Greek Yogurt Marinated Chicken

These Greek Yogurt Marinated Chicken Thighs are light, healthy and simple to make.  Easy to make them on a BBQ grill, or a grill pan on the stovetop, for those crispy and crunchy charred edges and juicy tender centre.

Recipe Highlights

1. Easy to make with only 8 simple ingredients
2. Marinate the chicken ahead of time so all you need to do is cook it
3. It works with chicken thighs, chicken tenders, and chicken breasts.
4. Make your own chicken kaboobs and marinate using this recipe
5. Make it on the BBQ grill outside in summer, or inside on a grill pan on the stove in winter
6. Marinated chicken makes for great leftovers and meal prepping with your favourite rice and veges

Ingredients

While marinating the chicken for a few hours is ideal, if you only have 30 minutes, or 5 minutes to marinate the chicken, don't let that stop you from making it.

Regardless of how long you marinate for, you can still achieve a delicious flavour with tender juicy chicken and a nice char on the outside.

Ingredient Notes

• Chicken: I love using skinless chicken thighs as they have a little bit of fat, but not too much which adds just the right amount of flavour for me. If you're not a fan of chicken thigh, you could use chicken breasts or even chicken tenders, but you'll need to be careful not to overcook as they may have a tendency to dry out from overcooking due to having less fat.
• Yogurt: I use full fat greek yogurt because its thick and creamy. It coats the meat better so stays on better whilst cooking, allowing those char marks to develop
• Garlic and Ginger: these are essential to adding a good flavour base. Using either fresh or the garlic and ginger that comes in a jar is fine. I;ve tried both and can't really notice much difference
• Garlic Salt: I love using garlic salt for an extra garlic flavour, but feel free to use plain sea salt or even onion salt. The different types of salt will slightly alter the flavour profile of the finished dish, but not too much.
• Curry Powder: I use a mild curry powder and its really just to add additional flavour as opposed to heat. There are thai and indian curry powders readily available in the supermarket to choose from, but I typically use Clives of India curry powder,
• Parsley: this adds some colour and earthiness to the marinade. Fresh, semi dried or dried parsley all work, and if you don;t have this, you could substitute with basil, or chives or even leave it out.
• Lemon: Lemon is essential in this marinate to balance out all the flavour and to add acidity to the marinade. It also pairs well with the garlic and ginger. Both juice and zest are used to add a tang and freshness to this marinade.

How To Make

1. Add the yoghurt, crushed garlic, ginger, curry powder, garlic salt, lemon juice and zest and dried parsley to a bowl and mix together.   

2. Lay chicken thighs in a baking tray or other container, pour over the yogurt marinade, cover with  lid or foil and refrigerate for minimum of 3 hours 

3. Heat grill on high, making sure it is hot before putting meat on.  Shake of excess yogurt marinade and lay chicken pieces as flat as possible, and without touching  on a super hot grill to get those char marks, cooking for 3 to 4 minutes each side, depending on how big your chicken thighs are it may take shorter or longer for them to cook through.  If you’re not sure, make an incision in one or cut one in half to check if its cooked through. 

4. Once cooked arrange on a platter for serving with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, grilled lemon wedges and diced chives. 

* IMPORTANT: Do not keep excess marinade to use on other meats or to drizzle on chicken once it is cooked. Excess marinade should be discarded once the meat is removed.

Serving Ideas

• Mashed sweet potato, with a side of green beans and broccoli
• Stirfried garlic greans. Think bok choy, pak choi, spinach, beans, zucchini lightly sauted in garlic and a swish of vegetable broth.
• Good old frozen veges. Maybe mixed with a bit of rice and soy sauce, or not.
• Get a little crazy and boil up a pot of your favourite pasta and stir through some pesto sauce.
• Garden Salad of lettuce, chopped tomato, cucumber, carrot cucumber and crumbled feta

Substitutions and Shortcuts

• I love to use Chobani Greek yogurt for this yoghurt for this marinade, but if you can’t find Greek yoghurt, plain unflavoured yoghurt would be fine. I prefer to use a full fat yogurt one as I find it results in a more flavourful , richer tasting marinade.
• If you’re unable to get your hands on fresh garlic and ginger, take a shortcut and keep the bottled variety in your fridge to add flavour and depth to your weeknight dinners.
• If you’re super organised with your meal planning, you can marinate the chicken overnight in the yoghurt mixture, but if not, half an hour or even 15 minutes is fine. I’ll admit that sometimes I’m in a rush and I just made the marinade, put it into the chicken and get cooking.

This is one of my favourite things to make in summer when I’ve overdosed on curries, as I tend to do in the cooler months.  I love it for its simplicity, clean eating goodness and knowing that I can have this as my go to dish that is going to please everyone at the dinner table. 

Other Chicken Recipes

• Clean Eating Butter Chicken
• Baked Paprika Parmesan Chicken
• Clean Eating Chicken Salad
• Healthy Salt & Chilli Chicken
• Chicken & Mushroom Filos.

Greek Yogurt Marinated Chicken

Kim

These Greek Yogurt Marinated Chicken Thighs are light, healthy and simple to make.  Easy to make them on a BBQ grill, or a grill pan on the stovetop, for those crispy and crunchy charred edges and juicy tender centre.

4.25 from 4 votes

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Recipe Tags: Low Carb

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Tim to Marinade 3 hours hrs

Total Time 40 minutes mins

Course Dinner

Cuisine Australian

Servings 4 people

Calories 354 kcal

Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

• 6  skinless Chicken thigh pieces  - all roughly the same size

Marinade

• 1  cup  Greek yoghurt
• Juice and zest of 1 Lemon
• 2  tablespoons  Garlic crushed
• 2  tablespoons  Ginger freshly grated
• 2  teaspoons  Curry powder mild
• 1  teaspoon  Garlic salt
• 1  teaspoon  Dried Parsley

Instructions

 

• Add the yoghurt, crushed garlic, ginger, curry powder, garlic salt, lemon juice and zest and dried parsley to a bowl and mix together.
• Lay chicken thighs in a baking tray or other container, pour over the yogurt marinade, cover with lid or foil and refrigerate for minimum of 3 hours
• Heat grill on high, making sure it is hot before putting meat on.  Shake of excess yogurt marinade and lay chicken pieces as flat as possible, and without touching  on a super hot grill to get those char marks, cooking for 3 to 4 minutes each side, depending on how big your chicken thighs are it may take shorter or longer for them to cook through.  If you’re not sure, make an incision in one or cut one in half to check if its cooked through. 
• Once cooked arrange on a platter for serving with a sprinkling of salt and pepper, grilled lemon wedges and diced chives.

Notes

1. Do not keep excess marinade to use on other meats or to drizzle on chicken once it is cooked. Excess marinade should be discarded once the meat is removed.
2. Chicken: I love using skinless chicken thighs as they have a little bit of fat, but not too much which adds just the right amount of flavour for me. If you're not a fan of chicken thigh, you could use chicken breasts or even chicken tenders, but you'll need to be careful not to overcook as they may have a tendency to dry out from overcooking due to having less fat.
3. Yogurt: I use full fat greek yogurt because its thick and creamy. It coats the meat better so stays on better whilst cooking, allowing those char marks to develop
4. Garlic and Ginger: these are essential to adding a good flavour base. Using either fresh or the garlic and ginger that comes in a jar is fine. I;ve tried both and can't really notice much difference
5. Garlic Salt: I love using garlic salt for an extra garlic flavour, but feel free to use plain sea salt or even onion salt. The different types of salt will slightly alter the flavour profile of the finished dish, but not too much.
6. Curry Powder: I use a mild curry powder and its really just to add additional flavour as opposed to heat. There are thai and indian curry powders readily available in the supermarket to choose from, but I typically use Clives of India curry powder,
7. Parsley: this adds some colour and earthiness to the marinade. Fresh, semi dried or dried parsley all work, and if you don;t have this, you could substitute with basil, or chives or even leave it out.
8. Lemon: Lemon is essential in this marinate to balance out all the flavour and to add acidity to the marinade. It also pairs well with the garlic and ginger. Both juice and zest are used to add a tang and freshness to this marinade.

Nutrition

Calories: 354kcalCarbohydrates: 28gProtein: 37gFat: 22gSaturated Fat: 6gFiber: 3gSugar: 5g

Note: Sugars contained in this recipe are from naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables or other natural sweeteners.

Keyword greek yoghurt chicken, Yoghurt marinated chicken

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