The Best Type Of Vinegar For White Meat Marinades Isn't What You'd Expect

If there's one thing on your menu that probably needs a marinade, it's your white meat. As the backbone of chicken breast recipes and other easy dinners, white meat is an irreplaceable staple in home kitchens, but it doesn't always make the best tasting meal. Lacking the flavor of red meat and the fat of dark meat poultry, white meat is usually functional at best, providing some filling protein with very little taste or moisture. That's what makes a marinade's dual purpose of tenderizing and flavoring so essential. You have a lot of options when it comes to vinegar, so what works best? Well, Tasting Table reached out to expert Michael Lomonaco, the chef at Porter House in New York City, to ask him which vinegar is best for white meat marinades.

Chef Lomonaco's answer wasn't what we thought it would be: There really isn't one best vinegar. "For balance in flavor you might say the better choice would be white vinegar or apple cider vinegar," he explained. "But there is no right choice except what you would like the end resulting flavors to be." This is one place where white meat's mild flavor is actually an advantage. It's compatible with almost everything, so it comes down to your recipe and personal taste.

With the vinegar in your white meat marinade up for riffing, chef Lomonaco suggests you get creative with it and try options you might not be used to. "Consider cider vinegar or a fruit flavored vinegar like raspberry, (or) sherry vinegar for a more assertive wine character," he suggests. And as far as marinades go, with white meat you don't even need the strength of vinegar if you don't want the flavor. Lomonaco threw open the door to anything and told us you can actually "skip vinegar and use any combination of citrus juices to obtain the flavor and tenderizing feature of an acidic marinade."

White meat marinade flavors are the one area where you really can act like there are no rules, so take a look in your pantry at all the different kinds of vinegar you have and make a judgment call based on the flavor profile you want. Making something sunny and Mediterranean? White wine vinegar is probably the answer, or you could stick with just lemon as we do in our expertly marinated baked chicken. Going more Asian-inspired? Start with rice vinegar. Balsamic is a classic choice that can also be reduced into delicious, glossy sauces. For a twist on the flavors of fish and chips, try malt vinegar for marinating fried chicken before breading and frying. As Lomonaco says, you don't need to be restrained with your imagination.