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5 Secrets to 20 Minute Dinners!
Tips, tricks, and recipes for dinner in a hurry!
Zesty, moist, juicy baked chicken with mouthwatering marinade is a sure-fire way to tantalize your palate and appetite, for example: Cajun Chicken.
Cilantro Lime Chicken recipe is one my favorite Mexican recipes and I have the perfect baked cilantro lime chicken recipe for you.
This recipe couldn’t be any easier as simple ingredients are all you need. Aromatic cilantro, fresh lime juice, garlic, chili flakes bring out the explosive flavors of the chicken.
Serve the chicken with side dishes such as Cilantro Lime Rice, Tequila Lime Shrimp or make taco salad with the chicken.
You can also serve with a simple sauteed broccoli.
How to Make Cilantro Lime Chicken?
To make this easy recipe, first you marinate the chicken for 15 minutes.
Next, pan-fry the chicken in a skillet for a few minutes before baking it for 20 minutes. It’s that easy!
Cilantro Lime Chicken Marinade
The marinade is the soul of this dish. It calls for everyday ingredients that you already have in your pantry:
- Olive oil. This will keep the chicken moist and juicy.
- Garlic.
- Cilantro, stems and leaves.
- Lime juice.
- Red chili flakes.
- Salt.
Cooking Tips
To make sure that you have the best results, follow the tips below:
- Use chicken thighs, which are more tender, moist and juicy. Buy bone-in and skin-on chicken thighs and debone it. Click on this post to learn how to debone chicken thighs, with video guide.
- You can use skinless and boneless chicken breasts or chicken thighs, if you like.
- Use freshly squeezed lime juice if you can. You will love the fresh and citrusy aroma from the lime juice.
- Use lots of cilantro stems and some cilantro leaves as there is a lot of flavors in the stems.
- Pan-fry the chicken on a skillet first, to make sure that the skin is browned and crispy before baking the chicken in the oven. This extra step turns your cilantro lime chicken from good to exquisite.
- After baking, spoon the marinade over the chicken to make it extra flavorful and moist.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 404 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
Serve this dish as is or with rice and other side dishes. For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
Cilantro Lime Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs. skin-on deboned chicken thighs
- lime wedges (for garnishing)
- chopped cilantro (for garnishing)
Marinade:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic (minced)
- 4 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro stems and leaves
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes or more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon salt or more to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Whisk all the Marinade ingredients together in a big bowl, mix well. Add the chicken into the Marinade, stir to coat well. Marinate for 15 minutes, but best for 2 hours.
- Heat up a skillet and pan-fry the chicken with the skin-side down until slightly browned. Turn over and pan-fry the other side of the chicken until slightly browned.
- Spoon the leftover Marinade on top of the chicken before baking. Bake the chicken for 20 minutes.
- Transfer the chicken and the Marinade residual to a serving platter (discard the oil), squirt some fresh lime juice, garnish with cilantro and serve immediately.
It looks just yummy! I feel water in my mouth. It’s really a delicious recipe. Can I use honey in this recipe?
Thanks Rasa for giving us such type of recipe.
Yes you can add some honey. It will be even better.
Made this last Friday night and it was AMAZING! Great flavor combinations!
Thanks for trying my cilantro lime chicken recipe.
Looks nice this receip :-)
How many degrees in the ovn?
Can you just bake it without pan frying?? I don’t have the right skillet to transfer ?I want to make this tonight if possible sounds sooooo delish?
Yes you can just bake right away. Pan-fry make the skin and meat part crispy.
This was great. I pretty much followed recipe as remembered after I read it. Did salt and pepper thighs before marinating for two hours. Pulled out of fridge an hour before cooking. Served with Rasa garlic noodles, and kimchi purchased from local Asian grocery. Will make again.
Hi Karen, thanks for trying my cilantro lime chicken.
Maybe I missed this, but what temperature do you set the oven?
Preheat oven to 375F.
So do you cook the marinade in the same skillet as the chicken when you bake it on the oven? The directions are a little confusing to me….
Yes, you transfer the whole skillet into the oven. After it’s done, scoop the marinade residual in the skillet on top of the chicken. They are the best.
Ok thanks, excited to try it!!
Hi! I know maybe this is a stupid question but do you add salt to the chicken at some point?
Salt is in the marinade.
I just made this tonight (actually eating it now) and it is DIVINE! The flavors are perfect! I am used to a lot more seasonings (combined) and was pleasantly surprised how flavorful this is. I am on a VERY strict diet so I am very limited. There is only so much you can do with chicken breast before you’re sick of it! LOL This will definitely be added in my rotation. I am glad I made extras. I cannot have oil, so I did not use oil in my recipe. I also used chicken breast strips…they did not brown in the pan very well (as expected), however, they sizzled and browned in the oven. So, they came out great. Because the portion of meat is so small, after pan frying, I placed them in the oven for 10 minutes then flipped them and cooked for an additional 7 minutes. I probably could lower this (5-7 min each side) to make them even more moist. Nonetheless…this is a great recipe!
Hi TK, thanks so much for trying my cilantro lime chicken recipe, and I am so glad that you loved it. :)
This marinade was perfection. I used boneless skinless thighs, grilled. I served it on corn tortillas with a fresh mango pineapple salsa and avocado crema. Amazing!!
Yummy, sounds like a wonderful idea. :)