Flavorful Mexican Chili Lime Chicken in as little as 30 minutes. Bake, include in your healthy grill recipes or fry and use in tacos, salads or fajitas year round. This chicken recipe stays moist and tender from a lime, chili powder and cumin marinade that gives it the best taste.
Check out other fresh flavored chicken recipes like healthy lemon chicken, coconut lime grilled chicken thighs and healthy grilled chicken recipe.
Table of contents
This 30 minute dinner idea is full of flavor and can be served in a variety of ways! Use it for a Tex-Mex themed dinner served with healthy Mexican street corn salad and guacamole or pair it with healthy pasta salad and Instant Pot corn for a summer potluck.
Why This Chili Lime Chicken Works?
- Chili lime chicken marinade keeps chicken juicy and tender
- Easy recipe contains only a few ingredients for a healthy main dish
- Perfect for summer – we love to alternate it with cilantro lime chicken
- Double the recipe and use it in healthy salad recipes throughout the week
Ingredients for This Chicken Recipe
Only a few ingredients makes this chili lime chicken breast recipe simply wonderful!
- Chicken Breast: We like chicken breasts, but you can use chicken thighs.
- Lime: Citrus helps the chicken absorb all the flavors of this simple marinade.
- Maple Syrup: A small amount balances the subtle heat of chili powder.
- Cumin: Adds a nutty, earthy flavor and goes perfectly with chili and lime.
- Chili Powder: This aromatic spice really takes the flavor up a notch for this chicken.
- Other seasonings: garlic powder, salt and pepper
Best Chicken to Use
The best chicken to use to make chili lime chicken are boneless and skinless chicken breasts or thighs. Depends whether you are white or dark meat person.
Thighs are more juicy but higher in fat than more lean chicken breasts. I do not find chicken breast dry because I cook it properly. There is a trick.
You can use bone in and skin on chicken. You will want to cook it low and slow on the grill and on the pan. In the oven, same baking temperature just longer cooking time.
How to Make Chili Lime Chicken Marinade
For the chicken marinade, I use a bit of olive oil mixed with a lot of lime juice and my favorite simple Mexican spices like chili powder and cumin.
I even use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic to make marinade recipe quicker and to prevent garlic from overpowering other spices.
Whisk marinade in the bowl and then place chicken in it. Because chili lime marinade contain a lot of lime juice, you can marinate chicken for as little as 30 minutes and as long as 48 hours.
It literally takes 5-10 minutes to combine everything in a bowl.
Bake, Grill or Fry
I cook chili lime chicken using all methods depending on my life situation. Right now we do not have an outdoor grill because we moved. I cooked chicken on an indoor grill because who doesn’t love grilled chicken breast in the summer. In winter, I would crave more baked or fried chicken – it would even be great variation of air fryer chicken breast!
No matter how you cook your chili lime chicken, you have to let meat rest. Resting chicken means to cover a dish with cooked chicken with a tin foil, towel or silicone lid. Let it sit like that for 5-10 minutes. That allows juices to settle back in a meat.
What to Serve Chili Lime Chicken With?
My absolute favorite way to serve any chicken is with a side of whole grain and veggies like quinoa and Mexican kale salad. I just love simple and quick meals. My family does too. It took 30 minutes for all of this goodness.
And cut up and serve in chicken street tacos or a grilled chicken salad. Don’t forget to try it along with black bean salsa or mango salsa.
FAQs
The key to juicy grilled chicken is letting your meat rest covered after cooking. After your chicken is done, cover with foil, lid or even a bowl and rest for up to 10 minutes. Resting allows juices to settle back in the chicken, making it juicy and tender!
Lime infuses this chicken with excellent flavor. When a citrus marinade is combined with salt and oil, the result is a flavor depth profile that results in an amazing taste.
More Healthy Chicken Recipes
- Greek chicken marinade
- Baked honey garlic chicken
- Grilled lemon rosemary chicken
- Chimichurri chicken
- Browse all healthy chicken recipes.
You may also love these healthy grill recipes!
Chili Lime Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breasts or thighs boneless
- 3 limes juice of
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp maple syrup or honey
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, add lime juice, oil, maple syrup, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Whisk with a fork.
- Add chicken to the bowl, poking and tossing with a fork. This will allow marinade to penetrate the meat. Cover and refrigerate for 30 mins – 48 hours. The longer you marinate, the deeper the flavor.
- To pan fry: Preheat large ceramic non-stick skillet on medium heat and swirl a bit of oil to coat. Add chicken, cover and cook for 5-6 minutes. Flip and cook for another 5-6 minutes or until the thickest part juices run clear when poked with a knife or fork. Discard marinade.
- To grill: Preheat grill on medium-high (450-500 degrees F) and rub with oiled paper towel. Place chicken on the grill, close the lid and grill for 8-10 minutes turning once. Do not overcook. Discard marinade.
- To bake: Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Rub bottom of large baking dish with oil and lay chicken breasts in a single layer. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes (thinner) to 35 minutes (2″+) or until 150 degrees F internal temperature. Discard marinade.
- For all methods: Make sure you let chicken rest. Place cooked chicken onto a baking dish and cover with tin foil, silicone lid or paper towel. Let rest for 5 minutes. This step helps juices settle back into the meat.
Notes
- Store: Refrigerate covered for up to 1 week.
- Freeze: Up to 3 months.
Do you have a guacamole recipe?
Hey Steph! I have several different guacamole recipes. Here is a link to one of them:
https://ifoodreal.com/easy-guacamole-recipe/
Also, you can use the search bar on the website to look up recipes. You can even search by ingredients. Hope that helps.
Could you do this in instant?
Yes, if you follow basic Instant Pot chicken breast recipe.
Fantastic! I marinated the chicken for 48 almost two days and baked it. I love recipes you can prep in advance when you have time and then cook it with minimal fuss. Thank You!
That is so great Melanie!
Loved the recipe. Going to try it tomorrow ?!!
Hi,
I really want to try your chicken recipes but by resting it,
does it still stay warm? My husband always says by time
he gets it to eat, it is not hot anymore.
Thanks
Ginger
You have to rest any meat for 5 mins or so to let juices flow through the meat. That’s for best results. Of course can eat any cooked meat any time.
Hi. If I use lime juice from a bottle, what is the equivalent of 3 limes.
Hi Shelley! 1 lime has ~ 2TBSP of juice. So 3 limes would be 6 TBSP. Hope that helps!
Olena, I look so forward to your recipes popping up in my email! So does my husband!!!
Awe, so happy to hear, guys! xoxo
Love this. Super tender chicken that gets rave reviews everytime I serve it.
In summer I will often kabob this with pineapple, peppers and red onion.
Fantastic flavours!
That’s a great idea about kabob-ing, Lisa! WHere did summer go so fast?! Glad you enjoy this recipe!:)
Very tasty, made it tonight. Served it will baby potatoes, sour cream and fresh dill, along with yellow and green beans, yummy!
Have some left for a sandwich tomorrow, not dry at all.
Yum yum. I want your full meal haha. Sounds so good!
Amazing!