Best Chicken Marinade with Horseradish

Today I’m going to show you one of my favorite chicken marinade recipes and also unveil the secret ingredient… horseradish!

Horseradish: The Basics

In our kitchen garden we have always grown horseradish. It’s a perennial that’s base gets to be about 6 feet wide so be sure to plant it somewhere it will have lots of room. If your thinking of moving or transplanting your horseradish keep in mind that it is a root plant that is difficult to remove. I was in elementary school when we moved our horseradish, I vividly remember when we transplanted it because it took days! So consider before you make any decisions on planting this plant, because it’s kind of a permanent thing.

Horseradish Harvesting

So on to the harvest. You want to harvest horseradish October through April. It needs to be cool temperatures to harvest your horseradish.

Take a garden fork and carefully dig around the roots. This is hard because horseradish roots grow in every direction. If your plant is well established then don’t worry too much about taking out a big chunk of roots. If your plants are small dig carefully around the perimeter of the plant so you don’t disturb it too much. Honestly these are hardy plants that can handle a bit of roughing up. Once you’ve excavated enough root wash it off and grind it up.

There are many ways to do this. A food processor works for smaller amounts of root and a Ninja blender does a great job with some of the bigger pieces. And if you want really fine paste you can use a micro plane (its like a tiny cheese grater, also great for zest!) to grate the root. This stuff is potent though so take precautions.

Preparation

Make a brine for your paste using equal parts vinegar & water add 1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt, a pinch of sugar and a dash of vegetable oil (you like those measurements?:). It all depends on how much root you are harvesting. Because you can harvest this in the winter you don’t need to make large amounts to store unless you want to. Keep in your fridge for up to 2 months.

On to the Chicken Marinade

Now that we’ve prepared our horseradish on to one of my most used, most versatile chicken marinades. I use this on all our grilled chicken whether it’s grilled chicken salad or teriyaki chicken bowls. It doesn’t matter it’s flexible and delicious and one of my favorite recipes.

For 1 lb. chicken use:

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 6 oz lemon lime soda drink
• 1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic

Marinate for at least an hour but really the longer the better. Grill and enjoy.

This is honestly my favorite chicken marinade, and a great way to use up all that yummy horseradish! Tell us your horseradish recipes (or for that matter chicken marinade recipes)! What is your favorite way to use horseradish?