1. Marinating Madness
Meat is marinated to add flavor and tenderize the meat before cooking. Most meat should be marinated for a minimum of 2 hours; the longer the meat marinates the more flavorful it is. Meat can be marinated for as long as 24 hours before cooking with some marinades, but the ideal amount of time is between 4 to 8 hours. The easiest way to marinate individual cuts of meat is in a heavy-duty zip top bag. Mix the ingredients for the marinade, place the meat in the zip-top bag and refrigerate. Using a zip-top bag makes it easier to turn the meat to distribute the marinade throughout the meat.
2. Spice It Up
Add some spice to your meat for added flavor. For a flavorful but mild marinade, add honey, garlic, and onion to your favorite wine or vinegar. Steak marinade can be made zesty by adding hot sauce, chilies, hot pepper flakes or hot BBQ sauce to your favorite brand of steak sauce. An Oriental marinade can be used for beef, pork or chicken. Mix low-sodium soy sauce or teriyaki sauce with honey, ginger, garlic or Oriental seasoning from ramen soup mix for a nonfat Oriental marinade.
3. Drunken Chicken
Get your chicken drunk on rum and lime for a refreshing marinade. Most types of meat hold up to alcohol-based marinades, as long as you have a light touch with the booze. Bourbon or cognac adds zip to steak marinades. Vodka tastes great on pork or chicken. For every cup of steak sauce or BBQ sauce, add 1/4 cup of your favorite booze. Make your own drunken steak marinade with ketchup, mustard, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce and 1/4 cup of bourbon.
4. Dress It Up
One of the easiest ways to marinate meat is to use bottled salad dressing. Italian dressing on chicken breasts is delicious, especially if using chicken for the grill or for kabobs. Place frozen pork chops in a zip-top bag with Italian dressing; the chops will marinate and thaw at the same time. Any vinegar-based salad dressing makes a good meat marinade because the spices are already in the dressing. Make your own dressing and use as a marinade; use balsamic vinegar or wine vinegar for a deeper flavor.
5. Marinating Matters
If you want to use the same marinade for a finishing sauce on the cooked meat, set some aside before you add meat. Even though the meat will be cooked later, the extra marinade won't be and could be contaminated from uncooked meat. Always wash and pat dry chicken before marinating and always keep marinating meat in the refrigerator to reduce the chance of bacteria build-up. Use caution when cooking meat that has marinated in booze, because the booze can flame up on the grill. If you use brown sugar or molasses, use a light touch so your meat doesn't burn.
Member Comments