Perfect Amish grilled chicken is a recipe that an Amish man was nice enough to share with me on one of my trips. He was grilling chicken for a benefit supper, manning these huge grills with massive pieces of poultry on them. The smell of the marinade wafting up from the grills was incredible.

The secret to the great recipe was fresh chicken home-butchered by Amish farmers and then this simple, but flavorful marinade. As he manned the grills, turning the pieces of chicken methodically with a long fork, I pulled out my notepad and asked him he could share their recipe. The chicken was so popular it pulled in customers from miles and miles around.
The marinade consisted simply of vinegar, water, Worcestershire sauce, corn oil, and salt. They made the marinade in 5-gallon buckets. They were making the marinade in huge quantities to serve 1200 people. But you can make a scaled-down version using equal parts of each, except for the corn oil, he did tell me whatever amount of the Worchestershire sauce you use, use double the amount of corn oil.
I hate to mess with a simple recipe that seems to really get results, but you can experiment with this. Many Amish would add some brown sugar to the marinade. That adds a nice hint of sweet. Or perhaps some honey or maple syrup. Sprinkle some red pepper flakes in if you like heat!
You can use chicken thighs, breasts, or legs for this recipe. Doesn't matter, it'll all be good. The longer you can let it soak before grilling, the better!
One of the "secrets" of this recipe is simple, use the freshest chicken you can. When you grill it. The optimum internal temperature for grilled chicken is 160 degrees. If you don't have an instant-read thermometer, just make a small cut into the middle to check for doneness visually.
You don't have to cook yours until it is charred, but that is how I like almost all my food! Either way, this is an easy, flavorful recipe. Enjoy!
🍗 Perfect Amish Grilled Chicken
- 8-10 chicken thighs
- 1 cup vinegar
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 cup corn oil
- salt
📋 Instructions
- Mix marinade ingredients well.
- Spread with a brush onto leg quarters.
- If you have the time, refrigerate marinated chicken overnight or a couple of hours to let flavor soak in.
- Grill until tender.
🍗 More Amish Chicken Recipes
Brown Sugar and Garlic Chicken
Alma Miller's World's Best Chicken
🖨️ Full Recipe
Perfect Amish Grilled Chicken
Ingredients
- 8-10 chicken thighs
- 1 cup vinegar
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 cup corn oil
- salt
Instructions
- Mix marinade ingredients well.
- Spread with a brush onto leg quarters
- .If you have the time, refrigerate marinated chicken overnight or a couple of hours to let flavor soak in.
- Grill until tender.
Leave a Reply