Easy Greek Grilled Chicken Marinade

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Easy Greek Grilled Chicken Marinade is a quick and simple recipe to complete your greek chicken salad.

This is the perfect meal-prepping recipe for busy weeknights!

This easy greek chicken marinade will become a regularly requested recipe in your household, especially if you are meal-prepping to live that low-carb lifestyle.

This chicken marinade recipe is super easy, using pantry staples and a bit of time to marinate. Grilled to perfection this tops salads, sandwiches, and wraps, or dipped on its own into tzatziki sauce!

If you missed the Grilled Greek Chicken Salad recipe you’ll want to go print that out so you can make this all the time! This greek salad grills the lettuce, which brings a bit of a smokey flavor complex to the salad, and this chicken is so incredibly juicy! 

Most greek chicken marinade recipe ideas have fresh lemon juice and lemon zest, lots of fresh herbs, plain greek yogurt, etc.

One of the reasons you’ll love this recipe so much is it uses pantry staples you probably have on hand right now. It mimics yogurt-marinated chicken with maximum flavor, without all the fresh ingredients we often don’t have on hand.

This salad is amazing, but the flavorful chicken marinade is what brings the whole thing together. The marinade is the dressing, too! Win-win!

Easy Greek Grilled Chicken Marinade Recipe

First, let’s gather the marinade ingredients:

Red Wine Vinegar – this acidic, bright flavor really lets any easy chicken marinade sing.

Olive Oil – Greek flavors are not complete without good olive oil!

Mayonnaise – This is an unexpected ingredient! If you don’t have yogurt, you can use mayo to create a creamy greek marinade recipe.

Stone Ground Mustard – this is also unexpected, but the mustard packs so much flavor into the recipe!

Onion Powder – it’s the simple ingredients that work the hardest, right?!

Garlic Powder – I used garlic powder in this recipe so I could make the delicious marinade ahead of time, and use it when I needed it. Using fresh garlic would make this a good marinade, but one you would need to toss if you had any excess marinade left over.

Oregano – if you have fresh oregano, use it! It has a much brighter, almost lemon flavor to it. Dried oregano is just fine though, and it’s what I use most of the time.

Capers – their briney, acidic texture is wonderful! If it’s your first time using capers, they are definitely underrated!

You can find the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post, but let’s talk through the steps for making the marinade.

In a large bowl, you’ll whisk together the ingredients.

You’ll notice there is mustard in this marinade recipe. Mustard is always a good idea to use in recipes where you need it to be emulsified. It naturally emulsifies everything well!

After you’ve whisked everything together until it’s emulsified, you can use it right away, marinating the chicken right in the big bowl! Or, you can pour it into an airtight container, like a Mason Jar! Storing it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it within 10 days.

I love making my own marinades for use at home with raw meat.

How do you make your own marinades?

You can follow this simple method:

1 fat + 1 acid + herbs or spices

This greek chicken recipe is a simple combination of olive oil with mayo plus red wine vinegar and greek herbs like oregano plus the briney bite of capers.

Personally, it’s my preferred method of marinating!

How Long Do You Marinade Chicken For?

Chicken is super easy to marinate and packed full of flavor!

This marinade recipe is very acidic, so the chicken is marinaded after 1 hour.

Depending on your cut of chicken you’ll need to marinade accordingly. A fattier piece of chicken can sit for a longer period of time.

Boneless skinless chicken breasts can sit in the marinade for up to 8 hours.

Boneless skinless chicken thighs, chicken drumsticks, or chicken legs can sit for up to 24 hours.

If you’re in a hurry, cut your chicken into strips or pieces, and the chicken will absorb the marinade quicker.

I like to purchase my chicken at the market, bring it home and immediately add it to a marinade.

Storing in the fridge if I’m grilling later that day or the next, or putting in a freezer-safe silicone zip-top bag or a freezer-safe Ziploc bag and freezing directly in the marinade. Just make sure you label your bags! 

Need some quick grilling tips?

1. A clean grill. Y’all I can’t stress this enough! Make sure your grill is clean. This means you’ll want to turn your grill on SUPER high heat and let it burn off all the gunk from the previous time!
2. Allow your grill to fully preheat.
3. Place chicken on the hot grill and let it be. Do not touch it! When it’s ready to flip, it will release from the grates. If you feel any pull, let it hang out for a bit more. 
4. Don’t close your grill lid until you flip the meat. When you close the grill, it begins to steam, and you want the nice caramelized grill marks before you close the lid.

Here is a list of my favorite grilling tools:

• Stainless Steel Tongs
• Stainless Steel Silicone Basting Brush
• Grill Brush for cleaning your grill

This chicken is best with an outdoor grill, for the best results cook over medium-high heat until an internal temperature of 165 degrees f has been reached.

If you’re nervous about grilling chicken, use an instant-read thermometer to keep tabs on the temperature. Using a digital thermometer like the Meater is one of my favorite ways to ensure juicy cooked chicken! This meat thermometer is Bluetooth enabled and works with your phone to tell you how long the raw chicken will take to cook!

Have the chicken rest on a counter while you prepare your salad or side dishes.

What if you don’t have a grill? Or it’s not grilling season?

Use a grill pan like this one, or a cast-iron skillet. You’ll follow the same tips as above, but be sure your pan is hot for the first side. You can turn the pan/skillet down when you flip to the second side. Or, do like I do and stick the whole thing in the oven once you’ve grilled the first side. 

Of course, you could always pan fry the chicken or bake it in a shallow baking dish.

Other Meal Prep Grilled Chicken Recipes:

We all love easy recipes we can make any night of the week! These recipes are a great way to prep your fridge full of protein for a busy week ahead.

• Ranch Grilled Chicken
• Grilled Vidalia Pickle Chicken
• Easy Meal Prep Grilled Chicken

Easy Greek Grilled Chicken Marinade will make your busy weeknights a breeze when you plan ahead! 

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