Farmhouse Meat Marinade

Pineapple juice creates a sweet balance for garlic, ginger, soy sauce and other flavors that makes the BEST homemade meat marinade.

Meat Marinade

Citrus and Asian flavors blend with other spices to make our most flavorful homemade meat marinade. This is hands down the best marinade our family uses for grilled meat!

Any whole muscle cut of meat (not ground meat) that is great for grilling works well in this farmhouse marinade. We love this DIY marinade for chicken, pork or beef.

The absolute easiest marinade we make is this Italian dressing based Farmhouse Marinade For Pork Chops. We also love the classic Sweet & Sour Chicken Kabobs. The citrus flavors in this marinade give us more diversity on our grilling menu.

We enjoy the ease and convenience of pre-packaged liquid marinade at the grocery store, but making this marinade at home is a great way to save money.

When having a cookout and offering a variety of grilled meats our Loaded Taco Burger and Marinated Tomatoes are on the menu with some Crock Pot Mac & Cheese on the side.

Winner’s Meat Marinade

My husband grew up in western Ohio not too far from a butcher shop that created this marinade. He loves grabbing Winner’s marinated pork chops to take camping, racing or to grill for the main dish in his annual birthday meal.

This meat marinade is truly a local legend that is supposed to be top secret, but when I looked through my sister-in-law’s community cookbook from the area there were 6 similar copy cat versions of Winner’s Meat Marinade.

Just like our extremely popular Rich & Moist Chocolate Cake that came from a restaurant in the same area, these are supposedly top-secret recipes. I’ve found family recipes and church recipe collections often reveal some amazingly similar recipes! Since we don’t live close by it’s nice to be able to make these recipes at home.

Why Marinate Meat?

The citric acid which occurs naturally in citrus fruits and the pineapple juice in this recipe helps tenderize the meat over time. We always marinate the meat for at least 24 hours to maximize flavor and tenderness.

In my college meat science classes I learned that there are multiple ways to tenderize meat, the aging process tenderizes beef at the meat locker, we can grind meat to make it more tender, tenderize with a meat mallet or marinate.

So marinating meat quickly doesn’t allow adequate time for tenderizing to occur or for the meat to really absorb the most flavor.

Cuts of Meat That Work Well in Marinade

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Chicken tenders
• Pork tenderloin
• Pork chops including Porterhouse, T-Bone, Ribeye, Sirloin, and New York chops
• Pork steak
• Any steak that you would grill

Ingredients Needed For the Best Meat Marinade

• Pineapple juice
• Soy sauce
• Vegetable oil
• Brown sugar
• Water
• Ginger – I like ground ginger, but fresh ginger can be used too
• Salt
• Pepper – I prefer freshly ground pepper
• Garlic powder

Tips for Making Meat Marinade

• Watch “use by date” on raw meat and marinate AND cook before this date
• Shake pineapple juice well before using as the contents separate
• Marinate for at least 24 hours
• Always use a digital meat thermometer and cook meat to the proper internal temperature found on this handy FoodSafety.gov chart
• Always promptly and safely discard used marinade
• Never put marinade that touched raw meat on cooked meat, this is called cross-contamination and should be avoided
• Avoid marinading ground meat like sausage or hamburger, dry seasoning works best sprinkled on or mixed in ground meat

How to Make Farmhouse Meat Marinade

1. Prepare a gallon size zip lock bag by rolling down the top and placing in a mixing bowl that will help prevent the bag from falling over.
2. Pour all ingredients into the bag and mix well OR use a 2 cup liquid measuring cup to stir all ingredients together and pour over the meat. This recipe makes about 1 3/4 cup of marinade which works well on 3 – 4 pounds of meat.
3. Trim fat off of meat IF desired. Some trim will help keep meat tender as it cooks, but excess fat is more likely to catch on fire. If chicken breasts have any visible fat I like to trim that, but I prefer to leave a little bit of fat on pork chops and steaks and trim those on my dinner plate.
4. Add meat to marinade, seal bag and place in the refrigerator.
5. Marinate meat for 1-2 days. Turn meat to allow marinade to touch all sides of every piece of meat. Marinade will tenderize and add flavor to the meat it is exposed to.
6. Cook meat using desired method and discard marinade. Our favorite way to prepare marinated meat is on the grill.

Best Side Dishes to Serve with Marinated Meat

• Farmhouse Potato Salad
• Scalloped Corn Country Style
• Bacon Cheese Loaded French Fries
• Twice Baked Potato Casserole

Delicious Desserts to Serve with Marinated Meat

• Pistachio Pudding Cake
• No-Bake Pineapple Pretzel Salad
• Farmhouse Homemade Ice Cream
• Chocolate Syrup Brownies

Printable Farmhouse Meat Marinade Recipe