If you want to prepare meat that is tender, succulent and delicious, you need the right marinade. One popular ingredient in any marinade recipe is wine. Red wine is especially popular when marinading red meat since red wine is known to be paired with meals that include red meat. White wine can also be used for red meat as well as white meat. Here are easy recipes for you to try the next time you prepare a scrumptious steak or juicy chicken breast.

Red wine marinade

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups red wine

  • 1 small onion (diced)

  • 2 strips orange zest (3 inches long each)

  • 2 sprigs rosemary (roughly chopped)

  • 2 tablespoons red currant jelly

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • 1 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

  • Combine all of the ingredients from this marinade recipe in a bowl and mix well.
  • Pour the mixture into a shallow dish or you can use a large plastic bag.
  • Add your meat and make sure that it is properly coated.
  • Set in the fridge for a few hours (preferably overnight). You can turn the meat every few hours to ensure it is evenly coated.

White wine marinade recipe

Ingredients:

  • 3 tablespoons white wine
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon of pepper
  • 1 large, diced shallot
  • ¼ cup beef broth

Directions:

  • In a bowl, combine the wine, mustard and olive oil.
  • Soak your meat in this mixture for approximately 10 minutes.
  • Remove the meat from the wine mixture and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  • Cook your meat as per your preferences before removing from the pan.
  • Add chopped shallots to the pan and cook in the juices that remained from the meat.
  • Add the rest of the marinade as well as the broth to the pan.
  • Cook the liquid until it is reduced to half of its quantity while stirring constantly and use as a sauce when you serve your meat.

If you use a marinade recipe that requires soaking for an extended period of time, you might want to consider using vacuum bags. Place your meat and marinade in the bag and make sure the meat is properly coated. Remove the air from the bag and refrigerate. If you wish, you can make several batches and freeze any extra portions for use later. While red meat is best marinaded for extended periods of time, you will not need to marinade meat like salmon for more than 30 minutes since it is rather fragile.