My little marinade experiment

[Michael_in_TX]

So one of my favorite things to cook is Malcom Reed's Grilled Chicken Tacos: https://howtobbqright.com/2020/10/01...chicken-tacos/

In the recipe, one marinades the chicken thighs for about four hours. The marinade has a decent amount of stuff in it: canola oil, lime juice, lime zest, diced onion, cumin, salt, garlic, black pepper, and oregano. I've always wondered -- in light of Meathead and Dr. Blonder's experiments -- how much of the flavor of that marinade really carries over to the final product?

In this particular recipe, right before you put the chicken on the grill, you apply some fajita seasoning after you take them out of the marinade. I likewise wondered, am I tasting the marinade or the fajita seasoning?

So tonight, I made the marinade differently. I left out anything that basically would be a "surface treatment." My marinade comprised of just canola oil, lime juice, salt, and a bit of extra water to help the salt dissolve.

I marinated the chicken for the customary four hours and applied the usual fajita seasoning right before grilling.

I really don't think I could taste any difference taste-wise between using the full marinade and the scaled-down version, especially with the fajita seasoning and all of the other stuff one puts in a taco.

Now to be clear, I did taste the marinade! The internal parts of the chicken had a salt flavor and the meat was "lime forward," as it were. But those are the two ingredients I actually expected to have an effect in the marinade.

I also wonder, with the original marinade, how much of the surface-treatment stuff ended burning off (onion, cilantro) during the direct grilling.

[FireMan]

I follow Meathead’s & the Doc’s advice. Mebbee brine it 4 hours before, but know none of the marinade is goin to "soak" into the meat. 1/2hr for me is Ok. I would also ditch the canola oil & use avocado oil, canola oil is junk.

[Michael_in_TX]

Good point about the canola oil. Not exactly sure why I use it for this dish.....as I use avocado oil for nearly everything else that goes over high heat.

[Mosca]

I make a chicken dish with a recipe from the 1980s, that calls for marinating the chicken from 4 hours up to overnight.

I’ve gotten to where I squish it around in the marinade, then put it right on the grill. It tastes great either way.

[Michael_in_TX]

I just had another thought. You there is the movement to get away from these traditional marinades with all of these ingredients and use board sauces instead. In some sense a taco is just meat + "board sauce" in a tortilla container.

[FireMan]

Yes, a tortilla is a container I say, a container!

[Michael_in_TX]

(I also don't think there is anything wrong with the idea behind a traditional marinade. I don't think I made that clear in my original post. If the "surface treatment" adheres to the meat after removal from the marinade and doesn't burn during cooking, then that can be a very useful and tasty thing.)

[FireMan]

Yes, "not that there is anything wrong with that".

[Jerod Broussard]

The reason for allowing a marinade to soak is to allow what salt is present to penetrate and diffuse. I like overnight.

[Chuppy]

The recipe sounds wonderful. I bet if you did it again, dry brined your chicken, grilled it, then poured the sauce on after it came off the grill it would taste even better. I have a Buffalo wing recipe with a lime and pepper base.

[Santamarina]

I think I might try this next time. Dry brine the chicken, grill/griddle it, then toss it in the sauce - just like when I do wings. Sounds like a solid idea.

[TripleB]

I like dry brining the meat, dusting the protein with a salt less rub 1/2 hour before grilling and then use an oil/acid marinade as a mop sauce as I cook it.

[DavidNorcross]

I typically do not use a marinade. However, I have never tried a Malcolm Reed recipe that I did not like. He is at the top of the heap in my view. My guess is the intent of this marinade is to be subtle in flavor and to compliment the overall dish and not over power.

[bmillin]

Here's my take FWIW. Boneless skinless thighs have a lot of surface area to volume of meat, if that makes sense. I think a good marinade flavors the outside of the meat, but doesn't necessarily penetrate into the meat very far if at all. If the pieces are small, you get the marinade flavor and it might seem like it is throughout but it really is not.

My favorite chicken fajita recipe is from cook's illustrated and it has you prepare the marinade, then reserve half to mix in to the meat after it has been cooked. Works great. You get the grilled flavor and the marinade flavor.

[Michael_in_TX]

I get what you're saying. Indeed, I was thinking that very thing. Those thighs are quite flat; so it is hard to get a piece without the outside interacting.

[Andrrr]

I've been making my own version of this for years and I've always found that I like it more the longer it sits, up to overnight. Then again I don't dust the chicken with any seasoning before grilling. I do add chipotles and adobo sauce to the marinade and I can tell that the heat seems to intensify the longer it sits, so perhaps that's why I like to let it sit longer

[Michael_in_TX]

Do you use lime juice in your marinade? I do think that does indeed do something worthwhile to the chicken.

[Andrrr]

Michael_in_TX Yes I do, usually about a half lime worth. The limes you see in the picture were actually getting used for margaritas.