Pretty Chicken Marinade

Okay, I know I have been doing a lot of recipes these days but I am tired of making the same seven dishes over and over. I also have a family of picky eaters so it is a tricky combination.

I have always been hesitant to marinade my own meat. You never know how it is going to taste until you make it. I can make a mean steak. Everything else, however, I use self-made marinades. The ones at the korean markets are great for Korean BBQ. Lawry's Steak Marinade (powder packet) is wonderful at tenderizing and the flavor is delicious.

I use All Recipes to find a lot of my recipes. It is a great website because all the recipes are reviewed. This helps me because often times, people will make suggestions or substitutions which helps make the first run at a new recipe successful.

Here is the latest recipe I found which was perfect because I had all the ingredients at home. I paired it with steamed broccoli and Trader Joe's Potatoes Au Gratin (which is awesome).

Pretty Chicken Marinade

Ingredients:
2/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons liquid smoke flavoring
2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions:

1) In a large bowl, mix the olive oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, liquid smoke, mustard, pepper, and garlic powder. Place chicken in the bowl, and coat with the marinade. Cover, and allow chicken to marinate a maximum of 4 hours in the refrigerator.

2) Grill or pan fry.

I didn't have liquid smoke, spicy brown mustard, lemon juice or garlic powder. So I used 2 TB yellow mustard, squeezed the juice out of one whole lemon and 2 tsp lawry's seasoned pepper and 2 tsp Penzeys Spices Florida Seasoned Pepper. I also used regular sodium soy sauce.

I was looking for a lemon chicken flavor and it turned out nicely. When I cooked the chicken in the pan, I poured in the olive oil from the mixture. I would also recommend reducing the soy sauce to 1/2 cup as it was just a little saltier than I prefer but Chang and the kids thought it was just fine. Obviously I made a lot of alterations but I think as long as you have olive oil, soy sauce and lemon juice, you can get creative with the other ingredients.