Chicken is a staple food for many body builders. But with time eating bland chicken breast or drumsticks can discourage you from continuing with your diet which lacks flavor and taste. If you're training hard and love what you're doing, why not following a diet which gives you the reward for your hard workouts, that is eating more tastier foods. If you can combine both, you will be more motivated. When thinking about weight training and body building, some people think that those who are involved in such activities usually eat foods which are healthy but aren't that tasty but they do it due to their training regimen. There is some truth in this but it doesn't need to be that way everytime. You can cook your training meals and make it more enjoyable. Just need some creative ideas. Since chicken is a favorite body building food, I will give you tips how you can make your chicken more savoury.

Usually a fast way to cook chicken is just boil it plain and eat it like this maybe with some salt and pepper. If you consider you need to eat like 4-6 meals per day, it's a more effective way to eat the foods like they are for convenience. But this can become boring with time as doing something which you don't really enjoy can hinder your body building goals because a boring routine might demotivate you eventually. Sparing some time for planning and preparation can make a huge difference. Why not making your bland chicken more tasty. It's not difficult as it might seem. Instead of boiling chicken, you can also vary and employ these cooking methods - Barbecuing(either gas or charcoal), convection cooking, electric grilling. Personally I have a weakness for convection cooking. And you need a nice chicken marinade for these types of cooking. The marinade and the cooking method will make all the difference.

Here are the ingredients for the marinade. This is a marinade I've used before. You will notice it contains many fresh ingredients like fresh herbs and spices.

Based on 13 chicken thighs

(1) Garlic - 8 cloves of garlic

(2) Onions - 1 big onion

(3) Thyme - 20 branches of thyme

(4) Parsley - 10 branches of parsley

(5) Coriander - 10 branches of coriander

(6) Salt - 6.5 small yoghurt spoons

(7) Pepper - sprinkle pepper according to taste

(8) Soya Sauce - 4 tablespoons

(9) Olive Oil - 4 tablespoons

(10) Mixed Grilling Herbs - 2 tablespoons

I use the Ducros brand - (Melange Malin Grillades) - But you can also use provencial herbs.

(11) Ketchup - 10 tablespoons

(12) Honey - 5 tablespoons

Put some honey in a bowl and baste some with a cooking brush on the chicken both sides 5-10 minutes prior to removing the cooked chicken.

Some instructions for some ingredients before mixing them with the chicken.

Garlic, onions, parsley and coriander need to be finely chopped or crushed using a blender.

Use the thyme leaves only.

Mix the olive oil with the mixed grilling herbs in a bowl first.

After mixing all the ingredients with the chicken, put the chicken in a plastic zip bag along with the sauce and seal it making sure the sauce is on all sides of the chicken. Refrigerate for around 8 hours. You can prepare the marinade at night, hence you have the chicken available for grilling tomorrow during the day. If you prepare enough chicken, you can have meals for several days because grilled chicken can be stored in fridge for a few days. To make your chicken cooking more enjoyable and tastier, try this marinade.

Training and eating a proper diet go hand in hand but if your diet isn't appetizing, sooner or later, your training can also be affected. Eating is fun as part of your training but if your food lacks taste, you won't be as motivated with time. Try to be creative and make savoury and healthy dishes while still enjoying your training.

About the author

Jean Lam is the webmaster of Body Building Resource which provides articles on weight training, nutrition and fitness, body building book and DVDs.