Grill up juicy, tender chicken breasts with this Chicken Marinade with Yogurt! With just a few simple ingredients, you'll have the most flavorful chicken. You'll want to keep this recipe in your dinner rotation all year long.
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Why You'll Love This Chicken Marinade with Yogurt
- Super easy! Simply add the chicken and marinade ingredients to 1 bowl, mix to combine, and let sit in the refrigerator until ready to cook. It's that easy! It's also a great base recipe for these yogurt marinated chicken skewers.
- Healthy ingredients! All ingredients used in this healthy yogurt marinade are from real, good-for-you ingredients. No fillers, additives, or unnecessary junk!
- Makes the chicken fall-apart tender! The yogurt and the seasonings combine to make incredibly juicy and flavorful chicken. You'll never want to marinate your chicken another way again!
- A great staple recipe! Keep this recipe handy for summer BBQs, meal prepping, feeding a crowd, busy weeknights, or any time you just want downright delicious chicken. Serve with blackened corn, smoked baked beans, spicy cucumber salad, sautéed butternut squash, or roasted green beans and carrots for a complete meal!
Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts: I prefer to use boneless skinless chicken breasts because they cook up perfectly in this marinade. No need to worry about them drying out or overcooking!
- Greek yogurt: Plain, unsweetened greek yogurt is best for this. It adds a wonderful tangy flavor and helps in tenderizing the meat.
- Seasonings: These seasonings are pretty simple but add a punch of flavor! However, you can switch up the seasonings if there's a different combination you prefer.
⭐️ See recipe card below for descriptions and quantities of each ingredient.
Instructions
- Step 1: Cut the chicken breasts into 1½-inch cubes or butterfly horizontally into 6 large pieces and place them in a medium bowl.
- Step 2: Add greek yogurt, olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, dried oregano, and salt. Mix to coat the chicken.
- Step 3: Set chicken in the refrigerator and let marinate at least 30 minutes, up to overnight.
- Step 4: When the chicken is done marinating, preheat your grill to 425 degrees F.
- Step 5: If you cubed the chicken, add pieces of chicken onto skewers so they don't fall through the grill grates. If using whole pieces, there's no need for skewers.
- Step 6: Add skewers or whole pieces of chicken to the hot grill, cover the grill, and cook untouched for about 10 to 12 minutes (for skewers) or 5 to 7 minutes (for whole pieces). Flip the chicken over and cook again, covered by the grill, for another 10 to 12 minutes (skewers), 5 to 7 minutes (whole pieces), or until the chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
⭐️ Tip: Keep the grill closed so that the ambient temperature cooks the chicken on the inside. If you just rely on the heat from the grill grates, the outside will become burnt and dry, while the inside remains undercooked.
Substitutions and Alterations
- Boneless chicken breasts - If you prefer, you can also use boneless chicken thighs cut to about the same size as the chicken breasts.
- Plain greek yogurt - I highly recommend using greek yogurt or labneh! However, in a pinch you can also use regular unsweetened yogurt.
- Seasonings - Feel free to experiment with the seasonings in this yogurt marinated chicken. Other dried herbs, chili peppers, or seasoning salts would also work well!
How to Store Chicken Marinated in Yogurt
To store: You can store chicken marinated in yogurt 1 to 2 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator. After grilling, you can store grilled chicken up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
To freeze: Freeze chicken after grilling in a freezer-safe container for up to 6 months.
To reheat: Defrost grilled chicken in the refrigerator overnight. When ready to eat, preheat your oven or grill to 350 degrees F. Warm chicken for 10 to 15 minutes, or until heated through.
Top tip!
Don't cut the chicken too small! 1 ½-inch pieces is the ideal size for skewers. Any smaller, the chicken will overcook and any larger, the chicken will take much longer to cook through in the middle.
If using whole pieces of chicken instead of skewers, I like to butterfly the chicken breasts in half so they absorb more of the marinade. However, they cook much faster and will only need about 10 to 15 minutes total on the grill.
Recipe FAQs
It is recommended to marinate chicken for at least 30 minutes and no longer than 24 hours.
However, if needed, you can marinate chicken in yogurt up to 2 days. It is not recommended to keep it marinating much longer than that because the proteins and fibers of the meat may begin to break down in the marinade and turn the meat mushy.
Yogurt marinated chicken is juicy and fall-apart tender because the lactic acid from the yogurt helps to slowly break down the muscle fibers of the chicken prior to cooking.
I prefer to use greek yogurt in my chicken marinades because it adds a nice, rich tanginess, offering both better flavor and texture to the chicken.
Related Recipes
Looking for more chicken recipes? Try these:
Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!
Recipe
Chicken Marinade with Yogurt
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- ½ cup plain greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 to 10 10-inch bamboo or metal skewers
Instructions
- Cut the chicken breasts into 1½-inch cubes or butterfly horizontally into 6 large pieces and place them in a medium bowl.
- Add greek yogurt, olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, dried oregano, and salt. Mix to coat the chicken.
- Set chicken in the refrigerator and let marinate at least 30 minutes, up to overnight.
- When the chicken is done marinating, preheat your grill to 425 degrees F.
- If you cubed the chicken, add pieces of chicken onto skewers so they don't fall through the grill grates. If using whole pieces, there's no need for skewers.
- Add skewers or whole pieces of chicken to the hot grill, cover the grill, and cook untouched for about 10 to 12 minutes (for skewers) or 5 to 7 minutes (for whole pieces). Flip the chicken over and cook again, covered by the grill, for another 10 to 12 minutes (skewers), 5 to 7 minutes (whole pieces), or until the chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
Notes
- Don't cut the chicken too small! 1 ½-inch pieces is the ideal size for skewers. Any smaller, the chicken will overcook and any larger, the chicken will take much longer to cook through in the middle.
- If using whole pieces of chicken instead of skewers, I like to butterfly the chicken breasts in half so they absorb more of the marinade. However, they cook much faster and will only need about 10 to 15 minutes total on the grill.
Nutrition
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