Four Freezer Friendly Chicken Marinades You’ll Love

I can’t tell you how happy I am that I made up a huge batch of these freezer friendly chicken marinades back in May. This summer has been a bit of a pisser to say the least. It has been raining pretty much non-stop since June and there’s no sign of it letting up. Needless to say, when the sun makes a brief and glorious appearance, I want to be outside enjoying it, not stuck in my kitchen preparing a meal. 

I’m a big believer in planning ahead for meals to save sanity (you should see the Lasagna production line I get going in the fall)  and the summer is no exception. In fact, of all the seasons, summer is probably the most important one to have a meal plan in place. 

Chicken is like the tofu of meat; it will absorb any flavour, making it a highly versatile dish. It’s because of this that I typically hit Walmart in early May and stock up on chicken breasts. At $10 for four, it remains hands down the best deal in town. $100 = 10 meals for my family and that’s a math I like. All these marinades are made for four breasts or roughly 1.5 pounds of chicken pieces. 

By all means use any cut of chicken you like. I prefer breast because leftovers slice nicely for sandwiches the next day. It’s like a sickness I tell you, always thinking ahead to the next meal. Anyhoo, go get your chicken, a box of large freezer ziploc bags and get to work whipping up these four marinades. Double quantities as you need to. 

Aside from the Hawaiian Marinade which needs to be combined in a blender, the rest can be shaken in a Mason jar before being poured over chicken in a freezer bag. A word to the wise, DO NOT waste two seconds fussing with chopping garlic and grating ginger. Grab the stuff in jar for these and leave the fussing for November when you’ve got a long six months of winter staring you down. 

Four Easy Freezer Friendly Chicken Marinades

Hawaiian Marinade

1 cup pineapple
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 garlic clove
Combine ingredients in blender and puree until smooth. Pour over chicken.

Ginger Marinade

¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp ginger root

Simple Marinade

½ cup brown sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup cider vinegar

Garlic Lovers Marinade

3 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp dried oregano