THE BEST Chipotle Chicken Marinade

Our favorite marinade for grilled chicken!

This is a very easy recipe that also feels really special and unique. It’s a go-to for summer get-togethers because it’s easy to make a huge batch and people LOVE IT.

Every time I’ve made this for people, they have asked for the recipe. Which I think is the number one sign that you have a VERY GOOD dish on your hands.

When I say this is an easy marinade, I am not messing with you. Get all of your ingredients out. Put them in your blender. Blend them together. Marinate chicken. It takes 5 minutes!

This recipe also employs two of my favorite kitchen shortcuts:

• Not peeling garlic. Garlic peels are my least favorite thing about garlic. I usually buy the bag of pre-peeled cloves, but for this, I take a whole head and put it in the blender. The peels will get burned up during the grilling.
• Using orange juice instead of lime juice. For marinades or other cooked sauces with lots of strong flavors, I sub orange juice for fresh-squeezed lemon/lime juice. It is so much quicker and still delivers the same citrus punch/ability to tenderize.

What gives this the smoky and spicy chipotle flavor is a can of chipotle peppers in adobo. This is an ingredient I didn’t know existed until a couple of years ago and it has changed my world cooking-wise! You can find this in the Mexican food aisle of your grocery store. I get mine at Aldi. (It’s also available on Amazon if you’re living that prime life.)

I use the whole can in this recipe, but feel free to tone it down a bit if you want less spice. Also, keep in mind the longer you let it marinate, the spicier your chicken will get!