Grill

The 33 Marinade Recipes You Need for Memorial Day

Image may contain Food Pork Meal Dish Roast and Animal
Photo by Christopher Testani.

Ready to get out and grill? Hold your horses: First, marinate your meat, seafood, and vegetables with these flavor-packed, tenderizing sauces.

Head this way for even more great grilling recipes →

  • Image may contain Plant Citrus Fruit Fruit Food Orange Grapefruit and Produce
    Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Rhoda Boone
    1/33

    Garlic Mojo Sauce

    This Latin-Carribean marinade is perfect for shrimp, or fish, or chicken, but it's not just a marinade—this classic sauce can also be spooned over meat for a piquant finishing touch, and deployed as a flavorful stir-in for rice.

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  • Photo by Evan Sung © 2016
    2/33

    Four-Ingredient Onion Marinade

    The simple marinade for this skirt steak contains just four ingredients: onion, garlic, olive oil, and water, but the result is a tender and juicy steak bursting with flavor.

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  • Photo by Christopher Testani.
    3/33

    Spicy, Garlicky Yogurt Marinade

    A yogurt marinade keeps chicken juicy and imparts signature tanginess. It also creates a crisp exterior. This delicious marinade includes extra punch from a vinegar-based hot sauce, and a boost of flavor from garlic and fresh oregano.

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  • Kang Kim
    4/33

    Chimichurri Marinade

    This colorful sauce doubles as a marinade and as a sauce accompaniment to all cuts of beef.

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  • Eric Wolfinger
    7/33

    Sweet Lemongrass Marinade

    This flavorful lemongrass marinade is common in Vietnam, where it's used on thin pork chops that are quickly grilled over a hot fire. Because the marinade has a lot of sugar, it caramelizes deliciously on the grill.

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  • 8/33

    Blender Chermoula Sauce

    Bursting with fresh herbs, garlic, lemon, and warm spices, this Moroccan sauce makes a great marinade or finishing sauce for meat and seafood.

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  • Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Jennifer Ophir
    9/33

    Maple Cardamom Salmon Marinade

    This is another three-ingredient stunner. By marinating salmon in olive oil, maple syrup, and cardamom, you can infuse it with sweet, subtle flavor.

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  • Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Astrid Chastka, Food Styling by Anna Hampton
    10/33

    Roasted Garlic Herb Sauce

    This sauce—developed for #cook90—is a kitchen workhorse. Use it to marinate fish, chicken, or shrimp. But don't stop there—use it to season rice, top a pizza, jazz up scrambled eggs, or to add a final punch of flavor to a soup.

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  • donna hay magazine, photography by Benjamin Dearnley
    11/33

    Miso Marinade

    Miso, with its distinctive savory flavor, makes a delicious marinade for these tender salmon skewers—or any kind of skewers, really.

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  • Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Rhoda Boone
    12/33

    Jalapeño and Lime Marinade

    A spicy, tangy marinade helps tenderize flavorful cuts of meat like flank and skirt steak, making them a perfect filling for a batch of tacos.

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  • Photo by Ted Cavanaugh
    13/33

    Spicy Lemongrass and Coconut Milk Marinade

    An all-star cast of ingredients, including lemongrass, garlic, ginger, coconut milk, fish sauce, lime, and turmeric, make up this creamy and punchy marinade. It's great on boneless short ribs, but feel free to branch out to chicken or pork!

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  • Photo by Christopher Testani
    14/33

    Red Curry Marinade

    Who says only meat deserves to be marinated? Marinating skinny eggplants in this red curry sauce imparts flavor throughout the whole vegetable.

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  • Photo by Nicole Franzen
    15/33

    Citrusy Habanero Marinade

    One citrusy, chile-laced, and very hard-working marinade serves two functions, flavoring the pork chops before and after they hit the grill.

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  • Jeremy Liebman
    16/33

    Salt, Pepper, and Vinegar Marinade

    This marinade contains just vinegar, salt, and pepper, but still manages to tenderize and impart tangy flavor to these crispy chicken thighs.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau
    17/33

    Lemony Greek Yogurt Marinade

    Lemon, Greek yogurt, and garlic—along with cumin and coriander—lend spiciness and tanginess to hearty pork chops. Save some unused marinade to serve as the perfect sauce for the finished dish.

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  • Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka, Food Styling by Olivia Mack Anderson
    18/33

    Chile and Fish Sauce Marinade

    The combination of chile paste and fish sauce creates the perfect balance of powerful spice and satisfying umami in this marinade that we like to use for Asian-inspired pork and Brussels sprouts.

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  • Christina Holmes
    19/33

    Soy and Ginger Marinade

    Tofu is the perfect blank canvas for this sauce of jalapeño, soy sauce, brown sugar, and ginger—it allows the spicy sweetness of the ingredients to truly shine.

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  • Hirsheimer & Hamilton
    20/33

    Seasoned Citrus Marinade

    This aggressively seasoned marinade contains citrus in four forms: lime zest, lime juice, orange zest, and orange juice. It's the perfect marinade for tender chicken thighs.

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  • Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Alex Brannian, Food Styling by Dawn Perry
    21/33

    Tomato-Garlic Coconut Milk Marinade

    We love the spicy and creamy marinade that goes on our Indian-inspired skewers. It does triple duty—chicken, eggplant, tomatoes, and red onion all get marinated in the same richly spiced coconut milk and then grilled on skewers.

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  • Photo by Alex Lau
    22/33

    Cumin and Coriander Vinegar Marinade

    A herbaceous oil-and-vinegar marinade seasons lentils in this recipe, but would be delicious on any kind of bean for a refreshing cookout side dish.

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  • Peden + Munk
    23/33

    Summery Herb Marinade

    This herb marinade is bright and summery, and light enough to let the skin get nice and crisp on chicken wings.

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  • photo by Kang Kim
    24/33

    Jerk Marinade

    This classic Jamaican marinade is spicy and slightly sweet and mind-bendingly good on chicken.

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  • Patricia Heal
    25/33

    Ancho Chile Marinade

    Wine, oil, garlic, oregano, ancho chile powder, and lemon juice combine to create a bright, hot blended sauce that makes leg of lamb flavorful and tender.

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  • 26/33

    Mediterranean Marinade

    Redolent with garlic, piquant with fresh lemon juice, and fragrant with extra-virgin olive oil, this marinade instantly transports you to the Mediterranean. There's not a single kind of grilled meat or fish that doesn't taste better bathed in it.

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  • Gail Albert Halaban
    29/33

    Easy Chicken Masala

    Masala spice and yogurt are a winning combination—they create the perfect balance of spice and yogurty, creamy tang in this Indian-inspired marinade.

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  • Photo by Jonathan Lovekin
    30/33

    Harissa and Cumin Marinade

    This Northern African marinade is sweet and spicy and beautifully aromatic—a perfect way to season sea bass.

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  • Diane Fields
    31/33

    Korean BBQ Marinade

    Add some Korean barbecue flavor to any dish with this sweet-and-salty marinade featuring soy sauce, sesame oil, and turbinado sugar.

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  • Kang Kim
    32/33

    Sweet, Salty, and Sour Marinade

    Combining lemongrass, Thai chiles, cilantro, and fish sauce, this multi-purpose Asian marinade works just as well with pork as it does seafood.

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