(Image credit: Unknown)

You know what’s really underrated? Marinating food, and marinating chicken especially. It takes only slightly more planning than usual and little extra work, but the payback for your tastebuds is massive. After your chicken’s spent a day sitting in fridge absorbing the myriad flavours of your marinade, it’s basically impossible to cook it in a way that isn’t delicious. Also when you whip out your marinated chicken at a dinner party in a manner reminiscent of a perfectly prepared Blue Peter presenter (try and say that five times quickly), people are going to be absolutely wowed.

Convinced? Of course you are, so plan on making this recipe from Fresh Fitness Food, a food delivery service that sends you pre-made meals and snacks designed to help you hit your fitness goals – whether that’s lose weight, become leaner, bulk up, or anything else.

The zingy, zesty marinade in this recipe adds oodles of flavour to the chicken, which you can barbecue or cook in the oven depending on how the British summer turns out. Once you’ve made the chicken we recommend pairing it with some fresh vegetables and brown rice or, even better, using it in this Mexican jumble recipe in place of the poached and shredded chicken.

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts

For the marinade:

⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup coriander leaves
1tsp lime zest
¼ cup lime juice
¾tsp oregano
1tsp cumin powder
1½tbsp fresh mint leaves
4 garlic cloves
1tsp salt
½tsp black pepper

Method

Place the ingredients for the marinade in a food processor. Whizz until the coriander is finely chopped.
In a large bowl, pour the marinade over the chicken breasts. Cover with cling film and leave for 12 to 36 hours in the fridge.
Chargrill the chicken breasts on a barbecue or griddle pan to add colour, then place in the oven at 200°C/gas 6 to cook through, which will take approximately ten minutes.
Once the chicken breasts are cooked the whole way through (or reach 75°C, if you have a meat thermometer), take them out and leave them to rest for a few minutes. Slice and serve.

Nick Harris-Fry is a journalist who has been covering health and fitness since 2015. Nick is an avid runner, covering 70-110km a week, which gives him ample opportunity to test a wide range of running shoes and running gear. He is also the chief tester for fitness trackers and running watches, treadmills and exercise bikes, and workout headphones.