Your Chicken Breasts Deserve Dolly Parton’s Marinade Recipe

My husband’s family has a cabin in Indiana nestled by cornfields and a lake believed to hold a monster fish with supernatural powers. (I clench my teeth and pray that it keeps my kids safe whenever they get yanked across the water on a tube.) It’s been a gathering place for family for 60 years, and it’s not uncommon to have a few dozen people there at once, especially during peak summer.

When you have this many mouths to feed, the refrigerator is crammed—every nook is prime real estate. Yet there always seems to be room for one thing: bottled Italian dressing. It’s an all-purpose fridge tenant that goes on salads and marinates chicken for the grill.

The first time I saw the dressing poured over raw chicken, I thought: Well, that looks like hell. There’s no way it’s any good. But it was. The sweet, zesty dressing caramelized the grilled chicken, gave it a delicious tang, and kept it juicy.

All this crossed my mind when I saw the Zesty Chicken Marinade recipe in Dolly Parton and her sister Rachel Parton George’s new cookbook, Good Lookin’ Cookin’. It’s an easy homemade variation of bottled Italian dressing, but so much better. I plan to whip this recipe out when I go to the lake house next summer. I may even brag that Dolly taught me the recipe.

How To Make Dolly and Rachel’s Chicken Marinade

I adapted (barely!) Dolly and Rachel’s marinade two ways: Instead of chopping the onion, I grate it through the largest hole of a box grater. Not only is this easier than chopping the onion finely with a knife, it also breaks it down into watery bits that flavor the chicken more effectively. Also, I don’t add parsley—I rarely have it on hand. If you do, you’ll need one teaspoon minced.

To make enough marinade for three chicken breasts cut in half lengthwise or six chicken cutlets, you’ll need:

• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 small onion, grated
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

In a large bowl, combine the ingredients. Add the chicken breasts and toss them around to coat in the marinade.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate it for 20 minutes to one hour—it’s more than enough time to coat the chicken with flavor. You can marinate for longer, but only up to three hours. More time does not equal more flavor. The acid in the lemon juice will turn the meat from tender to mushy and stringy.

In fact, Dolly reveals, “I am not as patient as Rachel is in the kitchen—I don’t always want to take the time she does. But a nice marinade doesn’t take long to make, and it does all the work!” It shouldn’t be hard or take long to deliver on flavor, and this easy marinade proves as much.

GET THE COOKBOOK: Good Lookin’ Cookin’