Quick Orange Chicken Marinade

Published: Jun 3, 2022 · Updated: Oct 19, 2023 by Laura Fuentes · This post may contain affiliate links

This delicious Orange Chicken Marinade is the perfect way to add flavor to the chicken. Fast, simple, and just six ingredients needed!

5 from 14 votes

Are you ready for a fast and simple marinade recipe? Great! This recipe for Quick Orange Chicken Marinade will show ybou that you can add a burst of flavor to your chicken dinner fast!

With just six simple ingredients, your tastebuds are about to be on high alert. This homemade chicken marinade is quick, flavorful, and has a pop of citrus taste! If you’re ready to take your next chicken night to a whole new level, this orange marinade recipe is ready and waiting!

How Long Can Chicken Marinate in Orange Juice?

For a fast and easy marinade, 20 minutes will do the trick. You can also marinate for longer, but I don’t recommend any more than 4 hours of time. Marinating time can vary and just depends on how much time you have.

Orange Marinade Ingredients

All you need to make this citrus chicken marinade recipe are easy ingredients that you may already have at home! Here are the ingredients needed:

olive oil: coats the chicken and helps to add flavor.
orange zest: perfect for adding a hint of orange flavor and natural sweetness.
orange juice: great for soaking into the chicken breasts for an all-over flavor.
salt: to your liking.
pepper: to your liking
chicken breasts: boneless skinless chicken breasts work best!

More epic marinades for chicken breasts here!

Swap your citrus and try my Lemon Chicken Marinade here!

How to Marinate Orange Chicken

Once you’ve gathered up all the ingredients, it’s time to whip up the marinade. Trust me when I say that this marinade is top-notch and delicious!

Add to an airtight bag
Pour all the ingredients into a sealable bag. Seal it and place it in the fridge. The length of time to marinate should be between 20 minutes up to 4 hours.

Preheat
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Be sure that you organize the oven racks so that they’re in a position to cook the chicken in the best way possible. Have one oven rack on the middle shelf and one right below it.
Also, line your baking sheets with parchment paper to avoid having a big mess to clean up. Save yourself some time after dinner!

Bake
Once the chicken is done marinating, place the chicken on the parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 35-40 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chicken to be sure that it’s done baking all the way. The perfect temperature for the chicken to be cooked and safe to eat is 165 degrees.

Watch this video to see the magic happen in 30 seconds!

How to Cook Marinated Chicken

Now that you know how easy it is to make this marinade, let’s talk about all the ways that you can use it! First off, if you aren’t quite ready to cook dinner yet, you can freeze your marinated chicken for up to 9 months.

You can easily use this marinade for baking chicken, but that’s not all.

This orange chicken marinade recipe is stellar on pan-seared chicken, grilled chicken, or even on chicken kabobs, too!

If you LOVE the flavor (which I know you will!), you can literally use this simple marinade recipe on any type of chicken cooking method that you want.

What to Serve with Orange Marinated Chicken

Even though you could totally enjoy every glorious bite of chicken without a side dish, let’s all just agree that side dishes pack so much flavor and fun! Below you’ll find some simple side dishes that you can easily serve up with any chicken dish.