Island Chicken Marinade (The Best Chicken Marinade)
by Katie Webster
June 7, 2019 (updated 4/12/24) Jump To Recipe
I have been making this Island Chicken Marinade for 25 years and it remains one of my all time favorite recipes! I love it so much I often just refer to it as The Best Chicken Marinade. And many readers and friends have told me how much they love it.
I originally shared this recipe here on February 22, 2012. I have updated the text and images today.
Table of contents
Why We Love This Island Chicken Marinade Recipe
This Chicken Marinade has been with me much longer than this blog. I got it from a restaurant where I worked called Isabel’s on the Waterfront.
I made this AMAZING Island Chicken Marinade recipe so many times, I could have made it blindfolded. On our menu it was called Island Chicken Marinade. But once you try it you may want to rename it “the Best Chicken Marinade”. Because it is.
It’s a great chicken breast marinade but it is also good with pork loin or tenderloin, flank steak, chicken thighs, scallops and even shrimp.
Ingredients For Island Chicken Marinade
- Soy Sauce: The most important thing a chicken marinade has to have is salt or some sort of salty ingredient like the soy sauce we use in this Island chicken. Salt in the marinade helps the marinade work its way into the chicken meat and makes the flavors pop! Use tamari to make this gluten-free.
- Vinegar: Red wine vinegar adds a tangy flavor and helps tenderize the meat or chicken.
- Garlic and Onion: We cook the onion to bring out the fat-soluable flavors.
- Caribbean Spices: These are the ingredients that really make this island chicken recipe unique. We use a combination of thyme, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cayenne and black pepper. It is an amazing combination! If you love this spice profile try our Dry Rub Roasted Chicken with similar flavors!
- Brown Sugar: The brown sugar in this marinade really brings out the savory flavors in the marinade and help to brown the chicken when it is grilled.
- Oil: This is a great base for the recipe and is important for cooking the onion (and garlic) because it helps bring out their flavors. The oil helps the marinade coat the chicken.
How to Make This Recipe {Step-By-Step}
This Caribbean-inspired chicken recipe takes no time at all to whip up. The basic steps for making this marinade are as follows:
Step 1: Cook the onion and garlic
This trick helps to mellow and sweeten up the onions and garlic, and it helps the flavor of the onion mix into the other marinade ingredients better. It also serves the purpose of having a hot base for the spices and sugar to melt into.
Step 2: Stir in the spices
Add the spices to the hot pan to wake them up, so to speak. As soon as the spices hit the hot onions and garlic, they should kick off a strong scent and make your kitchen smell fantastic. The heat of the hot onion mixture will melt the brown sugar. This is important to make the sugar dissolve into the marinade.
Step 3: Add liquid and cool
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the soy sauce (or tamari) and red wine vinegar. This will help to cool the marinade down.
Letting the marinade cool is essential, as you don’t want to accidentally cook the outside of the meat in the hot marinade! You can quickly cool the marinade by setting your saucepan directly into a bowl of ice water. Or you can decant the marinade into jars let them cool, then cover, freeze or refrigerate them.
Step 4: Marinate the chicken
Once it is cool, the marinade can be used right away, or you can store it in the fridge or freezer.
Marinating Tips
- This batch of marinade (which can be doubled by the way) is enough for 7 pounds of chicken, meat or seafood. It is very strong, so a little goes a long way. Use about 1/3 cup per pound of meat, chicken or seafood.
- To use this marinade combine everything in a shallow baking dish or Ziplock bag and let it marinate in the fridge. This is an important detail as food born pathogens multiply at room temperature. You can read more about food safety and how to safely thaw chicken here.
- The flavor will better infuse into the chicken the longer you let it marinate. Because this marinade takes just 15 minutes to whip up, you can easily make it before you go to bed and let the meat sit in your fridge all night and during the workday. Then, you can grill the meat as you normally would come dinnertime!
- If you don’t happen to use the meat you’ve marinated, but it has been 24 hours, no problem! Simply drain the marinade away, pat the meat dry with clean paper towels, and then return to a clean bag or dish to refrigerate until you are ready to cook it.
How To Grill Marinated Chicken
Remove Chicken From Marinade: Once the chicken has marinated for at least 4 hours (and up to 24 hours) remove it from the marinade and let any excess drip off. Blot it dry with a paper towel if desired. This will help prevent flare ups.
Prepare Grill: Make sure your grill is preheated and brush it clean with a wire grill grate. To prevent the chicken from sticking (the sugars in the marinade can caramelize and can make the chicken stick) you can oil the grill rack. The key to oiling the grill rack is to hold the oil-soaked paper towel in long tongs for grilling and pull the towel toward you across the grate. Make sure to oil the rack just before putting the chicken on it for best results.
Grill Chicken: Grill the chicken breasts, rotating once and turning halfway through grilling, about 12 to 14 minutes for medium boneless breasts. Smaller chicken breasts only need about 5 minutes per side and larger can take quite a while to cook though. Use a high-quality instant thermometer like a Thermapen to check to make sure that it is at least 165 degrees F in the center before removing it from the grill.
Rest: Let the chicken rest at least 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
FAQ For This Recipe
For best results marinate chicken for 4 hours or up to 24 hours in this easy chicken marinade. Try not to let it marinate for longer than that as the meat will become dry.
Yes! For pork or beef and other poutry marinate it for 4 to 24 hours. Seafood, Fish and tofu can only be marinated for 30 minutes to 1 hour max or the marinade will “cook” the seafood.
Storage, Freezing and Make-Ahead Tips for Caribbean Chicken Marinade
- In the Fridge: Because this mixture is so high in acid and salt, it will keep in a clean jar in the fridge for several weeks. The oil will become solid, but you can bring it back to room temperature and stir it together to use it.
- Large vs Small Batch: Dividing the batch up into smaller usable portions makes a ton of sense unless you are cooking for a large crowd. If you are making it for a crowd, double (or triple) this recipe if need be. It’s super easy to make a big batch of this island chicken marinade.
- Make a Big Batch and Divide: Whenever I make this healthy chicken marinade, I make a big batch of it and freeze it in 2/3 cup portions.
- How to Freeze the Chicken Marinade: You can freeze this marinade in small containers for several months. Each portion is enough for about two pounds of meat. So convenient!
Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought!
Happy Cooking! ~Katie
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Island Chicken Marinade
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 2 3/4 cups, enough for about 7 pounds of meat 1x
Description
This chicken marinade recipe with allspice, cloves and onion is easily the best chicken marinade EVER. It has sweet Island spices, soy sauce and brown sugar and makes the most irresistible grilled chicken, pork, steak, shrimp or tofu.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil or organic canola oil
- 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 3/4 teaspoon dry thyme
- 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch cayenne
- 1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce or tamari
- 1/2 cup red-wine vinegar
Instructions
- Heat olive and oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, cover and cook, removing lid to stir often, until the onions are softened but not browned, 4 to 6 minutes.
- Stir in brown sugar, allspice, thyme, pepper, cloves, cinnamon and cayenne and remove from the heat.
- Stir in soy sauce or tamari and red wine vinegar. Cool completely before marinating meat.
Notes
Marinating Times: 15 to 30 minutes for seafood or tofu. 2 to 24 hours for chicken or pork. 4 to 24 hours for steak. Discard used marinade and do not re-use.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Dressings, Sauces
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: Caribbean
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 tablespoons
- Calories: 31
- Sugar: 3 g
- Sodium: 13 mg
- Fat: 2 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 3 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 0 g
Katie Webster
Katie Webster studied art and photography at Skidmore College and is a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute. She has been a professional recipe developer since 2001 when she first started working in the test kitchen at EatingWell magazine. Her recipes have been featured in numerous magazines including Shape, Fitness, Parents and several Edible Communities publications among others. Her cookbook, Maple {Quirk Books} was published in 2015. She launched Healthy Seasonal Recipes in 2009. She lives in Vermont with her husband, two teenage daughters and two yellow labs. In her free time, you can find her at the gym, cooking, stacking firewood, making maple syrup, and tending to her overgrown perennial garden.
What would the measurements be for 20 pounds of chicken???
Do a 3x batch and you should be all good. There’s a handy “scale” button on the recipe card. It will do the math for you and multiply the ingredients.
This is so good! I added chili flakes to it to make it a little more spicy. 🙂
I am so glad you discovered and tried this recipe. It is one of my all time favorite recipes!
This has been our family go-to show-stopper for dinner guests for several years. I usually pair it with coconut rice, plantains, pineapple, and some kind of tropical salad. It is amazing!!! I came here today to grab the recipe so I can make it for a served dinner for our church in a few weeks. Excited to share it!! I am curious what you used to serve with it at the restaurant??
We did a lot of catering from the restaurant kitchen and it was a common choice for the main course for weddings, graduation parties etc so the menus varied greatly. I worked the brunch and lunch shifts at the restaurant and we served it on the Caesar salads for Chicken Caesars.
I haven’t made this yet but was wondering what you would recommend to replace red wine vinegar?
You can use another vinegar such as white wine vinegar, rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar or white distilled vinegar. Don’t use Balsamic, malt or sherry vinegars though. They are too strong.
We hosted a bbq, featuring pulled pork…but for those who don’t eat pork we served this chicken, grilled, as an option. By the end of the evening there was no chicken left and I gave out the recipe to over half of the guests. Doesn’t get much better than that!
Great marinade. Appreciate you adding the marinating times to your recipes.
Excellent. Thank you! Vermont chef’s are the best!
Hi, what do I use for this marinade if I do NOT have allspice or cloves? I do have cinnamon & ground nutmeg.
The allspice (and less so the cloves) really are the signature flavors in this dish. I don’t think nutmeg would be a good sub. Do you have Chinese 5 Spice? You could sub that for the allspice. I think you could do it without, but next time defintily try it with the allspice and cloves as they make it more complex.