Coffee Is The Missing Ingredient Your Chicken Marinade Needs — Here's What It Does To The Meat

Have you ever marinated chicken, cooked it, and then find the meat a little, well, bland? The reason may be because your marinade is missing a secret powerhouse ingredient. As per Eugene Liberman, the owner of Moscow on the Hill in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that missing ingredient is coffee. He explained to Chowhound, "Coffee as a marinade gives protein a meaty, smoky quality. Something like a Worcestershire sauce or smoke flavor would. Coffee's natural bitterness would also balance out natural sugars to create complex flavors of smoke and char."

Beyond flavor, as Liberman pointed out, coffee is acidic, which means it also helps tenderize the chicken while it marinates. As the meat gets more tender, it breaks down enough to absorb flavors more deeply. The result is tender, juicy, and flavorful chicken. 

But how exactly do you incorporate coffee to chicken marinade? Well, you can either use coffee as a dry rub or brewed coffee as a wet marinade. Either way, be sure to add more flavor to the dry rub or wet marinade. For the dry rub, consider mixing ground coffee with spices like cumin, paprika, and garlic powder. For the wet marinade, mix cooled brewed coffee with soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, honey, and a little apple cider vinegar.

When asked what other ingredients or flavors Liberman recommends adding to a coffee marinade for chicken, he said, "Chicory, [barbecue], cumin, honey, molasses, Latin flavors like jerk, Creole would all complement chicken coffee marinade." The key might even be right on your bag of beans. Many coffee bags list flavor notes like chocolate, citrus, or berry. Use those as inspiration: If your coffee has hints of cocoa, try adding a touch of dark chocolate or molasses to the marinade. If it leans citrusy, add a splash of orange or lemon juice. This week, you can try adding a splash of strongly brewed coffee to the marinade to make our delicious roasted lemon chicken recipe.

Additionally, try adding coffee to enhance the flavor and tenderness of other chicken recipes, such as our baked and glazed honey shallot chicken recipe. Simply add a splash of brewed coffee to the marinade and mix until combined. Finally, if you'd like to explore flavors when making coffee marinades for other chicken dishes, be sure to check out our ranked list of 31 popular coffee brands to find the perfect roast to enhance your next chicken meal.