For a Better Marinade, the Secret's in Your Breakfast Bowl

The same aspects of yogurt that make it delicious also make it an amazing meat tenderizer.

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I'm not a diva or anything—I swear, I'm not—but if I don’t have a carton of yogurt in my fridge, I can barely eat. I mean, I start almost every single day with the stuff. I'm either dolloping it into my kale smoothies, stirring it into my morning oats, or topping it with granola and bananas (by far my favorite breakfast).

And that's just the first meal of the day. For lunch, I'll top my grain bowls with yogurt. And for dinner, I'll use yogurt as a marinade for my meat.

Yogurt has two things working for it as a marinade: microbes and lactic acid. Dr. Justin Sonnenburg, a professor of microbiology at Stanford and author of The Good Gut, says that the active bacteria in yogurt breaks down protein, making chicken breasts and steaks moist and tender.

But it’s the lactic acid present in dairy that’s doing most of the work. Know how the high acidity of red wine breaks down short ribs? The same tenderizing magic applies to yogurt—with an added plus. Lactic acid is much more mild than the citric acid you’ll find in a lemony marinade, which means it works a little slower. “Lactic acid is a kind of mild acid, it’s not as strong of a sour flavor,” says Dr. Joseph Frank, a professor of food science at the University of Georgia. “It’s reacting with the food in a more gentle way,” says Frank. “In terms of chemistry, the pH is not going as low, and it’s not doing as much changes to the protein’s structure.”

Which means the chances of a yogurt marinade breaking down a piece of meat too much (making the meat mushy) are pretty low. Which may be one reason Middle Eastern and Indian dishes rely heavily on yogurt marinades. Of course, the deliciously tangy flavors the marinades impart don't hurt, either.

To play with yogurt marinades yourself, pick up some thick Greek yogurt and thin it out with lemon juice and olive oil. Use it for shawarma or Turkish chicken kebabs. Or for tenderizing a fatty cut of meat like chicken thighs or lamb. Mix in spices like paprika, cayenne, garlic, and cumin, and get ready to never marinade any other way again.