The workhorse: soy, ginger, garlic, sesame, and a little sweetness. Beef, chicken, pork, tofu, salmon, mushrooms — it has never met a protein it didn't improve.
Mise en place
Before you start
Yield: Enough for 700 g of anything
Whisk until the sugar dissolves.
Marinate: tofu and mushrooms 30 minutes, chicken and pork 2–12 hours, beef 2–8, salmon 30 minutes.
Pat dry before high-heat cooking; the sugars char quickly and gorgeously. Boiled 3 minutes, the used marinade becomes a legitimate glaze.
💡
This doubles as a stir-fry sauce straight from the jar — add a teaspoon of cornstarch and it thickens on contact.
Taste before serving and adjust salt and acid — the last 30 seconds of seasoning matter more than any single ingredient.
Afterwards
Keep, reheat & pair
Storage
Unused marinade keeps 5 days refrigerated. Once it touches raw protein, discard it — or boil 3 full minutes to serve as a sauce.
Freezing
Freeze protein IN the marinade: it seasons as it thaws. 2 months.
Reheating
Marinades aren't reheated — but boil any used marinade for 3 full minutes if you want to serve it as a sauce (it touched raw protein).
Make ahead
Mix up to 5 days ahead and refrigerate; marinate proteins in zip bags so cleanup is nothing.
Wine pairing
Follows the finished dish.
Beer pairing
Follows the finished dish.
On the plate
Serve it with
Sides
·
Applies to whatever you marinate
Garnish
Reserve a spoonful (before it touches raw meat) to finish the cooked dish
Plant-based: Perfect on tofu, tempeh, and portobellos as written.
How long should I marinate?
Acidic marinades: 30 minutes–4 hours for thin cuts (acid "cooks" the surface mushy past that), up to 12 for thick cuts. Yogurt and enzyme marinades: 4–24 hours. Salt-forward soy marinades: 1–24 hours. Seafood: 15–30 minutes only.
Can I reuse the marinade as a sauce?
Only after a hard 3-minute boil — it touched raw protein. Better habit: reserve a clean portion before the meat goes in.
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