This chimichurri chicken marinade packs fresh herbs like parsley, cilantro, and garlic into an irresistible lemony chicken marinade for baking, pan-frying, or grilling.
Just thinking about this recipe makes my mouth water.
Chimichurri sauce, if you’ve never had it, is a blend of fresh herbs, garlic, lemon juice, and salt. It can bring to life almost any type of everyday protein dish, but it also makes a delicious marinade.
I first tried it when I was getting ready to head out on maternity leave and wanted to stock the fridge with a bunch of freezer chicken already marinated and ready to cook. Since then, I’ve made this recipe dozens of times. It’s the first thing I think about when I look at a chicken breast or chicken thighs.
The first thing you do is blend up your marinade, and then you’ll need to let it marinate in the marinade for at least 30 minutes, up to 24 hours. You can also freeze the chicken in the marinade. If you go the freezer route, just let it defrost for 24 hours before cooking it.
You can cook this chicken however you choose. Probably my favorite way is to remove the chicken from the bag and brown it on both sides in a cast-iron skillet on medium (optional step, you can go straight to baking as shown in the picture below.)
Then I dump the rest of the sauce from the bag on top of the chicken and put the whole thing in the oven at 375F for 30-40 minutes (depending on the thickness of breasts or thighs.)
The result is juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside chicken that goes with just about anything you want to pair with it. As I said, it’s definitely our go-to chicken marinade.
Below is a picture of Mr. Hungry’s meal prepped lunches for a week. He paired the chimichurri chicken with zucchini noodles.
He didn’t even cook the zucchini noodles ahead of time since he knew they would get soft when he microwaved each lunch! There was plenty of sauce left in the pan for him to toss with the zucchini noodles to give them some flavor too.
Let me know if you give it a try – tag @hungryhobbyRD on insta so I can see what you made! 🙂
You May Also Like:
Use Your Chimichurri Sauce In These Recipes:
- Chimichurri Egg In A Squash Ring
- Chimichurri Chicken Marinade
- Air Fryer Tumeric Cauliflower with Chimichurri Sauce
- Chimichurri Chicken Thighs (Skillet to Oven method)
- Easy Chimichurri Shrimp
- Chimichurri Flank Steak (stovetop or grill)
- Chimichurri Salmon
- Chimichurri Burgers
Chimichurri Chicken Marinade
Ingredients
- 2 cups parsley
- 1 cup cilantro
- 1 green onion
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 cup avocado oil
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 lbs chicken breasts or thighs
Instructions
- Blend together parsley, cilantro, green onion, garlic, avocado oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice and salt.
- Place marinade mixture in a bag, and add chicken breasts or thighs.
- Make sure that the chicken breasts or thighs are completely coated in the marinade mixture.
- Place the bag in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 24 hours OR freeze for later use.
Notes
Nutrition
[…] see my full review here) to make chicken thighs. I followed the same method I use when I make chimichurri chicken thighs with a homemade chimichurri sauce. First, I pan-seared the chicken thighs on each side for a few […]