Last year, I discovered that by adding coconut cream to barbecue marinade, meat becomes more moist and tender. More importantly, the meat stays moist even after it has cooled. I surmised it was due to the absorption of liquid, and it is, but it is more than that. Coconut cream contains a substantial amount of oil. In fact, if you boil coconut cream long enough, it will turn into oil with some toasted curdled cream — called latik in the Philippines — floating to the top.
The realization that it must be the oil that made the meat extra moist came after I used another oily ingredient in my marinade. Mayonnaise. There was this interesting recipe that had very few ingredients for the marinade but the combination made sense — mayonnaise, citrus juice, garlic, chilies and cilantro. I decided to try it, the chicken came out very moist and tender, and I easily made the connection with the previous recipe using coconut cream.
I have since tried the technique using cream, whole milk and sour cream and they all work. If you’re allergic to eggs or something, since mayonnaise contains egg yolks, you might want to use cream, whole milk or sour cream instead.
Below is the recipe for the mayo marinated chicken.
Recipe: Mayo marinated chicken skewers
Ingredients
- 6 chicken thigh fillets, skin on
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 heaping tbsps. of mayonnaise (if you use low-fat, I can’t guarantee that the result will be good)
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 finger chili
- 1/2 tsp. of finely sliced cilantro
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into thin slices about two inches long.
- Grate the garlic.
- Chop the chili.
- In a bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, chopped chili, grated garlic, cilantro, and salt and pepper, to taste.
- Add the chicken to the mayonnaise mixture and mix. Cover and allow to marinade for at least two hours.
- About 30 minutes before you intend to start grilling, soak the bamboo skewers in water.
- Thread the chicken with the skewers, four to five pieces per stick.
- Grill the chicken, about three minutes per side. No basting is necessary. Note that the chicken won’t turn very dark during grilling because the marinade is very light in color. So, don’t wait for the chicken to turn brown — it will be overdone by that time.
- Serve the chicken skewers by themselves as an appetizer, or with rice as a main course.
Preparation time: 10 minute(s), excluding marinating time
Cooking time: 6 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 2 to 3
My mom also uses almost the exact same marinade for pork spareribs. Hers are absolutely delicious, moist and tender. Mayo works!
Am going to try it with scrambled eggs next hehe
Ms. Connie,
Interesting. I attended a seminar once and we marinated a whole chicken with mustard. Everyone was skeptical but after roasting, it was one of the best marinades everyone tasted. I think a combination of mayo and mustard might even be better now.
Buttermilk and yogurt are also great to marinade with. In fact, if you use cream, sour cream or any dairy PLUS add something citrus like lime, lemon, calamansi or vinegar you are actually making buttermilk- I learned this from one of your earlier blogs about buttermilk.
Another great thing about using the above ingredients is that it’s thickness holds the seasonings to the meat. This allows you to keep the marinade on even when it hits the grill. These are great for shish kebabs and all kinds of meat- chicken, pork, beef and even fish!
I do a baked chicken curry using mayo, curry powder, salt and pepper as marinade. Then I put the marinated chicken in a pyrex dish and add more of the marinade mixture and then I top it with cornflakes and bake until the chicken is cooked through. The recipe was shared with me by my friend’s Mom.
Do you process the cornflakes first to make fine crumbs?
I just slightly crush the cornflakes for more crunch
Yogurt does make a good marinade for chicken… Makes really juicy fried chicken! Now, i wat to try coconut milk and mayo.
Tandoori chicken is made using yogurt and spices as a marinade for the chicken. Gives the chicken a kick; I like thigh meat over breast meat for most of my chicken experiments.