake it at medium-high heat in the oven, sear it on the grill, or pan saute in a hot skillet to your desired doneness.

Be sure to pat the meat dry with paper towels; otherwise, the meat will steam rather than sear.

More from Spice World

In addition to Spice World Easy Onion, Minced Ginger and Minced Garlic, I also got to try out their Italian Herb and Garlic and Chili Onion Crunch cooking and seasoning blends.

I used the herb seasoning for sauteing shrimp to serve over pasta, and the chili onion crunch adds a spicy bite to everything from fried eggs to avocado toast. You have to give them a try!

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