how do YOU marinate your beef/chicken?

[joshh]

hi guys

im after some ideas on ways to marinate ground beef and grilled chicken without adding carbs/calories.

[gbrice75]

Tough to do as most marinades are oil based.

I have been going with dry rubs lately instead. If you don't want to make your own, McCormick makes a few pretty decent ones for beef and chicken.

PS - you want to marinate GROUND beef, or steak?

[Sgt. Hartman]

Soy sauce, red wine vinegar, and garlic for chicken.

[gbrice75]

Soy sauce, red wine vinegar, and garlic for chicken.

I'd use the soy VERY sparingly. Take note of the sodium content; it's disgusting. Also, keep in the back of your head the (arguable) studies claiming soy can increase estrogen levels in men.

I find the low sodium soy so tasteless, I wind up not even using it. Give it a shot though if you go the soy route.

[Windex]

Not adding calories is more or less impossible unless you just want salt & pepper. Depending on how you have your macros also factors in. Personally, this is what I marinate in:

- 1 Tbsp EVOO per piece of chicken.
- 1 Whole Squeezed Lemon
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1 Full Clove of Garlic Chopped Fine
- Cayenne Pepper

Rotate chicken a few times in marinate a few times and cover in seran wrap and let it sit over night . You could also add Montreal Chicken Spice I suppose.

[tbody66]

Tough to do as most marinades are oil based.

I have been going with dry rubs lately instead. If you don't want to make your own, McCormick makes a few pretty decent ones for beef and chicken.

PS - you want to marinate GROUND beef, or steak?

I thought your rubs involved carrots????

[gbrice75]

I thought your rubs involved carrots????

True, but those are NEVER dry rubs!

[Sgt. Hartman]

I'd use the soy VERY sparingly. Take note of the sodium content; it's disgusting. Also, keep in the back of your head the (arguable) studies claiming soy can increase estrogen levels in men.

I find the low sodium soy so tasteless, I wind up not even using it. Give it a shot though if you go the soy route.

Yeah I know the amount of sodium in soy sauce is ridiculous but I LOVE salt - I also drink about 2 gallons of water a day. I never heard it had any effect on estrogen, but I am gonna look into it.

Not to hijack but I have a related question about marinades. I sometimes make a marinade for 2 - 3 pounds of chicken breast that I use 1/3 cup of EVOO in. Being that a good bit of the marinade remains in the ziploc bag and more is cooked out of it on the grill, how much EVOO do you guys think is left in the chicken in a normal serving of 6 - 8oz? I've been figuring 1/2 tablespoon.

[tbody66]

True, but those are NEVER dry rubs!

at least they don't end that way

[tbody66]

Yeah I know the amount of sodium in soy sauce is ridiculous but I LOVE salt - I also drink about 2 gallons of water a day. I never heard it had any effect on estrogen, but I am gonna look into it.

Not to hijack but I have a related question about marinades. I sometimes make a marinade for 2 - 3 pounds of chicken breast that I use 1/3 cup of EVOO in. Being that a good bit of the marinade remains in the ziploc bag and more is cooked out of it on the grill, how much EVOO do you guys think is left in the chicken in a normal serving of 6 - 8oz? I've been figuring 1/2 tablespoon.

I am a Sodium ADDICT, and I have read varying opinions on this topic. I believe that sodium restriction only matters for contest/photo shoot/special event, and should not even begin to be addressed until one to two weeks out from said event (Shawn Ray's philosophy - the guy with the body I most admired)

[Sgt. Hartman]

I am a Sodium ADDICT, and I have read varying opinions on this topic. I believe that sodium restriction only matters for contest/photo shoot/special event, and should not even begin to be addressed until one to two weeks out from said event (Shawn Ray's philosophy - the guy with the body I most admired)

Glad to hear that I'm not the only salt freak.

[gbrice75]

Yeah I know the amount of sodium in soy sauce is ridiculous but I LOVE salt - I also drink about 2 gallons of water a day. I never heard it had any effect on estrogen, but I am gonna look into it.

Not to hijack but I have a related question about marinades. I sometimes make a marinade for 2 - 3 pounds of chicken breast that I use 1/3 cup of EVOO in. Being that a good bit of the marinade remains in the ziploc bag and more is cooked out of it on the grill, how much EVOO do you guys think is left in the chicken in a normal serving of 6 - 8oz? I've been figuring 1/2 tablespoon.

x3 on being a salt lover. I do my best not to add any, but it's tough!

The estrogen debate isn't proven, you'll find research that backs up both arguments.

As for the EVOO marinade - to be honest, when I did use it in my marinades, I didn't count it for the same reasons you mentioned. I just always kept in the back of my head that my fat macro was a bit higher than I had figured on paper. I think 1/2 tbsp is pretty safe to go with.

[kalspic]

salt can either make or break a dish. i know most people dont eat lamb or mutton on here, but in the case you do ill post up a great coffe/cinnamon rub recipe. i suppose you could use it for beef also.

[tbody66]

I love lamb, not on this diet, would also love to hear some suggestions for Bison, I'm going to be buying a huge amount of it because a friend just processed three of them from his organic buffalo herd.

[joshh]

yeah im just after some simply stuff to sprinkle over my chicken before grilling. i dont really know but i dont think any of those herbs and spices ou buy from the supermarket contain many calories/carbs? like these for instance? http://www.mccormick.com.au/our_prod...rbs_and_spices

what about a marinade for my ground beef? maybe just some soy sauce and basil?

[tbody66]

Any rub from the store is fine, I love to cook so I experiment more and use fresh herbs when I can. A suggestion for your ground beef is simple too, use a rub but work it into the meat before you form your patties, then when you cook it the whole burger is evenly infused with the flavor.

[Turkish Juicer]

I love lamb, not on this diet, would also love to hear some suggestions for Bison, I'm going to be buying a huge amount of it because a friend just processed three of them from his organic buffalo herd.

Buffalo meat is known to have some advantages over beef: it is leaner, has lower fat higher protein ratio, lower in cholesterol, richer in both iron and vitamin B12. Most importantly, buffalos are raised on open grassland and graze on natural grass as opposed to the majority of beef we shop and have access to.

I used to buy 97% lean Buffalo ground beef from Wegman's when I lived in NYS and make 8 oz burgers with it. We do not have any buffalos in Turkey and I really feel crappy about this situation altogether.

I strongly recommend you get as much buffalo meat as you can from your friend, it is worth every penny..

[Turkish Juicer]

As for marinating chicken, I gently put my skinless & boneless chicken breasts in food storage containers and add the cheapest fresh milk I can find until they almost swim in it inside the containers. Then I place these containers in the frigde and the lactic acid in milk softens the chicken overnight like you would not believe. Obviously, you drain the chicken, no need to dry it, then you can further marinate it with any spice of your choice. Those milk marinated chicken breasts never dry out while being cooked due to this technique.

[tbody66]

Buffalo meat is known to have some advantages over beef: it is leaner, has lower fat higher protein ratio, lower in cholesterol, richer in both iron and vitamin B12. Most importantly, buffalos are raised on open grassland and graze on natural grass as opposed to the majority of beef we shop and have access to.

I used to buy 97% lean Buffalo ground beef from Wegman's when I lived in NYS and make 8 oz burgers with it. We do not have any buffalos in Turkey and I really feel crappy about this situation altogether.

I strongly recommend you get as much buffalo meat as you can from your friend, it is worth every penny..

Oh, it's not more expensive than beef for me, I pay almost half of what it would cost for the same cut of non-organic beef from the local stores in my area.

As for marinating chicken, I gently put my skinless & boneless chicken breasts in food storage containers and add the cheapest fresh milk I can find until they almost swim in it inside the containers. Then I place these containers in the frigde and the lactic acid in milk softens the chicken overnight like you would not believe. Obviously, you drain the chicken, no need to dry it, then you can further marinate it with any spice of your choice. Those milk marinated chicken breasts never dry out while being cooked due to this technique.

I'll try this for sure.

[JohnnyVegas]

Great info in here. I eat everything plain and have had no problems so far, but I know I will eventually get to the point where I cannot eat another bite of something...probably chicken.

[baseline_9]

ATM im being kind of lazy and using a little bit of curry paste out of a jar...

Not curry sauce! Curry paste is not too bad and you only need a tiny bit...


I u wanna good dry rub u could try...

http://forums.steroid.com/showthread...y-Cajun-Rub-**

[joshh]

As for marinating chicken, I gently put my skinless & boneless chicken breasts in food storage containers and add the cheapest fresh milk I can find until they almost swim in it inside the containers. Then I place these containers in the frigde and the lactic acid in milk softens the chicken overnight like you would not believe. Obviously, you drain the chicken, no need to dry it, then you can further marinate it with any spice of your choice. Those milk marinated chicken breasts never dry out while being cooked due to this technique.

Will definitely give this a go!

[calstate23]

hi guys

im after some ideas on ways to marinate ground beef and grilled chicken without adding carbs/calories.

Well I will do mustard, soy sauce, and a couple tablespoons of BBQ sauce...........But you want no added calories or carbs so you can just do the mustard and soy sauce...It kind of sounds wack but its actually pretty good.

The mustard and soy sauce will also tenderize your meat like crazy....I usually always get a really lean red meat like top round and when I don't marinade it and take it off the grill its SUPER tough....But when I marinade it with mustard and soy sauce its nuts how tender it can become..

Like gbrice says though soy and mustard pretty high in sodium so try to find the lowest you can...But at least high sodium will be better then adding fats and unnecessary calories..

[calstate23]

Also by the way the milk will add calories....Milk is pretty high in carbs and sugars, and fat....Unless its skim milk.....And still even then you are adding sugars and carbs

[tbody66]

Also by the way the milk will add calories....Milk is pretty high in carbs and sugars, and fat....Unless its skim milk.....And still even then you are adding sugars and carbs

If you marinate it over night for the lactic acid to do it's work in softening the chicken and then drain it and cook it how much fat and carbs would you quess would still be there? Just curious because I really don't like dry chicken and was hoping to try this. I'm guessing it would be inconsequential, but I've been wrong before.

[dirtybrd]

Doesn't most everything cook out anyway, other then salt of course.

[Turkish Juicer]

Also by the way the milk will add calories....Milk is pretty high in carbs and sugars, and fat....Unless its skim milk.....And still even then you are adding sugars and carbs

Milk marination will not add any calories. You are not injecting the chicken breasts with milk, you are only marinating them in it. You drain the milk completely once the marination is over, as I have already indicated in my first post.

[Turkish Juicer]

If you marinate it over night for the lactic acid to do it's work in softening the chicken and then drain it and cook it how much fat and carbs would you quess would still be there? Just curious because I really don't like dry chicken and was hoping to try this. I'm guessing it would be inconsequential, but I've been wrong before.

Don't worry about it. Just give it a shot, I doubt you'll ever go back to eating them dry.

[gbrice75]

I love lamb, not on this diet, would also love to hear some suggestions for Bison, I'm going to be buying a huge amount of it because a friend just processed three of them from his organic buffalo herd.

Buffalo meat is known to have some advantages over beef: it is leaner, has lower fat higher protein ratio, lower in cholesterol, richer in both iron and vitamin B12. Most importantly, buffalos are raised on open grassland and graze on natural grass as opposed to the majority of beef we shop and have access to.

I used to buy 97% lean Buffalo ground beef from Wegman's when I lived in NYS and make 8 oz burgers with it. We do not have any buffalos in Turkey and I really feel crappy about this situation altogether.

I strongly recommend you get as much buffalo meat as you can from your friend, it is worth every penny..

Can we start referring to the animal properly!!?? They are Bison, not buffalo. The Bison isn't even related to buffalo whatsoever, although the names did get mixed up somewhere along the lines.

[Narkissos]

I use a bunch of different stuff... and I don't honestly worry about the calories of the stuff I use, as it'll be minuscule. (I'm not going to make a stew out of the marinade after all)

I marinate my meats in wine, rum, brandy, ginger wine, guinness stout (it all depends on what flavor i'm trying to get...and how tough the meat is). Alcohol at base... then a secondary flavor, like soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, worcestershire, red wine vinegar, garlice wine vinegar, balsamic or even unsweetened pineapple juice or orange juice.

The next secondary flavor is rubbed into the meat itself... usually garlic powder, curry powder, and a pepper of choice (cayenne sometimes).

If I don't use a prepared sauce like soy/teriyaki/etc (which is usually the case), I may add salt... Usually, I just add salt during the cooking process. There's NO need to drop sodium whatsoever...unless you're a week out from a photoshoot or a competition. Actually, most guys on these forums muck about with their sodium intake to their detriment.

Anyway, I let my meats soak overnight or for a couple of days in the fridge (or, hell, sometimes I bag 'em up in marinade and toss 'em in the freezer for a couple weeks)... The meat gets tender as hell and full of flavor.

After, I grill, pan-fry, stew, or bake the meats with no issue. Every meal is an awesome meal.

Sometimes I even use coconut milk, for the more gamey meats.

I've got some pork here right now that I've had marinating overnight in teriyaki and garlic wine vinegar. Gonna pan-fry a bit of curry to activate it's flavor, add some salt and garlic powder, and stir-fry that pork. Gonna be an awesome meal.

[kalspic]

with top round and tougher cuts like that you dont want to cook them past medium. personally i think they have great flavor.

you could try marinating your chicken or beef in pineapple juice. pinapple contains an enzyme that helps tenderize meat. im pretty sure thats what the meat tenderizing powders are made from.

if you want to make your own spice rub they have recipies all over the internet. but if you do decide to make your own be sure to get whole spices. and like nark said toast/cook in a dry pan till they smell fragrant then grind them.

also you could brine your chicken or pork over night, that will make them even more juicy.

nark, sounds like you have a little cooking experiance.

[gbrice75]

I use a bunch of different stuff... and I don't honestly worry about the calories of the stuff I use, as it'll be minuscule. (I'm not going to make a stew out of the marinade after all)

I marinate my meats in wine, rum, brandy, ginger wine, guinness stout (it all depends on what flavor i'm trying to get...and how tough the meat is). Alcohol at base... then a secondary flavor, like soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, worcestershire, red wine vinegar, garlice wine vinegar, balsamic or even unsweetened pineapple juice or orange juice.

The next secondary flavor is rubbed into the meat itself... usually garlic powder, curry powder, and a pepper of choice (cayenne sometimes).

If I don't use a prepared sauce like soy/teriyaki/etc (which is usually the case), I may add salt... Usually, I just add salt during the cooking process. There's NO need to drop sodium whatsoever...unless you're a week out from a photoshoot or a competition. Actually, most guys on these forums muck about with their sodium intake to their detriment.

Anyway, I let my meats soak overnight or for a couple of days in the fridge (or, hell, sometimes I bag 'em up in marinade and toss 'em in the freezer for a couple weeks)... The meat gets tender as hell and full of flavor.

After, I grill, pan-fry, stew, or bake the meats with no issue. Every meal is an awesome meal.

Sometimes I even use coconut milk, for the more gamey meats.

I've got some pork here right now that I've had marinating overnight in teriyaki and garlic wine vinegar. Gonna pan-fry a bit of curry to activate it's flavor, add some salt and garlic powder, and stir-fry that pork. Gonna be an awesome meal.

Love your ideas Nark, if you care to PM a brotha some specific recipes for specific meats, my inbox is open!

[tbody66]

I may add salt... Usually, I just add salt during the cooking process. There's NO need to drop sodium whatsoever...unless you're a week out from a photoshoot or a competition. Actually, most guys on these forums muck about with their sodium intake to their detriment.

I've been saying this all along!!! Nice to hear it from another respected source!

[tbody66]

Can we start referring to the animal properly!!?? They are Bison, not buffalo. The Bison isn't even related to buffalo whatsoever, although the names did get mixed up somewhere along the lines.

Sorry, it won't happen again, I didn't know you were so sensitive! Do you come from buffalo or bison? If so which side of the family?

[calstate23]

If you marinate it over night for the lactic acid to do it's work in softening the chicken and then drain it and cook it how much fat and carbs would you quess would still be there? Just curious because I really don't like dry chicken and was hoping to try this. I'm guessing it would be inconsequential, but I've been wrong before.

It really wouldn't add too much at all but I am just being anal because this guy said he wanted no added calories...I don't think it would be a big deal unless he's Jay Cutler or something where he's counting every calorie

[pipzman]

As for marinating chicken, I gently put my skinless & boneless chicken breasts in food storage containers and add the cheapest fresh milk I can find until they almost swim in it inside the containers. Then I place these containers in the frigde and the lactic acid in milk softens the chicken overnight like you would not believe. Obviously, you drain the chicken, no need to dry it, then you can further marinate it with any spice of your choice. Those milk marinated chicken breasts never dry out while being cooked due to this technique.

tried this today, much better now, thanks for this
EDIT: can someone tell me how much cals, and from what will this add ?

[kalspic]

i would think buttermilk would work better, but could be wrong. if any of you have traveled down south and had some really good fried chicken, most likely it was marinated in either milk or buttermilk,

also if you happen to have some kind of game meat(venison,squirl, racoon etc.) milk will take away the over gamey taste.

[tbody66]

It really wouldn't add too much at all but I am just being anal because this guy said he wanted no added calories...I don't think it would be a big deal unless he's Jay Cutler or something where he's counting every calorie

Thanks, good to know.

tried this today, much better now, thanks for this
EDIT: can someone tell me how much cals, and from what will this add ?

Glad to hear it was better. The overall concensus is it would be a nominal or inconsequential amount of cals.

i would think buttermilk would work better, but could be wrong. if any of you have traveled down south and had some really good fried chicken, most likely it was marinated in either milk or buttermilk,

also if you happen to have some kind of game meat(venison,squirl, racoon etc.) milk will take away the over gamey taste.

I also liked the coconut milk idea for all of the above.

[LatissimusaurousRex]

Can we start referring to the animal properly!!?? They are Bison, not buffalo. The Bison isn't even related to buffalo whatsoever, although the names did get mixed up somewhere along the lines.

It's because the bison is also referred to as "The American Buffalo," but yeah it's not a true buffalo. Real buffalo look more like ox.

[joshh]

As for marinating chicken, I gently put my skinless & boneless chicken breasts in food storage containers and add the cheapest fresh milk I can find until they almost swim in it inside the containers. Then I place these containers in the frigde and the lactic acid in milk softens the chicken overnight like you would not believe. Obviously, you drain the chicken, no need to dry it, then you can further marinate it with any spice of your choice. Those milk marinated chicken breasts never dry out while being cooked due to this technique.

This worked so well!! Thanks!