If you’ve been looking for a super easy, crowd-pleasing chicken marinade recipe for your summer backyard barbecue plans, look no further than this tantalizing marinade. Who doesn’t need more summer barbecue chicken recipes?!! Balsamic vinegar brings its signature rich, tart punch while sweet onions mellow out the flavors. Add in the char of the grill and that smokey sensation, and you’ve got a meal everyone will love!
A lot of recipes like this claim to be heavy-hitting and versatile, but this one actually is! Great with any side, this recipe is made for parties. If you love grilled chicken recipes, I hope you’ll try our Greek chicken, cilantro lime chicken, pollo asado recipe, and chicken gyro recipe next!
Let’s grill!
What I Love About This Recipe
- Goes great with any side dish
- The leftovers taste even better!
- Crowd-pleasing
- Delicious flavor that doesn’t overpower
How To Make Grilled Chicken Marinade Recipe
This chicken marinade recipe comes down to three simple steps: dump, set, grill!
- Dump your marinade ingredients into a gallon bag.
- Add your chicken and onions, and let it set in the fridge until grill time — preferably overnight!
- Then fire up your grill and get cooking!
***See the full instructions below.
Grilled Chicken Marinade Recipe Notes
- Marinading Time: This recipe is best when marinated overnight. Six to eight hours will do in a pinch, but try to give it even longer for all the ingredients to soak down deep into that chicken!
- Onions: The recipe has onions soaking in the marinade along with the chicken. They, of course, add great flavor, but also make a nice veggie side. Cut the onion fairly thick so it’s easier to pull out of the marinade and flip when you’re grilling.
- Vinegar: Why is vinegar used in marinades so often? Vinegar works to break down protein, which tenderizes your meat and makes it so, so good. Balsamic vinegar, in particular, brings an extra pop of richness, since it’s made from grape pressings during the wine process before they’ve been fermented.
- Grill: New to the grilling scene? No problem! There are tons of great tutorials to start you out, and chicken is a wonderful (and forgiving!) first meat to grill.
Storing + Freezing + Make-Ahead
- How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? Once cooked, you can store the result of your chicken marinade recipe in the fridge for up to four days. Which is great if you, like me, hate having to pick out lunches. It’s so nice knowing I have delicious chicken ready and waiting to be reheated! I love using the leftovers in sandwiches or with rice and veggies.
- Make-Ahead Tips: My easy chicken marinade recipe has make-ahead tips packed right in! Since you marinate it the day before, all the hard work is done when you go to cook it. Just heat your grill and go!
- Can You Freeze This? Yes! Cool your chicken, pop it into portioned containers, and freeze for up to four months. This is great to do if you want to have fully cooked meat on hand to grab-and-go lunches or meal planning. My chicken marinade recipe spruces up any other recipe that uses chicken!
- Food Safety: If you’d like more info on food safety check out this link.
Serving Recommendations
My family loves this delicious chicken with our classic macaroni salad, southern macaroni salad, or Hawaiian macaroni salad, Ina Gartens potato salad is also yummy with this if your in more of a potato mood than a macaroni mood! We also like something fresh and crisp like KFC coleslaw, carrot salad, fresh broccoli salad, strawberry salad, or 1905 salad!
We also love a dessert salad when we’re BBQing. Try our cherry fluff, strawberry fluff, watergate salad, frog eye salad, ambrosia salad, strawberry cheesecake salad, or everyones favorite, strawberry pretzel salad!
More Grilled Meat Recipes
- Steak Marinade
- Shish Kabob
- Beer Brats
- Grilled Flank Steak
- Barbecued Smoked Ribs
- Grilled Pork Tenderloin
- Grilled Shrimp
Tried This Recipe?
Leave a review, I love hearing your feedback! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Grilled Chicken Marinade
Ingredients
Marinade:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
- 4 large garlic cloves minced
- 1 package good seasons Italian dressing
- 6 boneless skinless breast halves, trimmed
- 2 yellow onions thickly sliced
Instructions
- Add the olive oil (1/3 cup), soy sauce (1/3 cup), balsamic vinegar (1/3 cup), minced garlic (4), and the Good Seasons Italian Dressing package to a 1-gallon Ziploc bag and carefully seal it then swish everything together well. Add the chicken breasts and onion. Press out as much of the air from the bag as possible and reseal it. Place on a rimmed dish or plate in case the bag leaks. Refrigerate until ready to grill. Flip the bag halfway through marinating time.
- When you're ready to grill, prepare the grill by heating and lightly oiling. Remove chicken and onion from marinade and shake off excess marinade. Discard marinade. Grill chicken on high for about 4-6 minutes, depending on the temperature of your grill. Flip and repeat until done. Grill the onions with a foil pan over them, flipping as they brown, for about 15-20 minutes.
- When the chicken is cooked, remove to a platter to allow the chicken to rest for about 7 minutes. Serve.
Nutrition
Source–A Family Feast
Can bone in chicken breast be used for this recipe? Can’t wait to try!!!
Yes, Cindy! 😀
Hello Kathleen,
Thank you for your recipes. They are awesome! Can you suggest an alternative to the Good Seasonings Italian dressing package as this product is not available in Canada?
Hi Michelle. Oh Gosh, I really don’t know of a substitute. I’m so sorry!! Maybe one of our Canadian readers can give us a hand! <3
I like your video!!!!!!!! And the recipe is great, thank you very much!
Thanks so much Jo!
This is definitely my type of thing! Love all the flavors in it! Perfect for garden parties too!
Thanks Zerrin!
What a yummy marinade Kathleen! I’m definitely a gas grill kind of girl too!
Love the looks of this chicken! This definitely sounds like an easy dish to whip up. And even better that it’s on the grill!
Thanks Gayle! Don’t you just love grilling!
That marinade sounds really good! I love having some quick, go-to recipes like this.