This study aimed to evaluate marination performances and the effect on meat quality traits of sodium bicarbonate, used alone or in combination with sodium chloride, when compared with sodium trypolyphosphate by using advanced analytical tools, including low-field nuclear magnetic resonance and differential scanning calorimetry. In total, 140 samples (cylindrical shape of 1 × 4 cm size) were obtained from a batch of 24-h postmortem broiler breast meat (Ross 708, females, 47 d old). Six of the groups were used for subsequent marination treatments, whereas the last group was kept as a nonmarinated control. Samples were subjected to vacuum tumbling in a special equipped laboratory rotary evaporator with a 12% (wt/wt) water:meat ratio using 6 marinade solutions: 7.7% (wt/wt) NaCl (S); 2.3% (wt/wt) Na(4)O(7)P(2) (P); 2.3% (wt/wt) NaHCO(3) (B); S and P; S and B; S, P, and B. Samples marinated with bicarbonate alone or in combination (B, SB, and SPB) significantly increased (P < 0.05) the meat pH by approximately 0.7 units compared with that of the control, whereas phosphate alone or in combination with salt increased (P < 0.05) the pH by 0.2 units. The combination containing all of the ingredients (SPB) produced the highest marinade performances; however, SB was able to guarantee a better marinade uptake and water retention ability with respect to that of SP. According to low-field nuclear magnetic resonance, the combined use of B and P with S determined a remarkable increase in proportion of entrapped water into the myofibrillar spaces, while the extramyofibrillar water fraction was not modified. Moreover, water gain following marination does not correspond to an increase in the freezable water amount, as detected by differential scanning calorimetry. In conclusion, B is a very promising marinating agent, and it can be exploited to develop processed poultry products with no added phosphates to match the request to avoid the nutritional drawbacks recently indicated with the use of phosphates.