Apple Ginger Marinade for chicken #NAKANORiceVinegars

While I love how easy it is to use premade World Harbors marinades for Smoked Beer Can Chicken, there’s something to be said for making your own marinade. First, you can control what goes into it, so if you have a food sensitivity you don’t need to worry about anything making you ill. Second, making your own marinade is very inexpensive, especially if you have most of the ingredients on hand.

Apple Ginger Marinade uses several items I always have in my pantry like NAKANO rice vinegar, soy sauce (gluten free tamari sauce, actually) and olive oil. The only ingredients I had to go to the grocery store for were for the fresh ginger and apple juice concentrate – and it was worth the effort. This is the best marinade I’ve ever made and the chicken was delicious and moist! I bet it would work for grilled or roast chicken as well as pork or fish.

I served it for guests along with Wine & Rosemary Couscous and Roasted Marinated Vegetables (recipes to follow).

Apple Ginger Marinade

Based on this recipe from Mizkan

Makes about 1-1/2 cups marinade, enough for about 3 pounds of meat

Ingredients:

1/2 cup NAKANO Seasoned Rice Vinegar – Roasted Garlic
1/2 cup frozen apple juice concentrate
3 tablespoon gluten free tamari sauce
3 tablespoons natural ketchup with no high fructose corn syrup
1 piece (1×1-1/2 inches) fresh ginger, grated
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 lemon (grate the zest and juice the lemon)

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients.
Marinate chicken covered in refrigerator at least two hours and up to 24 hours. (I like marinating chicken in a Ziploc bag overnight.)
To cook, discard marinade. Grill or broil meat, turning as needed to prevent burning. (If you want to make Smoked Beer Can Chicken, the directions are here.)

Food safety note: To avoid contamination of cooked meats with raw meat juices, discard marinade or boil marinade for a couple of minutes before using as a sauce. If marinade is used to baste meats on the grill, make sure the marinade gets fully cooked on the meat before serving. Always use a clean platter (not contaminated with raw meat juices) to transfer meats from the grill to the table.

Save money with NAKANO

You can download a coupon for 50 cents off your next purchase of NAKANO rice vinegar here. Also, for more recipes using NAKANO rice vinegars, sign up for Mizkan’s Splash for Cash e-newsletter for a chance to win up to $600. (Mizkan is NAKANO’s parent company.)

You can connect with NAKANO online on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

______________________
Disclosure: Mizkan, the parent company of NAKANO, provided compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

{1 comment}