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In this post: Easily create 5 dinners within minutes that you can either eat immediately or freezer for later with these AIP & Paleo chicken marinades.
Table of contents
Easily Cook Even If You've Got Low Energy
When you're in the middle of an autoimmune disease flare or just don't feel great, batch cooking can seem VERY daunting. Yet batch cooking can save you so much time – and energy – during the week.
It's like a catch-22, and an issue I hear SO much from my readers/viewers.
Easy Paleo & AIP Chicken Marinades
I recently came up with these 5 Paleo & AIP chicken marinades that you can easily put together, even when you're exhausted beyond words.
See also – The ULTIMATE Guide to the AIP Diet – everything you need to know to be successful!
Know how I know you can do that?
Because when I went to go film the video demo for this I was recovering from the stomach flu and could barely sit upright, much less stand and do a lot of cooking. Yet I still was able to assemble these 5 chicken dinners in a matter of minutes.
You can watch the full-length video on YouTube if you'd rather watch it than read! Watch the video here.
These AIP & Paleo chicken marinades use ingredients that are usually pretty easy to find in most grocery stores and are also budget-friendly.
Make one for dinner tonight or make all 5 and freeze for later! Simply thaw and then grill or roast in the oven.
How to make these marinades coconut-free
All but one of these marinades are already naturally coconut-free. However, if you don't tolerate coconut well, no worries.
You can just omit the coconut aminos in the Honey Garlic marinade or make your own coconut-free coconut aminos using this recipe by Mel Joulwan.
I recommend making a batch of this and freezing it in an ice cube tray, giving you approx 2 tbs of “coconut aminos/soy sauce” per ice cube to use whenever you need it!
Other freezer meal recipes
If you like recipes like this, also make sure to check out these other freezer meals:
Thai Chicken Soup – When you're craving an AIP Chicken Soup, why not make it a Thai Chicken soup? SUPER flavorful, no nightshades, and so easy to freeze for later!
Cherry Balsamic Pot Roast – This Paleo, Whole30, and AIP pot roast recipe is delicious! It's a freezer meal prep recipe, but one that you can either make for dinner tonight OR throw the raw ingredients into a bag and freeze for later.
Greek Sheet Pan Supper – With simple prep and simple cleanup, an amazing burst of flavor awaits you with this Greek Sheet Pan Supper. It's a great freezer meal and meal prep recipe for those busy nights.
Chicken Marinades Recipe
I hope you enjoy these marinades! If you make them I'd love to hear how it turned out! Either comment below or share a pic on Instagram and tag me @thrivingautoimmune!
Chicken Marinades
Ingredients
IN EACH BAG:
- 1 to 2 lbs boneless, skinless Chicken Thighs or Chicken Breasts (Each bag gets 1-2 lb plus seasoning choices below)
LEMON GINGER
- 1 tbs Lemon Juice
- 1 tsp dried Ginger
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/4 cup Olive or Avocado Oil
ITALIAN
- 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/4 cup Olive or Avocado Oil
CILANTRO LIME
- 2 tbsp Lime Juice
- 2 tbsp Honey
- 1 bunch Cilantro (chopped finely)
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/4 cup Olive or Avocado Oil
HONEY GARLIC
- 1/4 cup Coconut Aminos (see notes to make coconut-free)
- 1/4 cup Honey
- 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
- 1/4 cup Olive or Avocado Oil
GREEK
- 1 tsp dried Oregano
- 1 tsp dried Basil
- 1/2 tsp dried Dill
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
- 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1/4 cup Olive or Avocado Oil
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients into a freezer bag.
- If making for tonight, marinate for 2-12 hours. If freezing, put into the freezer and then thaw in the fridge overnight or putting the bag into a bowl of cold water for a few hours.
TO COOK DO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
OVEN:
- Bake in a 425 F oven for 20-25 min, or until the internal temp is 165 F.
OR GRILL:
- Preheat the grill to med-high. Grill chicken for 6-8 min a side or until internal temp is 165 F.
I need to change up the dinner routine. I might have to try these out.
Can I use frozen chicken breast that I then add the marinade to and put back in the freezer? Not sure if this will work as well but have you ever tried this?
You sure can! It basically marinates when you thaw it in the fridge.
Could you marinate these then air fry them?
I’d assume so? I’ve never cooked chicken like this in an air fryer, but since an air fryer is just a convection oven I’d assume it’d be ok. But I have no idea how long or anything – that I’d look up on google or something.
Thanks for making this list! I have a question. I noticed all the recipes but Italian have sea salt in them. Is that intentional or an oopsie? Just put a couple of these in the freezer; looking forward to trying them!
Oh weird (sorry for the delay, I just saw this!) but that’s a good question. I bet it was just an oopsie on my part. Surprised no one has ever mentioned that before! (though we did just transfer the recipe card to a new one so maybe something happened during that transfer too)
Could you also just dump these frozen into an instapot or would you recommend thawing and then cooking. If thawed I usually prefer to brown the meat before adding liquid and cooking in the instapot.
Yep, you could dump them frozen into an Instant Pot. If they’re all frozen into one big clump it may take a bit longer to cook though.
Thoughts on cooking the chicken in a slow cooker and then shredding for example? Would you need to add liquid do you think? Would I forgo the oil? Thanks!
If it’s for shredding then yeah, I might add 1/4 cup of water or broth to the slow cooker but I’d also keep the oil as I personally believe it helps lock in some of the moisture and give it flavor.
These are excellent tips for fast prep of quality meals. Here’s two additional hints I have used to ease the process:
1) If you are using boneless chicken, gently pound the raw meat into similar thickness for quicker and even cooking.
2) Fold back the top of the freezer bags which helps them stay open better.
Thank you!!
Great tips! Thanks for sharing!
Michele – I just finished watching your video on the AIP Summit. I have celiac and Hashimoto’s as well and experienced the same kind of health crisis as you all while having a young family to take care of. I’ve been on AIP for about 4 years now and it has been phenomenal in restoring my health. Thanks so much for this video and the recipes. I’ve had a lot of batch cooking fails over the years but I’d like to give it another shot using this method. It looks like you did about 3lbs of chicken per bag with about 6 breasts each. I like this idea because it’s enough for dinner one night and leftovers the next day for dinner as well (as opposed to just lunch). Could you link to that area where we can pay for more recipes like this? Thanks again and much gratitude for all you do!
So there are two areas right now – one is a book I created specifically for the AIP Summit – so if you buy the recordings you’ll get that as part of the bonus package. ( I think this is a link directly to that at 40% off: https://www.aipsummit.com/a/21009/iSUnimPr ) And then I ALSO have my Autoimmune Collective membership where I have a bunch of freezer meal plans you get instant access to plus each month I provide some sort of recipe book for AIP (like next month it’s going to be a bunch of AIP breakfast recipes that can be made ahead of time). You can find more on that here: https://autoimmunecollective.com/ . Let me know if you have any questions though – I’d be happy to answer them!
Wow!! These are so good and SO EASY!! We grilled the honey garlic, and plan to grill up the Greek next. So excited to eat this again!!
Yay, so glad you enjoyed it! The honey garlic is our fave 🙂
These are super combos but they are not AIP if your using olive and avocado oil and then heating as heating cooking oils (except palm) is not AIP unfortunately.
If you follow the Autoimmune Paleo Protocol version of AIP (the one by Dr. Sarah Ballantyne), which is the one I recommend and talk about throughout my site, then heating these oils is totally fine. Are you talking about the Amy Myer’s version of AIP? I’m not overly familiar with that version so perhaps it’s slightly different in that regard.
To the lady saying heating olive or avocado is not aip, I have never heard that Before??
I like chicken but there is only so much I can eat without it feeling like I’m eating the same meal every day. I love this idea! You end up with a variety of flavor and its quick and easy!
Thanks! Variety definitely helps.
I just started using the instapot. Do you know how long I would cook it for? Also would you let the stram valve off or slowly release steam? Thank you for these meals. I just made them and look forward to trying them!
I’d do about 8 minutes on high for chicken breasts and 10 for chicken thighs with about 10 minutes of natural release before letting the rest of the pressure go. Add more time for completely frozen (like about 5 minutes) and make sure there is at least 1 cup of liquid as well. That can be water, chicken stock, coconut milk or whatever, but without it the IP won’t come to pressure properly.