Grilled Chicken

It's grilling season, and to me, that means lots of grilled chicken. It's fast, it's easy, and with the right marinade, really good. My husband used to think that you could only marinate chicken in Italian dressing. Sad, right? It's almost as easy to make your own. What follows is my standby grilled chicken marinade, a strange amalgam of recipes from my Dad and Tyler Florence, and also what I made from Food Plus Politics when I ran out of soy sauce (I know, I didn't think it was possible either).

How do you marinate your grilled chicken?

Ingredients:
1.25 lb. chicken, plus:

Usual recipe:

• 3/4 c. low-sodium soy sauce (low-sodium is so important, otherwise you won't be able to taste anything besides salt)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. canola oil
• 2 tsp. walnut oil
• 1/3 c. cilantro, finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp. fresh ginger, grated
• Juice of 1/2 lime (use whole lime if there isn't a ton of juice in there)

New recipe:

• 1/4 c. white wine vinegar
• 1/4 c. fresh lime juice (~2 limes)
• 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 Tbsp. chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (I omitted.)

Directions:
For either recipe, mix all of the ingredients together with the chicken in a Ziploc bag and marinate for an hour before grilling.


The chicken marinated in the "usual recipe."


The chicken marinated in the "new recipe."

Verdict:
So much more flavorful than plain ole' Italian dressing, and as you can see, it really only takes 5 extra minutes to whip up. Besides, when you use individual ingredients instead of processed foods, you can control the fat, salt and sugar contents yourself. I'm partial to the Asian-y nature of my usual marinade, but the second marinade (described as a "fajita" marinade) is an interesting combo of fresh and bright (from the lime juice), yet smoky (from the cumin and Worchestershire) flavors.