Why Filipino Grilled Chicken Marinade Is Cooked Down

Question

In paragraph 4, the directions state to cool down the marinade; I assume this the marinade in which the chicken already marinating? The cook then kills off any chicken related bacteria left over after the marination? Thanks!

Lynn Clark · Accepted Answer

Hi William – Thanks for contacting us! I assume you are referring to our recipe for Lemon Lime Lacquered Grilled Chicken (Inihaw Na Manok)? Recipe here: https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/lemon-lime-barbeque-grilled-chicken-inihaw-na-manok-filipino
If we were simply intending to use the marinade as a sauce with the same texture then, yes, we would have to cook it to kill any residual bacteria that may have been present from the raw chicken. However, at Milk Street, we are all about layering flavor and doing it as easily and possible. So, the reason we cook the marinade in our recipe is because we want to use those same ingredients (vinegar, ketchup, soy, garlic, bay, and lemon-lime soda) to flavor the chicken in another way. Rather than make an entirely new sauce to baste and serve with the chicken, we simply reduce the marinade to get a thick basting liquid and sauce. Doing so also creates a slightly different flavor profile than our marinade. Overall, the flavors are more concentrated - the sauce is sweeter, tangier, and saltier than as a marinade alone - so we are creating layers of flavor with the same ingredients. Because we are using this thick, sweet sauce to baste the chicken as it cooks, we cook the chicken over the cool side of the grill, using the ambient grill heat to cook the chicken through. Then we give it a quick blast over the hot side to brown it. This ensures the sauce won’t burn before the chicken cooks through. Indirect grilling is our go-to method for grilling chicken (or really any protein) where the surface would burn before the meat was cooked to the proper temperature.

Why Filipino Grilled Chicken Marinade Is Cooked Down

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