Taking a little time to marinate meat, poultry, fish and vegetables will take your lockdown barbecue or indoor grilling to the next level. It adds flavour and helps to tenderise meat and poultry, plus marinades are easy to prepare and mostly made from store cupboard ingredients. You can also swap ingredients around depending what you have to hand. You're sure to find some new favourites with our fabulous ideas.

Chilli and lime, combined with fish sauce and garlic, gives prawns a Thai-inspired twist. The flavours would be perfect with squid or salmon too. It's a quick marinade and you only need to let the shellfish sit for half an hour in the fridge. 

Get the recipe for lime and chilli prawns here

For a really easy way to pimp up chicken pieces, combine fiery Thai chilli sauce, sriracha, a little honey, soy sauce and lime juice. Don't go mad on the honey – it's there to temper the heat. Add too much and the chicken will burn. You could cook the chicken on a hot plate on the barbecue to prevent flaring. Marinate for around three hours in the fridge. This marinade also works well with pork or halloumi.

This marinade is the next best thing to actually drinking a margarita! Combine tequila with fresh lime juice, orange-flavoured liqueur (like Cointreau), crushed garlic cloves and salt. This recipe calls for sea bass but you could use it for salmon (marinating for half an hour), or try it on a juicy steak, where you'll need to leave it for about five hours. 

Get the recipe for margarita fish here

Fiery peri peri, with a base of red peppers, chillies, garlic and lemon, makes both a great sauce and a marinade. Try it on prawns, for just 30 minutes, before grilling. It's really worth trying on chicken too, leaving it overnight in the fridge. Make slashes in the flesh of the chicken before marinating so the sauce is thoroughly absorbed.

Get the recipe for peri peri here

Teriyaki sauce is often used in a stir-fry but it makes a really great marinade for chicken, beef or pork. The base for this recipe is sake (Japanese rice wine) but you can easily use a dry sherry or vermouth instead. You'll need some mirin too, a sweet, low-alcohol rice wine, which is now more readily available in larger supermarkets.

Get the recipe for teriyaki here

You'll need at least two hours to marinate these punchy beef short ribs, but the longer you can marinate them, the better the taste will be. This Korean-inspired recipe contains those signature tastes of sesame, soy and dark brown sugar. In this recipe, grated pear is also incorporated, which helps to tenderise the beef. 

Get the recipe for Korean barbecue beef here

Aubergines soak up flavours far more readily when cooked so this marinade goes on after grilling, which will enhance the smokiness of the aubergines. The marinade has all those typical Sicilian flavours of olive oil, lemon, garlic, pine nuts, vinegar and raisins. You could try using this marinade with grilled courgettes too.

Get the recipe for Sicilian aubergine salad here

Halloumi is such a mild cheese, it really needs a punchy marinade to bring it to life. You could try a mix of fresh chillies, chilli sauce and soy. Or give our marinade recipe a go, made from dried herbs, chilli, garlic, lime juice and olive oil. It's best left to marinate overnight to really bring out the flavours.

Get the recipe for grilled halloumi here

A takeaway favourite but so easy to prepare at home, tandoori chicken is marinated in a thick paste of yogurt mixed with spices, chilli, garlic and lime. It's a perfect dish for the barbecue or grill, with the charred, crisp skin on the outside and tender chicken on the inside.

Get the recipe for tandoori chicken here

It's not unusual to add very dark chocolate to a beef chilli, but it also makes a great marinade and sauce for steak. You do need the darkest chocolate you can find, 90–100% cocoa solids, so it's not sweet, but rich and earthy. Once you've made the simple marinade, rest the steaks in it overnight, then pat them dry to cook. The remaining marinade is reduced down to a rich sauce.

Get the recipe for dark chocolate steak marinade here

The great thing with a satay marinade – a glorious combination of peanuts, coconut and a little spice – is that the marinade is also the sauce. It works for pork tenderloin and chunks of chicken, turkey or beef. The peanut element is crunchy peanut butter. You need to marinate the meat for around an hour or two so the flavours really sink into the meat.

Get the recipe for pork satay skewers here

Buffalo marinade is a time-honoured classic for chicken wings. The hot Louisiana pepper sauce makes the meat pretty fiery which is why the traditional accompaniments are celery and blue cheese dip, to temper the heat. Best of all, it's a store cupboard marinade with simple ingredients. Cook meat on a hot plate if you're using the barbecue, to retain all the sauce.

Get the recipe for buffalo chicken wings here

Enjoy the flavours of the Mediterranean at home with this easy marinade for lamb steaks. If you can, marinate the lamb overnight in the fridge to allow the flavours to permeate the meat. If you don't have fresh rosemary, use 1tsp dried instead, or an Italian herb seasoning mix. You can cook the lamb on a griddle pan too.

Get the recipe for lamb steaks with Mediterranean marinade here

Cajun chicken is always a favourite for a barbecue and it just takes a few store cupboard ingredients to make your own. Classic Cajun is a spice rub which acts as a marinade. Rub it into chicken pieces – it's worth making slashes in the flesh first – and leave for an hour or two. Mix 2tbsp paprika with 1tsp each dried oregano and thyme, 0.5tsp cayenne, 2tsp sea salt, two crushed garlic cloves and 2tbsp oil.

Discover more winning chicken recipes everyone will love here

 

Here's a marinade with a difference for chicken tikka. It's based on sweet rice vinegar which is combined with ginger, garlic, fresh chillies, chilli powder, turmeric, sugar, oil and salt. Boneless chicken thighs, with the skin on, are best as breast fillets dry out more easily.

Get the recipe for chicken tikka here

This irresistible marinade packs a rich, savoury punch thanks to the inclusion of miso. It's surprisingly easy to make, although you need to allow two days for marinating. This recipe uses black cod but any piece of thick, fresh cod will do the job perfectly and it's definitely worth the wait. It would work really with chicken too.

Get the recipe for cod with miso here

Fiery Middle Eastern harissa (a hot chilli pepper paste) makes a perfect marinade for this lamb burger recipe. Simply combined with cooked onion and parsley, the heat of the harissa contrasts well with lamb, which is quite sweet and slightly fatty. It's a very easy recipe which just needs a few hours of marinating.

Get the recipe for harissa-spiced lamb burgers here

Fresh sardines are great on the grill with a simple marinade of oil, lemon zest, and dried oregano or parsley. But if you want to take them to the next level, our two-step marinade recipe, with flavours of curry leaves, black mustard seeds and fennel seeds, will do just that. It's always better to cook sardines on a fish grill over coals – they'll be easier to turn, they won't fall on to the coals and your kitchen won't smell of fish!

Get the recipe for Southern Indian-style sardines here

Try a Chinese-style beer marinade for ribs – the ribs are cooked low and slow in the marinade, then finished on the barbecue so they become glazed and wonderfully charred. This recipe suggests using Tsingtao, a Chinese beer, but any lager-style beer would be a perfect substitute.

Get the recipe for barbecued beer ribs here

Caribbean jerk seasoning can be a dry rub or a wet marinade, but always has those signature Scotch bonnet chillies and allspice. If you don't have any Scotch bonnet chilli, just use three to four dried chillies or 2tbsp dried chilli flakes. The chicken is best left to marinate overnight and served with a crunchy coleslaw to temper the heat.

Get the recipe for jerk chicken here

This sweet marinade with a hint of chilli works perfectly with chunks of chicken breast and sweet potato. If you don't have any fresh oranges for the marinade, use 150ml (5fl oz) orange juice. You can prepare the skewers in advance and leave in the fridge for a few hours. The marinade is boiled and reduced to a thick, orange sauce to serve.

Get the recipe for orange and honey skewers here

Buttermilk in a marinade acts as a tenderiser. For these chicken kebabs, the buttermilk is mixed with spices, lemon, hot pepper paste and garlic, before being grilled to add a charred exterior, complementing the tender meat. We highly recommend you make the easy garlic sauce to serve with the kebabs.

Get the recipe for chicken shish kebab here

Cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper make pork kebabs so irresistibly aromatic. Combined with soy sauce and honey, you end up with a fabulous sweet, salty, sticky glaze. Marinate the pork overnight, if you can.

Get the recipe for four-spice pork kebabs here

A great barbecue sauce is worth the little effort you need to put in to making your own, and so far removed from the sticky, gloopy ones you can buy. Ingredients are all from the cupboard, apart from a shallot (use an onion if you don't have). Our recipe is for pork steaks but this marinade works brilliantly with beef steaks, burgers or sausages.

Get the recipe for pork steaks with barbecue sauce here

A Thai-inspired marinade which works perfectly for prawns, squid or fish fillets. Mix two finely chopped lemongrass stalks with two shredded lime leaves, three crushed garlic cloves, 1tbsp grated ginger, two finely chopped spring onions and 1tbsp each of oil and fish sauce. Marinate the fish for about 45 minutes.

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This Greek-style marinade is just perfect for lamb cutlets, chops or steaks. Take the leaves from a small bunch of oregano, chop finely, then mix with two crushed garlic cloves, 1tsp sea salt, 2tbsp olive oil and the zest of a lemon plus 1tbsp juice. Leave to marinate for one to two hours before grilling. It'll be delicious with some feta crumbled over and an extra squeeze of lemon juice.

A simple but punchy marinade for steak is 2tbsp miso paste mixed with 2tbsp soy sauce, 2tsp rice vinegar and 1tbsp oil. It adds that savoury umami flavour to the steak and gives it a crunchy, slightly salty crust. You can use it for steaks or even a whole fillet or rump joint. Leave to marinate overnight for the best flavour.

Now find out how to cook restaurant-quality steaks at home

You don't need to order in a takeaway for char siu pork. It's a really easy marinade to make from the store cupboard, and works perfectly for ribs, pork tenderloin or chops. Mix together 1tsp Chinese five-spice powder, 2tbsp honey, 2tbsp hoisin sauce and 2tbsp soy sauce. Marinate for at least four hours for maximum flavour.

Take a look at these surprisingly brilliant foods you can cook on the barbecue

If it's sticky, fall-apart ribs you're after, this is the marinade for you. It contains plenty of citrus, which combined with soy sauce, sugar and aromatic spices, adds a real zing to the flavour. The ribs are slow-cooked in the marinade to begin with, and finished on the barbecue. Brush with the marinade as they grill. 

Get the recipe for sweet and sour ribs here

The pinchito spice mix of star anise, black pepper, caraway, cayenne, coriander seeds, cumin, garlic, oregano and turmeric, doesn't sound particularly Spanish. But it harks back to when Spain was occupied by the Moors. Leave cubes of chicken in the spice mix and lemon juice for 30 minutes. It also works brilliantly with lamb.

Get the recipe for chicken with pinchito spices here