This Unlikely Condiment Needs A Starring Role In More Of Your Marinades

Perhaps the last thing you expect to marinade your vegetables in is mayonnaise. The white custardy condiment, often mocked the world over online, can actually be a powerful flavor enhancer. Marinating your vegetables in mayonnaise sounds like some kind of freakish nightmare, but when you taste the results you might become a full convert. For one, mayonnaise is a great way to get an amazing crust on your veggies.

It's not just good for veggies either. Creating a mayonnaise marinade for chicken is just as easy, and because mayonnaise usually has a neutral taste, you can use it for any style of chicken you want. You can thank the proteins and fats in this popular emulsification for helping your marinade cling to your food, so that the flavors can fully soak into the meat or veggies. It can also help temper your need to add a lot of acids, which can actually ruin your chicken, because it already has some.

You can even go so far as to make fried chicken from mayonnaise. Usually for fried chicken you create an egg wash, dunk the chicken in, and then coat the chicken in flour. Instead of egg, you can coat the chicken in mayonnaise with spices and then flour. It'll create some incredibly crispy, tender, and moist chicken. Why settle for eggs when you can use a fatty and flavorful egg-based sauce?

This brings me to a point I've been wanting to make for years, but never had the proper venue for: Mayonnaise is unfairly maligned. It has a very long history with roots in Spain and France, and it's a wonderfully complex compliment to any meal. It's a versatile side, but because it can be used as a marinade it's actually a versatile ingredient as well. It's partly why crab cakes are so good, and while I wouldn't go so far as to say you need to drink it, you can in the form of Mayo-Nog (although even I have my limits), the fact that so many are turned off by it means they have probably never used it properly.

Using it as a marinade is the perfect introduction to mayonnaise. Its flavor is masked and it makes your meat or veggies cook incredibly well. I'm not saying all your foods need to be slathered in mayonnaise, but as a supporting ingredient I can think of none better. Perhaps folks have confused mayonnaise and Miracle Whip, a debate I just don't want to even touch. Perhaps folks have never made their own mayonnaise at home, giving them the ability to create their own flavor-packed mayonnaise. Whatever the cause, to cut oneself off from one of the best ingredients and flavor enhancers on the market, just because it's supposedly bland, I think is a travesty. Get over yourself, slap some mayo on that chicken and grill!