A simple marinade can go a long way. However, sometimes making marinades from scratch can be very costly. Oils, vinegars and fresh herbs are not always cheap. If you do not have an herb garden, the little plastic pouches of fresh herbs run $3-4 each at the grocery store. My suggestion is to bulk up. If you begin making three-four batches of marinade at a time you will make the most of each ingredient you have to purchase. (I can't recall how many times I bought a packet of basil, used enough for the one tablespoon in the recipe, and then watched the rest rot away over the next three weeks while I searched for other recipes needing fresh basil.) This recipe calls for one lemon. It is more cost effective to buy a bag of lemons. Therefore, I recommend making three-four batches of the following marinade and storing it in the fridge (it will become solid but will return to a liquid after 30 minutes at room temperature) or tossing it into a bag of chicken before freezing.
One batch of marinade:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon fresh oregano, finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 tablespoon honey
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl.
For The Suburban Challenge I made three batches and did the following:
1. Marinated chicken wings for the grill.
2. Placed a batch in a plastic bag with three chicken breast and froze it for a latter date.
3. Cooked it in a Slow Cooker with rice: I mixed 3 cups of chicken broth with 1.5 cups of rice. I then placed the rice into a slow cooker with the marinated chicken breast on top of the mixture dumping all of the marinade into the crock. I cooked it in the slow cooker for 2 hours on high. Alternatively, you could cook in a casserole at 350 for 50 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed all the liquid.
Here is a bag ready for the freezer. Next time Steve wants to grill, I'm ready.
Saturday night's chicken wings.
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