Greek Chicken Marinade
This Greek Chicken Marinade is THE BEST because of a secret ingredient, and a technique that really gets the flavor into the chicken breasts.
If you want flavorful, tender chicken with delicious Greek flavors, start with a Greek Chicken Marinade. The marinade is easy to mix up (it also works as a salad dressing!) and I’ve got a great tip for maximizing the amount of flavor. After marinating for a short time, the chicken breasts get grilled to perfection. It’s a dish that the whole family is going to love.
Get all the details for this easy chicken marinade below or click here to head straight to the recipe.
Making Greek Chicken Marinade
What are the marinade ingredients for this Greek chicken recipe? We’re using olive oil as the base, along with red wine vinegar, fresh lemon juice and zest, and some Dijon mustard. This gets seasoned with fresh garlic, dried oregano, and thyme for some classic Greek flavors.
Many Greek dressings have a little bit of mustard, but why? I tried this marinade recipe with and without mustard. I found that it really helped the marinade cling to the chicken and also helped keep it emulsified when using it as a salad dressing. Read more about emulsifiers in this how to make a vinaigrette recipe. Without it, the garlic and herbs just kind of sink to the bottom. The little bit of mustard helped keep everything where it needed to be, whether that was on the chicken or on the lettuce, and didn’t skew the flavor at all. If you don’t have Dijon mustard, another kind will work but Dijon is my preference.
How Long Do I Marinate Greek Chicken?
Submerge your chicken breasts in this Greek chicken marinade recipe for 30 minutes at room temperature or up to 2 hours in the refrigerator. If you prefer using this marinade on chicken thighs, use the same timing.
I know some recipes call for marinating overnight, but I don’t think it’s necessary and find that sometimes the texture ends up tougher instead of tender.
How To Maximize Marinade Flavor
Marinades really only flavor the outside of meats because, as we know, marinades don’t penetrate meat very far in. For that you’d need to brine your chicken breasts.
To maximize flavor and get more of the surface are of the chicken in contact with the marinade, I decided to score the chicken breasts in a cross-hatch pattern as shown below. Marinades flavor the surface, so the more surface, the more flavor!
You can also cut the chicken into pieces before marinating. I suspect this is why those skewers of chicken souvlaki are so tasty – all that surface area exposed during marinating!
How To Cook Greek Chicken
I think the best option after marinating chicken is to throw it on the grill! Get your grill grates clean and heat the grill to medium-high heat before you start cooking.
The chicken breasts will take 6-8 minutes on each side on the grill. Make sure to check the internal temperature with an instant read thermometer in the thickest part of the breast – you want to cook the chicken to 160°F. Once it’s reached that, remove the chicken from the grill and allow it to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.
If you’d prefer to bake your chicken in the oven, you can refer to my baked chicken breast recipe for timing, or make air fryer chicken breasts.
You can also optionally do a brush of warm honey at the end after cooking. Some people enjoy a hint of sweetness to their Greek chicken, but adding honey before cooking can cause the sugars to burn. Instead, warm up 1/4 cup of honey and brush on the cooked chicken right before slicing and serving. It really is so good!
Serving Greek Chicken
You’ve marinated your chicken, cooked it to juicy perfection, now what? One of my favorite ways to serve this chicken recipe is sliced on top of a Greek Chicken Salad with more tasty Mediterranean flavors like olives, cucumber, and feta cheese.
It’s also great served with rice or couscous with veggies on the side. Or use it in a pita bread wrap with a lemon hummus dressing or tzatziki sauce.
More Great Marinade Recipes
If you love this Greek marinade, you’ll want to try these other great recipes too.
Podcast Episode: Marinating Greek Chicken
Listen to learn how to make this recipe, along with some great tips from Christine by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
Print
Greek Chicken Marinade Recipe
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Rest Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 2 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Entrée
- Method: Grilled
- Cuisine: Greek
DESCRIPTION
This Greek Chicken Marinade is THE BEST because of a secret ingredient, and a technique that really gets the flavor into the chicken.
Ingredients
- 8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts*
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
Instructions
- Using a knife, score chicken breasts on one side with hash marks, about ⅛-inch deep and ½-inch apart.
- In a large bowl whisk together the olive oil, mustard, lemon zest and juice, vinegar, garlic, salt, oregano, and thyme.
- Add chicken to bowl and submerge in marinade. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, or in the fridge for 2 hours. Redistribute chicken halfway through marinating time.
- Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Add chicken. Cook 6 to 8 minutes on each side or until chicken registers 160°F on an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast.
- Remove chicken from grill. Let rest 10 minutes.**
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Notes
*If you’d like to only marinate 4 chicken breasts, remove half of the marinade before adding the chicken. The reserved marinade can be frozen for up to three months and used later. It also makes a delicious Greek salad dressing – make a salad and serve the chicken on top!
**While the chicken is resting, you can optionally warm up 1/4 cup of honey in the microwave. Then brush it lightly on the chicken. Let chicken continue to rest. The honey adds a nice bit of sweetness and goes well with the other flavors in the marinade.
This post originally appeared in March 2023 and was revised and republished in February 2025.
so easy and so delicious. did mine in the oven rather than the grill
Thank you, Steve! I’m so glad you enjoyed.
I love using salad dressing to marinate chicken and this one is a winner, too!
Thanks so much, Dawn! 🙂
I’ve been on the lookout for the *perfect* Greek chicken recipe…and this is it! Amazing flavor. Thank you!