My Favorite Lemon Chicken Marinade! If you’re looking for an easy chicken marinade, you’ve found it. This easy marinade combines lemon, garlic, red pepper flakes, and mustard. It’s honestly one of the best marinades ever. Use it for baked, roasted or grilled chicken.
watch the video
Related: We like to use this marinade when preparing grilled chicken.
This is the best chicken marinade (and can be used on pork, fish, and veggies)
This lemony marinade is perfect for all chicken cuts. I use it for baking, grilling and roasting. It’s also versatile enough to work with turkey, pork, seafood, and vegetables. Did I mention I love this marinade recipe?
The lemon-garlic flavor combo is one of our favorites—we’re big fans of the lemon-mustard combo. Just take a look at our Easy Lemon Chicken Thighs. We use a lot of lemon juice, garlic and mustard with the chicken thighs. It was this simple recipe that inspired us to share this marinade. One we’ve used a lot since then.
Here’s another way we like to use the marinade: Our Grilled Lemon Garlic Chicken Wings marinate for at least an hour, then we grill them until tender and brown. They are really delicious.
The lemon, garlic, and mustard combination goes great with chicken, but you can use this marinade for a lot more. Any savory whitefish would love it — think mahi mahi or swordfish — and don’t get me started on how awesome shrimp would be.
Vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli would also be great. Try adding broccoli to the marinade and then grilling it. Unbelievable!
You can even make a flavorful salad dressing out of it. Reduce the mustard a bit and increase the olive oil and you’d have a homemade dressing for salad or veggies – we like the idea of pairing it with roasted veggies. See the recipe below for tips on turning the marinade into a dressing.
More: Try our Lemon Chicken Breast paired with a Cucumber Feta Salad. It’s very similar to this chicken marinade but without the mustard. The salad is also incredibly good!
Recipe updated originally posted June 2015. Since posting in 2015 we have tweaked the recipe to make it clearer. – Adam and Joanne
Easy Lemon Chicken Marinade
We love this Lemon Chicken Marinade! It’s incredibly versatile. For marinating all cuts of chicken, turkey, pork, fish, shrimp, tofu and vegetables.
If marinating meat and poultry, marinate for at least 1 hour or overnight. If you’re marinating something more delicate, like fish, you’ll only need 1 to 2 hours. You can also use it to baste when cooking or grilling. If you plan to do this, set aside some of the prepared marinade for basting.
**This is enough to marinate 2 to 2 ½ pounds of chicken.
Makes about half a cup
Watch as we prepare the recipe
you will need
Zest of 1 lemon, peeled or finely grated
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, 1 to 2 lemons
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, depending on how spicy you like it
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped with the side of a large knife
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill, parsley, cilantro, basil, or a combination, optional
directions
1Whisk together the lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, salt, red pepper flakes, and black pepper until the salt has dissolved. Stir in the garlic, lemon zest, and herbs (if using). Refrigerate and consume within 1 to 2 hours.
2To marinate chicken, place marinade and chicken in a resealable, food-safe bag or container and marinate in the refrigerator. Since it is so aromatic, as little as 20 minutes will work wonders. We recommend marinating the chicken no more than a day in advance, as the lemon in the marinade can cause the chicken to become tougher.
Adam and Joanne’s tips
- To make a salad dressing: To make a flavorful dressing perfect for roasted or raw vegetables, increase the olive oil to 1/4 cup and stir until combined. Place in the fridge for 1 hour, then discard the garlic and lemon zest. Taste and season with salt to taste, or add a pinch of sugar or a little honey to balance out the acidity and mustard.
- Nutritional Information: The nutritional information below is an estimate. We used the USDA database to calculate approximate values.
If you make this recipe, take a picture and tag it with the hashtag #inspiredtaste – we love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Nutritional value per serving
serving size
1/4 cup
/
calories
138
/
protein
1g
/
carbohydrate
4g
/
fiber
0g
/
total sugar
1g
/
total fat
14g
/
Saturated Fatty Acids
2g
/
cholesterol
0mg
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