All Purpose Marinade – For Pork, Steak, or Chicken!

Pass it along!

Need a basic marinade for all of your meat and grilling purposes? This is it! A simple, five ingredient all purpose marinade has you covered regardless of whether you are cooking up chicken breasts, pork chops, or a juicy steak.

Grilling season is here—or in the case of life on the homestead, planting, weeding, and harvesting season! The summer months include full days and we need healthy, real food meals on the table that are quick to make yet satisfying. 

At least a couple of times every week, we turn toward meals like pork chops or steaks because everyone loves them and I can fry them up in our cast iron pan on high heat in just a few minutes. Pair it with an easy side and dinner is served.

Go-to All-Purpose Marinade

A plain or even seasoned pork tenderloin or chicken breast can be good, but unless it’s cooked just right, it’s easy for this meat to come out dry and chewy. And when you have young kids, they’ll be the first to let you know!

This is where whipping up this homemade marinade is so helpful. It only takes 2 minutes to mix together but that simple addition can make for meat that is moist with lots of flavor every time.

Homemade Marinade Ingredients

This meat marinade is full of pantry staple ingredients with delicious flavors. The best part is, it can be used on fresh chicken, pork, steak, or even salmon. 

Regardless of the type of meat you use, the ingredients and processes are the same.

Note: This is not a recipe that needs to be by the book. Experiment with amounts and ingredients to your liking and scale as needed!

What you need:

Coconut Aminos – Coconut aminos taste very similar to soy sauce but we tend to avoid soy in our diet. You can use either in this recipe. We love to buy coconut aminos in bulk from Azure Standard.

Brown Sugar – You can substitute coconut sugar in the place of brown sugar here for sweetness.

Worcestershire Sauce – I love adding Worcestershire sauce to everything for the great flavor it adds. But there can be a lot of variation in the ingredients in the Worcestershire sauce you buy so make sure to read the label to get the most natural ingredients as possible without added junk. We like to buy it in bulk from Azure Standard.

Garlic – We prefer to use fresh garlic cloves for this but garlic powder would work as well.

Lemon Juice – Either fresh squeezed or from the bottle are fine for this recipe.

How to Make Marinade

If using fresh garlic, begin by mincing your garlic.

Add it to a small bowl along with the rest of the ingredients (coconut aminos, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice).

Whisk together until everything is thoroughly mixed and the sugar is dissolved.

Place 1-2 pounds of meat in a gallon sized freezer bag.

Pour the marinade into bag and squish everything together until the meat is fully surrounded by the all purpose sauce.

Place in the refrigerator for at least 2-4 hours or up to a day in advance.

When ready, cook as desired. We prefer to put them on high heat on a cast iron pan. 

All Purpose Marinade Recipe

Ingredients:

¼ cups coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
2 tbsp brown sugar (or coconut sugar)
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp lemon juice (fresh or bottled)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, whisk all ingredients together until the brown sugar is completely dissolved.

2. Place raw meat in a gallon size Ziplock bag or something similar.

3. Pour marinade in and work the marinade around all meat.

4. Refrigerate for 2 hours up to a day before cooking.

Adding a marinade is one simple way to add more flavor to your cooking. 

---

For more of our favorite sauce recipes check out:

Cream Sauce Recipe (15 minutes + 6 ingredients!)
5 Minute Homemade Pesto in a Blender
Quick and Easy Rhubarb BBQ Sauce without Ketchup
Homemade Paleo Enchilada Sauce (So Addicting!)

Pin it for later!