How to Marinate Chicken

How to marinate chicken? The basics by injecting are simple. The marinate helps improve the flavor and the texture of the chicken. It also allows for more even cooking and may even shorten the cooking time. Follow these simple guidelines on how to marinate chicken by injection for great results.

1. Purchase a whole chicken. The whole chicken will give you at least two meals. My motto: Cook once; eat twice. The whole chicken will take more time to cook. If that isn’t realistic, buy your favorite parts – legs, thighs, or breasts. Buy the economy packages for enough parts for another meal. Cover the chicken with plastic wrap lightly. This is useful when injecting meat to protect your clothing and the kitchen.
2. Leave the skin on, even though you don’t intend to eat it. It helps hold the marinade inside and will protect the meat during the cooking process. Rinse and clean the chicken well. Bacteria grow rapidly in uncooked chicken. Wash your hands and cooking surface well before and after working with chicken.   
3. Prepare or have your purchased marinade handy. Italian dressing is delicious. It contains an acid such as vinegar, oil, and seasonings. These are basic ingredients to a marinade. If you make your own basic recipe you also control the kind of oil you desire for health reasons or for taste preferences. Wine added to a marinade makes the chicken tender.
4. Fill an injector, preferably one with a larger capacity like 7 ounces. You will like the Flavor Express ® marinator/flavorizer for this. Inject the legs first by placing the needle, opening side up, from the top of the leg. Get the needle close to the bone and push it gently along the bone to the fullest part of the leg. Squeeze the handle gently to release the flavorful marinade while slowing withdrawing the needle. Use as much marinade as the leg will hold. Squeeze too hard and the dressing might squirt out. The plastic wrap used in Step 1 helps.
5. Inject the thigh next using the same procedure. Inject the breast last. Put the most marinade into the breast. It will stay moist during the longer cooking time needed for the legs.
6. It is OK to move the needle around inside the meat. It can go up then down, then to the right and then to the left. You then have only a single hole made into the skin.
7. If you have chicken parts, shake a protective coating of a mixture of flour, corn meal or bread crumbs, and seasonings including paprika over the parts using a plastic baggy.

Additional Hints and Tips

1. Allow the marinade to spread within the chicken. Usually 30 minutes is right.
2. Preheat the oven, grill, or favorite cooking method while the chicken is marinating.
3. Use the extra marinade in a sauce or gravy. Like a fine wine, the layers of flavor are distinctive.  Discard what is in the bellows. It may contain bacteria picked up inside the chicken.
4. It is usually not necessary to baste the chicken while cooking. If you baste, use a method that will not contaminate your food. Use fresh marinades and a clean brush or spoon after touching the chicken.
5. Use the bones, skin, and uneaten parts from a whole chicken to make a soup stock. The marinade remains and adds interesting flavors to the finished soup.

6.  Leftover chicken can be used in a chicken Caesar salad, chicken salad, chicken chow mein, chicken and gravy over rice or biscuits, chicken curry etc. Enjoy the results of marinating chicken.

Here are some additional hints, tips, and recipes links.