I would be more than happy to get more details and teaching about marination.
I definitely have something to try out now about the spices as well, sounds interesting (got a few more things for my shopping list now too haha)
I suppose marinating is really only for fresh chicken that you don't intend to freeze. Generally speaking you will keep the meat in the marination for 24 hours to give it time to do its magic. I think the science behind its quite simple. Yoghurt is acidic PH of around 4.4. Exposing meat to this acidic environment for periods of time means the fibres of the meat start to break up resulting in the chicken being more tender and juicy. A classic recipe for this would be chicken tikka. Here is a recipe to try.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp Garlic/Ginger paste
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
1 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp yoghurt
2 tsp lemon juice
400g chicken breast
salt
1) cube the chicken into bite sized pieces, add salt to taste, all the spices, garlic/giner and the lemon juice. add this to a bowl, mix well and leave on the counter for say 30 mins.
2) add the yoghurt and refrigerate, 24h max - 1h min.
3) once marinated, skewer or just add to foil lined tray. Preheat your oven to gas mark 6.
4) cook until done, if you want you can baste with a little melted butter from time to time.
5) Enjoy
PS note on spices, get yourself down to a asian or indian grocery store and buy all your spices. You will get big massive bags the same price as the tiny jars you buy in supermarkets.
Hope this helps you out. Let me know if you try anything.