Asian Sesame Chicken Marinade

With just a few key Asian-inspired ingredients, you can create an easy, delicious marinade for your favorite cut of chicken. After cooking the chicken, serve it in wraps, on salads, or over rice.

Ingredients in Asian Sesame Chicken Marinade

Marinating chicken is THE key to infusing flavor into typically lean, bland poultry cuts. This complex marinade requires mostly pantry staples to turn that lackluster cut into something that makes your tastebuds sing.

Let’s meet the key ingredients…

• Avocado or peanut oil – A fairly neutral oil keeps things moist without an overpowering flavor.
• Rice vinegar – This traditional Asian vinegar provides the acid component to the marinade.
• Soy sauce – Adds saltiness and that mouthwatering “umami” flavor.
• Honey – Just a hint of sweetness to balance out the saltiness of the soy sauce.
• Sesame oil – A touch of this oil adds a deep nuttiness. Don’t go overboard.
• Pepper – Gives a little bite. Add more if you’d like.

How to Make and Store the Marinade

You can mix up this marinade and store it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days in a jar to use when ready. Or, you can freeze it in a mason jar, too, but allow at least 1 inch of headspace at the top for expansion.

When ready to use the marinade, pour it over chicken in a zip-top bag or container with a lid. Let it marinate for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours to infuse flavor. If you plan to freeze the chicken in the marinade, do not let it marinate first.

Then, grill, slow cook, pressure cook, or bake your marinated Asian Sesame Chicken. You choose your method! We’ve included instructions for how to cook boneless chicken breasts any of these ways in the recipe below.

Ideas for Serving Asian Sesame Chicken

Idea #1: Asian Chicken Wrap

One unique way to serve this marinated chicken is in an Asian Chicken Wrap. To make it, grill the chicken, chop it, and serve it in a wrap with thinly shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, julienned water chestnuts, and a little brown rice. Boil the remaining marinade, strain out the solids, and use as a sauce.

Idea #2: Asian Slaw Salad with Chicken

Grill the chicken and chop it up. Boil the marinade, strain out the solids, and let it cool. Create a salad of shredded coleslaw, shredded carrots, frozen edamame (that’s been thawed), roasted sunflower seeds, roasted almonds, and dried cranberries. Feel free to add chopped apples or pears, too. Top it with the chicken and cooled sauce, which works as a dressing! It’s delicious.

Idea #3: A Simple Asian Chicken Dinner

Just serve the cooked chicken on top of rice. Stir-fry your favorite asian veggies as a side. You can find a bag of these in the freezer section to make it easy. Again, you can boil the marinade, strain it, and use it as a sauce over the veggies, rice, and chicken. So simple and healthy!

MORE CHICKEN MARINADES YOU MUST TRY

Try some of other other favorite healthy chicken marinades to mix things up:

• Lemon Garlic Chicken Marinade
• Cilantro Lime Chicken Marinade
• Balsamic Herb Chicken Marinade
• Honey Dijon Chicken Marinade
• Southwest Chicken Marinade
• The BEST Savory Chicken Marinade

Download our Free Chicken Marinades Cheat Sheet Printable!

If you want to have these simple marinade combos on hand anytime, download our quick cheat sheet. This handy one-page printable includes all the recipes and 4 options for cooking your marinated chicken breasts. Tape it up inside a cabinet or pantry door, so you can whip up these recipes anytime.

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