The Easy Way To Double The Flavor Of Your Chicken Marinade

Using a marinade is one of the best ways to ensure juicy, flavorful chicken. Popular chains like Popeyes and Chick-fil-A marinate their chicken before frying. Tasting Table even spoke with a BBQ pitmaster who said, if you want to grill the perfect chicken, you need to marinate it first. There are a lot of supporters of marinating chicken out there, but that doesn't mean the idea can't be improved upon. There's a way you can get even more flavor out of your marinade, and it takes very little effort. The key is to use some marinade later as a sauce.

The secret to keeping marinated chicken as flavorful as possible is to make your batch of marinade and then split it up. Use some of it to marinate the chicken, but keep the rest aside before it touches raw chicken. It's important that the marinade you reserve hasn't been used yet because of the potential exposure to bacteria if it contacts the chicken first.

Once you take the chicken out of the marinade to cook it, it will lose a certain amount of the flavor it absorbed during marination. A portion of the liquid will drip off, some will evaporate, and some may burn on the exterior. The flavor will still be there, but it will be more subdued than it could be. Instead, marinate the chicken as normal for several hours or even a day, but have that untouched marinade in reserve. While the chicken is cooking, put the reserved marinade in a pot, bring it to a boil, and then simmer to let it reduce.

Make sure you prepare enough marinade to coat your chicken and have extra to set aside. A good rule to ensure your chicken is evenly coated in marinade is to make about half a cup for each pound of chicken. That just applies to the marinade that goes on chicken. To keep some in reserve, you will need to prepare more. Doubling it may sound like too much, but remember that you are reducing the marinade to a sauce, so it will lose volume. How much extra marinade you set aside depends on how thick you want the final sauce or how much you want to use on the chicken.

Salt in a marinade breaks down some proteins, allowing the meat to hold more moisture. That's why marinated meat is juicier after you cook it. Whether you want to go sweet, spicy, fruity, or savory, there are nearly limitless options for a chicken marinade that will enhance the dish. Combining the normal marinade with a reduced sauce made out of it ensures maximum flavor. The reduction has more body and richness, so when it's used as a sauce, it brings an added textural element.

While the initial marination adds moisture and flavor, the reduction takes it to the next level. This is especially true when reduction contains sugar, because it could be used as a glaze, which is slightly different.

Add the glaze while you're still grilling the chicken to get some caramelization and a sticky, glossy coating. In addition to that intense flavor when you bite into the meat, the glaze can help anchor toppings like sesame seeds or scallions. It's just another way the reduced marinade can add even more flavor.