This marinade is perfect for meal-prepping chicken to use in all kinds of Mexican and Southwestern meals, like tacos, burritos, enchiladas, nachos, salads, and more.
This chicken marinade has intense Mexican flavors because fresh ingredients like onion, jalapeno, garlic, and cilantro are pureed right into the liquid. The other ingredients are lime, chicli powder, dried oregano, smoked paprika, and cumin. Salt is in there too to help the marinade also work as a brine that gets flavor right into the meat. It’s then ready to cook and serve in chicken tacos, quesadillas, nachos, or tons of other great dishes.
Scroll down to read more about how it all comes together or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
Why Use A Marinade
A marinade is a liquid that you soak foods in before cooking to add flavor and tenderness. In addition to the standard marinade ingredients of a liquid, a fat and something acidic, this marinade includes the right amount of salt to get the benefits of a brine. That is, extra juiciness in the meat and also extra flavor absorption. In this case, we’re getting delicious Tex-Mex flavors with jalapeño, onion, cilantro, and more. It gives you great taste, and tender, juicy chicken.
Marinade Ingredients
Marinades always include something acidic, like the lemon juice in my chicken wing marinade recipe, chicken thigh marinade, and Greek chicken marinade. For this recipe, we’re using lime juice for that acidity, but we’re also adding in the zest of the lime for extra flavor. If you don’t have a fresh lime, you can skip the zest and just use a couple tablespoons of lime juice.
We’re also getting wonderful flavor from fresh garlic, fresh cilantro, chili powder, oregano, paprika, and cumin. The mixture also includes water, salt, and oil to bring it all together.
The oil in the marinade is not there to help with the cooking process. It’s there because oil is one of the elements that dissolves flavor and helps to distribute it into the meat. Having said that, you can cook the marinated chicken straight out of the marinade without oiling it. Just pat it dry and then cook it. Or, you can add oil if you think your cooking method needs it to prevent sticking and increase browning.
Like with my fajita marinade recipe, which can be used for beef or chicken, this marinade gets pureed in a blender or food processor. This gets all the flavor components into the liquid so that those juices can really penetrate the chicken.
What Kind Of Chicken?
You can use this marinade on any pieces of chicken. I love using this recipe for chicken breasts and thighs, but smaller bite-sized chicken pieces or chicken strips work too.
The cut of chicken you want to use will depend on how you plan on cooking and serving it. Larger pieces of chicken will need more time in the marinade, and smaller pieces will need less time. See below.
How Long To Marinate Chicken
The length of time to marinate depends on the cut of chicken that you’re using.
- Chicken strips or bite-sized pieces – 1 hour
- Chicken thighs (4 oz.) or chicken breasts (6 oz.) – 90 minutes
- Larger pieces of chicken – 2 hours
- Whole chicken – 4-6 hours
I don’t suggest marinating longer than these times or your chicken may end up too salty. If you really want to marinate them for longer, omit the salt from the recipe and then use it like a standard marinade. Note that if your marinade contains salt, you don’t need to add extra salt when cooking the marinated chicken.
After marinating, you can cook your chicken with your preferred method. If using the air fryer, here are the times for a bunch of different cuts of chicken. You can grill them up like these chicken thighs. Or, cook smaller chicken pieces in a pan on the stovetop.
Can You Freeze Chicken In Marinade
I prefer to not freeze the chicken directly in this marinade. It can have too large of an effect and ruin the texture of the meat, so I don’t like to risk it.
Instead, I marinate the meat for the times given above and then remove it from the marinade before freezing. The flavor elements are all still in there, but you won’t have as drastic of a texture change or risk the chicken ending up too salty.
Podcast Episode: Marinating Chicken With Mexican Flavors
Listen to me explain briefly about how to make this recipe, with some great tips along the way, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
Print
Mexican Chicken Marinade Recipe
This recipe makes enough marinade for 3 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Marinate: 90 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Marinade
- Method: Blended
- Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 2 Tbsp. kosher salt
- 2 Tbsp. cooking oil
- 1 medium onion
- 1 jalapeño, stem removed
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 lime, zested and juiced*
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves and stems
- 2 tsp. chili powder
- 2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
- 1 tsp. smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
Instructions
- Measure all ingredients into a blender or food processor. Puree until you have a smooth mixture without chunks.
- Add chicken to the marinade. Marinate chicken strips or bite-sized pieces for 1 hour. Marinate medium-sized chicken pieces (such as 4 ounce chicken thighs or 6 ounce chicken breasts) for 90 minutes. Marinate larger pieces for 2 hours. (Note that marinating for longer can lead to salty chicken.)
- Remove chicken from marinade. Discard marinade. Do not season the chicken with salt before cooking.
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Notes
*Or use 2 Tbsp. of lime juice.
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