Quick Look at the
Best Mojo Chicken Marinade
- Ready In: 5 minutes
- Makes: Enough to cover 5 chicken thighs
- Main Ingredients: Orange juice, olive oil, lime juice, citrus zest, and seasonings.
- Why You’ll Love It: Quickly influse bold, Cuban-inspired flavors whenever you want to add some bright flavor to your standard grilled chicken breasts, chicken thighs, or pork chops.
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Mojo Chicken Marinade Ingredients & Substitutions
Be sure to see the recipe card below for a full listing of ingredients, instructions, and estimated nutritional information.
- Orange Juice: A traditional mojo chicken marinade recipe will commonly call for sour orange juice, but we’re making our own by adding a bit of orange juice concentrate and lime juice.
- White Onion: Swap for yellow onion or red onion.
- Olive Oil: Select a quality extra virgin olive oil as it’ll add flavor and help distribute the citrus flavors throughout the meat.
How To Make Mojo Chicken Marinade
Step 1 – Combine marinade ingredients into a small bowl and whisk.
Step 2 – Cover chicken and let marinate at room temperature for up to 30 minutes.
How Long To Marinate
The acid in orange juice can actually break down chicken protein, making it feel mushy. Marinating time varies depending on the cut of chicken you’re using. Since thighs tend to be thinner than breasts, we’re marinating ours for 30 minutes. Want more mojo flavor? Check out our Grilled Mojo Chicken recipe where we divide the marinade to be used later as a sauce to add more flavor to the chicken.
Mojo Chicken Marinade for Grilling
- Remove chicken from marinade, allowing excess marinade drip off.
- Place marinated chicken thighs on a pre-heated grill and let cook for 3-4 minutes per side or until internal temp reaches 160 degrees F.
- Let the chicken rest on a cutting board at room temperature for about 5-10 minutes and enjoy with some fluffy white rice and seasoned black beans!
- Other Proteins: grill boneless chicken breasts or bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, grilled pork tenderloin or grilled pork chops. On the side, we love to enjoy mojo chicken with rice and some seasoned black beans!
What To Serve With Mojo Chicken
Our Grilled Chicken Mojo and Seasoned Black Beans is the no-brainer recipe to pair with this marinade. But you could also use it to add flavor to chicken tacos, burrito bowls, or chicken burritos.
Recipe FAQ & Tips
Not especially. Most of the spice flavor comes from the garlic, which provides a warming flavor rather true heat that you’d experience from a spicy pepper.
We wouldn’t recommend it as the acid could cook the shrimp similar to the process in ceviche. Instead, simmer the marinade until it thickens and use it as a sauce.
Marinating time varies depending on the thickness of your meat. For chicken thighs, marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes. For thicker chicken breasts, marinate up to an hour in the refrigerator.
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Ingredients
- ½ cup orange juice
- ¼ cup lime juice
- ¼ cup white onion, grated
- 2-3 tablespoons orange juice concentrate
- 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon lime zest
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano leaves
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Combine: In a medium bowl, add ½ cup orange juice, ¼ cup lime juice, ¼ cup white onion (grated), 2-3 tablespoons orange juice concentrate, 2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 2 teaspoons garlic, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 1 teaspoon lime zest, 1 teaspoon orange zest, ½ teaspoon ground cumin, ½ teaspoon dried oregano leaves, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper. Whisk to combine. Alternatively, you can add to a mason jar. Seal tightly with lid and then shake to combine.
- Marinate: Pour over your chicken or pork and let marinate for 30 minutes.
- Cook and Serve: Cook however you like – we love easy grilled chicken thighs with this to make Mojo Chicken!
Notes
- Orange Juice Concentrate: we love using a bit of orange juice concentrate in recipes to really amp up that orange flavor! You will find it in the freezer section of your grocery store!
- Marinate Time: since there is so much citrus in this marinade we wouldn’t recommend marinating more than about 30 minutes as the citrus will start to cook the chicken and will change the texture (and not in a good way!).
Liz says
Wow! This left my chicken so flavorful. Keeping this one handy all summer long!
Bridget Montag says
So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the review!