Best Chicken Coffee Marinade Recipe is tasty for beef, pork, or chicken! It’s the perfect marinade for grilling season; with chicken thighs or breasts!

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Friends, we love the rich flavor of this coffee marinade for grilling season! It’s delicious for chicken drumsticks, chicken thighs, or chicken breasts. It’s also great for pork and beef!

BEST Chicken Coffee Marinade Recipe

By marinating chicken ahead of time, this is the tastiest grilled chicken recipe you’ll make this summer!

Coffee is the secret ingredient–the flavor is out of this world. Also, grab the tips below: How to freeze marinated chicken!

Ingredients for coffee marinade

  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Soy sauce
  • Strong coffee (or espresso)
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Lemon or lime juice
  • Brown sugar
  • Dried rosemary
  • Dijon mustard
  • Salt & pepper & garlic powder
  • Chicken breasts or 4-5 lb chicken
  • Fresh chives

Hiking Mt. Bachelor

We had guests coming to dinner, so pulling marinated chicken out of the freezer made menu planning easy!

Especially since we were taking a hike up to Mount Bachelor, and we didn’t know how long it would take us.

I especially love this quote:

Let us come alive to the splendor that is all around us and see the beauty in ordinary things. – Thomas Merten

BEST Chicken Coffee Marinade Recipe

After a record year for snow, Paul and I hiked up by Mt. Bachelor in our shorts and sunglasses last month, just one of the many hikes we wanted to do. (Are you following my outings on my Instagram stories? @reluctantentertainer)

BEST Chicken Coffee Marinade Recipe

It was a beautiful, brief respite from the heat, and we cooled off several times by laying in the snow!

BEST Chicken Coffee Marinade Recipe

We ended up at Dutchman Flat Nordic Trails, and as you can see, the snow level would have been mighty high this past winter.

BEST Chicken Coffee Marinade Recipe

We hiked to the end of the trail in the snow!

The snow felt so good.

Chicken Coffee Marinade

Back home, we had chicken marinating (love this recipe) and a salad in the fridge. Dinner was almost ready!

We love barbecue chicken in the spring and summertime! Oh, and by the way, are by following me on Pinterest? I think you’ll love my Summer Entertaining & Recipes Board!

How to freeze marinated chicken

We often double or triple the marinade recipe, marinate the chicken, and then freeze in plastic bags. Or, place in a container with a lid.

  1. Place chicken breasts in plastic bag and pour ingredients into bag. Or, place in a container with a lid.
  2. Seal, and push any air out of the bag, and evenly coat chicken breasts with marinade. Or, shake the container (several times, during the 24 hour period).
  3. Make sure and mark with a Sharpie pen on each bag how many pieces of chicken are inside, so you know if you need 1 or 2 bags for your meal!
  4. Press flat and freeze. Or marinate in the fridge for up to 24 hours in the container with a lid.
  5. When ready to grill, remove from freezer and place in the fridge to defrost the meat. Or remove from the container and place on the grill. TOSS the excess of marinade – do not reuse it.

This makes entertaining super easy when you know company is coming, because you remove a bag of chicken from the freezer, defrost, and put on the grill!

Garnish with fresh chives  or herbs from the garden!

BEST Chicken Coffee Marinade Recipe

More delicious recipes

Serve with BEST Potato Salad or Italian Spaghetti Salad, this fantastic Green Mango Salad, Honey Buttermilk Bread, and Orange Creamsicle Freezer Dessert!

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Get the Recipe:

BEST Chicken Coffee Marinade Recipe

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
marinate time up to: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 23 minutes
Yield: 8
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Ingredients
 

  • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ½ cup balsamic vinegar, we use DeLallo
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • ½ cup strong coffee
  • ¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
  • cup lemon or lime juice, fresh squeezed
  • ¾ cup brown sugar
  • 2 tsp. dried rosemary
  • 2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. ground black pepper
  • 2 tsp. garlic powder
  • 8-10 chicken breasts or 4-5 lb chicken
  • Fresh chives

Instructions
 

  • Whisk together all ingredients, except for chicken. Place in a large container with a lid that will hold all of the chicken breasts.
  • Add the chicken; close securely and shake.
  • Marinate in fridge for up to 24 hours, shaking the container several times to move around the chicken evenly. Optional to put in a ziplock bag and freeze (remove all of the air out of the bag).
  • Prepare the grill; grill the chicken on each side until cooked. Remove from the grill.
  • Let rest for 5 minutes before serving; garnish with fresh chives!
Cuisine: American
Course: Main Course
Did you make this recipe?Tag @reluctantentertainer on Instagram and hashtag it #reluctantentertainer!