Indian Chicken Marinade (Easy and Authentic)

This Indian Chicken Marinade recipe gives you the most flavorful and succulent chicken you have ever tasted and is so darn easy. The chicken, when marinated in a mixture of yogurt, lemon juice, and aromatic herbs and spices, is a treat for your senses, and you will keep asking for more!

If you enjoy India-style chicken, you understand the importance of biting into a piece that is spicy, flavorful, tender, and juicy all at the same time. Whether it is the Tandoori chicken, the South Indian chicken, the chicken korma curry, or Chicken Biryani, the magic lies in the marination.

A marinade is a mixture of oil, spices, acids, and other ingredients that meats are soaked in for a period of time to flavor and soften them.

This Indian marinade can not only be used for meats, but for paneer and tofu dishes too. I use the same marinade for my paneer tikka recipe.

Why Is It Important to Marinate Chicken?

• Marination not only adds flavor to the chicken from the outside but a good marinade seeps inside the chicken, adding an all-rounded flavor to the dish.
• Because of the high heat produced by grills, marinades are especially important for grilling. While cooking, excessive heat can cause the formation of harmful materials. The formation of these chemicals is reduced by using an acidic marinade.
• The marinade keeps the chicken from drying out and becoming leathery.
• It aids in the tenderization, and the chicken retains its juiciness.
• It also helps to improve the shelf life of the chicken.
• The marinade shortens the cooking time. The longer the chicken is cooked, the drier it becomes.

What Can I Add To Marinate Chicken?

It is best to marinate the chicken before making many Indian-style chicken recipes like Tandoori chicken or Chicken curry.

Yogurt is a key ingredient in the typical Indian marinade for chicken.

To make the marinade, you need spices like garam masala, red chili powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, and aromatics like ginger, garlic, and Kasoori methi (fenugreek leaves).

You can also use a ready-made Tandoori Masala if you have that handy.

How Long Should You Marinate Chicken?

Marinating meat and poultry for 6 to 24 hours is recommended in most recipes. It is safe to leave the chicken in the marinade for longer, but after 2 days, the marinade may begin to break down the meat’s fibers, causing it to become mushy. Meat and poultry should always be marinated in the refrigerator rather than on the kitchen counter.

Food-grade plastic, stainless steel, or glass containers may also be used to marinate food.

Source: USDA

Is Marinating Chicken For 30 Minutes Enough?

In 30 minutes, you can add considerable flavor to skinless chicken breasts/ chunks, especially if you poke some holes with a fork in the surface of the chicken to allow the marinade to permeate.

Allowing it to sit in the marinade for up to 2 hours will give you better results though.

How Long Is Too Much Time To Marinade Chicken for Indian food?

Marinades can be used to flavor the chicken as well as tenderize it, depending on the ingredients. A marinade with sugar or salt will tenderize the chicken slightly, but a marinade with an acid, such as lemon juice or vinegar, buttermilk, or yogurt, will change the texture of the chicken’s exterior texture over time.

If you leave an acidic marinade like yogurt on the chicken for too long, the surface texture may deteriorate, becoming stretchy and dry, so don’t marinate it longer than overnight. Allow 6-8 hours for the optimum flavor and texture.

Marinades without acid can be left for extended periods of time, but this will not improve their efficacy, so limit yourself to 24 hours.

How to Marinate Chicken?

An authentic marinade is the key to a perfectly cooked chicken. You can use any type of chicken with this marinade – chicken legs, wings, bone-in or boneless, breasts or thighs.

The yogurt marinade is a classic Indian marinade. The yogurt’s acidity helps to tenderize the meat.

Follow the below steps for marination:

• Start with clean and skinned chicken – remove any loose skin. Wash the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.
• To make the marinade, combine the yogurt, grated ginger, minced garlic, lime juice, gram flour (besan), salt, and all of the dry spices (Kashmiri red chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala, coriander powder and dried fenugreek leaves) in a large mixing bowl. Mix the contents well.

• Toss the chicken pieces in this marinade and combine them well to ensure that they are uniformly coated with the marinade.

• Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator. Let the wings marinate for at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours or overnight for a deeper flavor.

Why Is Indian Chicken Red?

The raw chicken is marinated in yogurt with spices. Some people also use Tandoori masala.

To give it a fiery red color, cayenne pepper, red chili powder, or Kashmiri red chili powder are used.

A higher concentration of turmeric, however, results in an orangish color.

In milder versions, both red and yellow food coloring are sometimes used to achieve bright colors. However, I typically do not like to use any artificial colors. Turmeric powder, and paprika, or Kashmiri red chili powder, are both mild and brightly colored.

What To Serve With Marinated Chicken

Traditionally, marinated chicken is often cooked in a special clay oven known as a tandoor. However, because tandoors are not commonly seen in North America and Europe, these recipes have been modified to make in an oven, barbecue, or grill, and sometimes on the stovetop or air fryer instead.

The marination provides an incredibly flavorful and delicious chicken recipe due to the combination of flavors from the herbs and spices used, as well as the meat itself.

As a result, a simple side dish to contrast the smokey, spicy, earthy, and succulent flavors is usually your best choice.

It is important to provide a texture-based contrast to complement the colors and flavors of marinated and tandoori chicken recipes.

• These marinated chicken items taste best when served with lemon wedges, Kachumbar salad or Indian Onion Salad.
• Simply serve grilled chicken with Mint Cilantro Chutney or Cucumber Raita for an irresistible appetizer with your drinks.
• Enjoy it with these lip-smacking Bombay potatoes.
• Serve it with a side of Naan bread or pita bread.
• It makes a complete meal when served with dal tadka and turmeric rice.
• Serve with Vegetable Biryani and raita for a filling lunch or dinner.

Marinade Without Yogurt

The chicken is marinated with the following ingredients: ginger garlic paste, red chili powder, turmeric, cumin powder, coriander powder, oil, and salt.

Some people also use coconut milk or coconut yogurt for the marination.

Some recipes also call for other acidic ingredients instead of yogurt, like lemon juice, vinegar, tomato juice, wine, etc.

I use a marinade with vinegar for my chicken vindaloo curry.

Recipes With Marinated Chicken

Marinated chicken is versatile, and you can use it to make the following recipes:

• Tandoori Chicken Wings
• Chicken Vindaloo
• Chicken Tikka Masala
• Chicken Tikka Kebab
• Chicken Biryani
• Air Fryer Tandoori Chicken
• Chicken Korma
• Chicken Tikka Masala Pasta
• Chicken 65
• Mughlai Chicken

Vegetarian Recipes with Marination

• Paneer Tikka
• Paneer Vindaloo
• Tandoori Aloo Tikka
• Paneer Tikka Masala