How to Marinate Your Food

One of the easiest ways to add flavor to your food is too marinate it. But not every marinated food is created equally. Here are some helpful tips on how to PROPERLY marinate your food to get the most flavor into your food.

Poultry Marinade

• You can marinate an entire chicken or chicken parts. Piercing the chicken with a fork, or cutting it into smaller pieces will help it absorb marinade.
• Removing the skin from the chicken will help it absorb marinade
• In general, two hours of marinating is long enough for the meat to soak up the flavor, but poultry can marinate for up to two days in the refrigerator. TIP: Very acidic marinades can actually toughen the meat over time, so follow the recipe or package directions.

Beef Marinade

• Marinating is best suited for the tougher steak cuts like flank, skirt, sirloin, round and hanger. These cuts can usually marinate up to 24 hours. You can actually ruin better-quality steaks, like porterhouse or rib-eye, by marinating them.

Fish Marinade

• Fish and shellfish should marinate for only 30 minutes to an hour; any longer and the flesh might start to “cook” and go mushy.