Marinading Chicken

Deep

Deep

Deep

Soldato
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Morning all,

I've been told by my personal trainer to start eating a lot more protein to help lose weight.
I normally grill my chicken breast each evening to eat the next day at lunch, but I want to try marinading it as well to give it actual flavour.

Is it OK to use the jars that you can buy, like the Sharwoods Vindaloo flavour, or are they really bad for you?
 
Lots of the off the shelf sauces are not especially "healthy". Personally I would rather make my own sauces and marinades. There are hundreds of healthy chicken recipes around on the net from curries to stir frys to kebabs.
 
Are you controlling your diet properly or just "eating more protein"? If you post in the Gym Rats thread in the Sports forum you'll get some very detailed advice from very knowledgeable people regarding diet. Whilst having the right protein intake is important if you simply start eating more protein and don't adjust anything else you're going to gain weight, not lose it.

Okay, rant over :p

There are a couple of things you can do to improve the taste of chicken, none of which are that much hassle really:

1) Move to chicken thighs instead of breasts. These have more taste and more fat, which is good for you. You can get skinless boneless chicken thighs in most supermarkets if you're as lazy as I am.

2) Brine your chicken first. You can do this by simply dumping your chicken in a bowl or bag, filling with water and then adding a pinch of salt. Leave this for 24 hours (or you could add all your chicken at the start of the week and then take out chicken thighs/breasts as you need them) and your chicken will end up much more tender, moist and flavoursome. This will probably benefit chicken breasts even more than thighs.

3) The jars of stuff you can buy are a good first starting point. As above, they might not be considered "healthy" but if you're not lathering half a jar on to each chicken breast/thigh you probably won't be making a huge difference to the overall health level of the meal.

4) Once you're bored of a jar I would recommend doing as chronclard suggested and looking up some recipes. There are loads just in this forum (search for 'marinade' or 'sauce' in the forum). You can also do really simple stuff like just adding 1/2 a garlic clove and some soy sauce to the chicken. Or even just a bit of smoky paprika.
 
I alternate between 3 sauces...

1. Nando's Medium
2. Jerky Sauce (looks like it's in a Jamaican bottle)
3. Sweet Soy Sauce (from Chinese Supermarkets)

I've found to do either one of two things... either marinate the breast/meat overnight in a diluted sauce, then eat (but could be very dry); or cook the meat without any additional sauce, just basted in garlic and herbs, then add sauce afterwards.

Typically to with the meat instead of chips/fries I will cook roasted veg, and i'll DIY my own salad dressing and use watercress, leafed salad - the dressing sometimes can supply vital sauce/moisture for the meat if it is too dry.

Spices can be quite healthy as they have capsicum and other heart-friendly effects. Not to mention boosting metabolism and creating different flavouring effects.
 
Get yerself to an asian supermarket, try some of the marinades like tikka and tandoori, some of them tasate fantastic. May not be the healthiest option but it's very easy if ya lazy :p (I use them)

Tends to be mix sachet with lemon/lime juice, yoghurt and make some ginger them let em marinade overnight minimum. Giving em a stab and a stir every few hours.
 
FrenchTart said:
Are you controlling your diet properly or just "eating more protein"? If you post in the Gym Rats thread in the Sports forum you'll get some very detailed advice from very knowledgeable people regarding diet. Whilst having the right protein intake is important if you simply start eating more protein and don't adjust anything else you're going to gain weight, not lose it.

Okay, rant over :p
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I'd say I'm controlling my diet properly.
5-6 meals a day lots of salad and veg (won't go into detail), I'm building up protein levels while exercising.
 
Deep said:
Is it OK to use the jars that you can buy, like the Sharwoods Vindaloo flavour, or are they really bad for you?
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Really bad for you, those jars are crap.

I like to keep it simple when cooking chicken breast healthily I'll usually just use salt and garlic (don't even peel the garlic, just grate it finely), maybe add some chilli and lime juice and a little olive oil.

Salt is key to marinades by the way - if you don't have salt the meat wont absorb the flavour.

Contrary to what was said earlier in the thread there is no need to brine if you plan to marinate. Marinating is a form of brining except you're using something flavoured as opposed to salted water.

Remember chicken isn't the be all and end all of protein. You'd do well to get some eggs, fish, pork, lean beef even tofu.

I'd stress the fish, fish is stupidly bloody good for you and it's quite cheap. Go to a fishmonger and ask what's in high supply - it's usually dirt cheap.
 
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True - but they aren't mutually exclusive things and it really depends on whether or not the OP will be leaving the chicken in the marinade for a while or simply just adding a bit of sauce/spice just before cooking.
 
Got a pot of harissa powder from Steenbergs (through Amazon) and it's lovely, must have had harissa chicken half a dozen times in the last few weeks , mainly on the grill ofc :p

Not a particularly complex thing to make from scratch but for ease of use I do love their spices, nice good size jar for taking a pinch too :)
 
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FrenchTart said:
True - but they aren't mutually exclusive things and it really depends on whether or not the OP will be leaving the chicken in the marinade for a while or simply just adding a bit of sauce/spice just before cooking.
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I'll be leaving it to marinade for around 24 hours.
 
The cast majority of the flavours won't really be absorbed that deeply anyhow. Chicken is obviously generally thin enough that it isn't a factor but a larger joint you're not going to be getting much flavour penetration without messing around a little.
 
You'd be very surprised, it's all about how long you marinade for.

For large joints and whole birds you'd be looking at 12-16 hours, but things like breasts you can marinade in a couple of hours for osmosis to kick in and for it to absorb the maximum liquid. There's an equation to work it out but I can't remember off the top of my head.

What you get after that time is tenderizing from the acids in the marinade.
 
pitchfork said:
You'd be very surprised, it's all about how long you marinade for.

For large joints and whole birds you'd be looking at 12-16 hours, but things like breasts you can marinade in a couple of hours for osmosis to kick in and for it to absorb the maximum liquid. There's an equation to work it out but I can't remember off the top of my head.

What you get after that time is tenderizing from the acids in the marinade.
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I'm too tired to dig out the links now or to be militant about me being right :p but from what I remember reading on some food snob testing type blogs was that although liquids such as water penetrated the meat (and salt, and probably the acids as you say) the majority of flavourings from spices/etc aren't really properly water soluble and hence don't penetrate the meat very far. Some day when I have more time/energy I'll go and track it all back down and re-read it to make sure I'm not talking rubbish.
 
Going with a simple one for tonight soaking chicken breasts(TeeHee) in Lemon Juice and Sage then I'm going to top each of the breasts(TeeHeeHee) with a slice of Bacon and roast!
 
I quite like Tandoori chicken, this recipe is based on the one in Keith Floyd's India book. I'm afraid I can't remember exact quantities. But if you don't go mad it's fairly forgiving.

The first marinade is a mixture of vinegar or lemon juice and 1 teaspoon chili powder. Slash the chicken then place in the marinade for about 10 minutes. Once it's done wipe off any excess marinade with a paper towel. While it's doing prepare marinade number 2.

Marinade 2 is yoghurt (enough to cover the chicken), ground cumin (1 teaspoon), pureed garlic and ginger (two cloves garlic same ginger). I also added a little turmeric (it helps the colour). Place the chicken in this marinade for 24 hours.

I used to do it with chicken thighs and then roast them in the oven on skewers. But you could use breast, I would cut it into smaller pieces to help it absorb flavour and also cook evenly.

EDIT: Sorry too be a bit vague about quantities. It's one of those recipes I followed once and have then made it up as I went along ever since.
 
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