Mayo-Marinated Chicken With Chimichurri Recipe (2024)

Question about the mayo searing. If you are going to sous vide, do you put the mayo on the meat before or after the sous vide?

A variation I love is blending 1 tbs of garlic paste and 1 tbs of mushroom powder into 1/4 cup mayo. It's amazing on almost any meat or fish.When a grill is not available it makes 6oz filet mingon steaks done in my cast iron skillet come out perfectly medium rare, with a beautiful and delicious note of crust that doesn't require overcooking.

Ok now the whole nation is going to be cooking with mayo :)If you like Indian flavors, it can get even simpler. Buy masala from any Indian store (I prefer one of the the Shaan kabab mixes for this). Mix the masala with mayo (adjust based on preferred spice level), slather it on the meat and bake. This works best for thinner portions of meat. Lamb or goat chops work well. Use a thermometer to control doneness. You can throw in some veggies into the pan as well. Elegant family dinner in 20.

Not just for meat. I made an aioli with garlic and fish sauce, coated broccoli, onions and red peppers, then sautéed. Unbelievable!

In Stony Brook, in the 70's, my father would come home with bluefish, fished from Montauk. My mother would smear mayo on it and pop it under the broiler. I've been doing the same for chicken and fish since. I stir mayo into pan-fried potatoes just before serving. My kids grew up eating hot pasta & peas, tossed with mayo instead of butter, mixed with parmesan, garlic & parsley for a quick after school snack. I could go on and on...I'm telling you - Mayonnaise - best thing since sliced bread!

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I considered this one of my great secrets. You've let the mayo out of the jar Kenji. You've taught me so much over the years and I'm grateful, but...come on, there won't be any secrets left.

This is intriguing, can you use lower fat mayo or does it only work with regular mayo? I’ve used lower fat mayo for grilled cheese and Cuban sandwiches and it works perfectly well. Does the higher heat from grilling change this when you use it as a marinade?

I've never made a comment before, but this recipe was so delicious that I had to say something! I replaced the chimichurri with pesto, but followed all of the other steps perfectly. Highly recommend.

Best Foods/Hellman's 4eva!

Hi Maggie, I tried Tony R’s suggestion and it is a delicious favorite now! I used 8 boneless chicken thighs, 1 cup avocado oil mayonnaise (any mayo will work, this is what I had), Two heaping tablespoons Masala, couple of grinds of black pepper and a pinch of salt. Mixed this together in a bowl, coat each individual chick thigh with mixture and blobbed the rest on top when they were all coated. Baked in a 16” enamel covered cast iron Paella pan at 425 degrees for twenty minutes. YUM!

No. The point is the mayo helps the marinade stick, and also provides an extra coating of fat and protein that makes the meat brown better. See the original article https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/dining/mayo-meat-marinade.html

For years, I have made "maria chicken" for my family. Mix equal amounts of bottled Italian dressing and mayo. "Marinate" boneless, skinless chicken breasts for ten minutes up to overnight. Grill! Moist, delicious chicken. Can add honey, soy, brown sugar, more garlic...whatever suits you. But the mayo is oil & egg, a perfect carrier for flavor.

I will forever use mayo when grilling chicken. Boneless skinless breasts to die for. I add 1/3 part miso paste to 2/3 part mayo and the flavor is out of this world

Am I right in assuming that the mayo isn't necessary if you use a skin on bone in thigh?

Duke’s mayo…the best!

Concurring with comments declaring this sauce/marinade works for everything. Besides chimichurri I used several readers suggestions, mixing mayo with my different pestos, using different seeds or nuts with basil or rosemary or cilantro or, yes, carrot tops with the garlic. I’ve mixed it with curry paste or Indian spices, I’ve used miso. I’ve used it to brown fish, and it even made tempeh cutlets taste good! It’s great with whatever veggies are alongside. FAST meal. Genius easy. KEEPER.

does it make a difference if it’s kewpie mayo or regular mayo?

I did just the mayonnaise part of this recipe as I was using it to go along with a pasta dish. Am now completely sold on coating things with mayonnaise- it browned incredibly in a cast iron skillet!

For the chimichurri I accidentally used cayenne instead of the paprika…. Oops! Strangely, the brilliance of the recipe shone through and it turned out to be legitimately delicious.

What a great technique to have in my kitchen toolkit. Thanks Kenji! Dinner turned out great, and this was delicious.

use food processor for chimichurri and dice chicken before marinating, cooking goes faster

Mayo part was great. The chimichurri recipe was a failure.

Internal temperature 150 - 160

This is an amazing recipe. I’ve also used salsa verde and it works a treat!

I made this with chicken tenderloins and just excellent! Now I want to try the Thai curry marinade.

The 1/4 cup of dried oregano scared me off, so I switched over to Bittman’s Chile chimichurri recipe on this site. Wonderful results. We enjoyed the chicken with sautéed corn & zucchini. I’m a convert to mayo-marinade!

Made this recipe the other night using bone-in chicken thighs. I marinated the thighs for several hours then roasted them in the oven and can not wait to make it again. OUTSTANDING flavor!

Fabulous! This was a hit and I'll be making it (and plenty of other meats) with mayo marinades again! I was concerned about the reviews of the linked chimichurri recipe (and wanted to make it as easier weekend recipe), so I grabbed Trader Joe's refrigerated version, which hit the spot.

If you can get it in your area, try Dukes mayo, based in Richmond, Virginia. Far superior to Hellmann’s in my opinion, a little tangier and less sweet. My Wegmans in NY carries it.