Easy Chili Cilantro Lime Chicken is salty, sweet, sour, and spicy and is great on salads, with rice, or in burritos and wraps! 
The people have spoken and it looks like chicken wins! Some of the most popular recipes on my site are chicken recipes, so here it goes.
This easy grilled chili lime chicken is just one of a whole bunch of healthy recipes I will be sharing with you in the upcoming weeks. It’s easy to make, healthy, spicy, and delicious. The chicken is marinated in a lime, chili, and spice marinade then grilled to perfection. You can make the chicken on the stove top in a pan or griddle or grill it outside on a grill. Ether way, this chicken is simply incredible!
I like to serve it on a salad and double the marinade and save half as a dressing for later. This chili lime chicken also goes great on noodles, rice, or burritos!
Grilled Chili Cilantro Lime Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 medium chicken breasts boneless, skin-less (or thighs)
- Marinade:
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- zest of one lime or 1 tsp
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
- 2 garlic cloves chopped finely
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar or honey
- 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes adjust to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground Cumin
Instructions
- Whisk the ingredients for the marinade in a small bowl. Place chicken in a large plastic bag or bowl and add the marinade to the chicken. Mix to combine. Seal bag or cover bowl with plastic bag and place in the fridge to marinate for 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.
- Pre-heat grill, pan or griddle to medium-high heat. Grill chicken fillets for 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through and the skin is golden and lightly charred. Rest for 5 minutes then slice and serve on salad, rice, noodles, or tortillas. Garnish with chopped cilantro and Enjoy!
Janelle
Soooo good! We will Definitely be making this again.
Dave
I just tried it and omg it was delicious.
Tracy
This has seriously become my fav matinade—- its so good. I like to serve it like a rice bowl with avaca
Gayle
I’m surprised the nutrition info says fat is 23g. Based on the ingredients, that seems high.
Layla
Most of the fat is good fat from the olive oil!
Paula
So, I followed recipe to spec. I tasted marinade before pouring it over chicken and decided to add another 1/2 tspn salt to marinade. Everything else was the perfect balance. Not too sour, sweet, salty or spicey. Will definitely add this into the rotation!!! Adding this to rice would require more sauce than recipe renders. Adding chicken to salad is a great idea, but this chicken can go into tacos, sandwiches and pasta dishes!
ENJOY!!!!!
Tammie Koehnen
This was so delicious! Going to add this to my regular rotation of meals. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe.
T
Thank you for sharing this delightful recipie! It makes me look like a capable cook as there are never any leftovers!!!!
Layla
I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
Jen
Have you (or anyone else) tried it for tofu or tempeh?
Jennifer
This was good but a little on the salty side for me. I would reduce the salt to 1/2 tsp.
Boyan Minchev
I love this recipe and the lime match perfectly with the chicken, thank you.
Frankie Perez
How did you figure out the calories?
Layla
We use a nutritional calculator!
Dayana
Can i do this recipe with mutton?
Layla
I can’t say because I haven’t tried this recipe with lamb but I guess it would depend on what cut you use.
Michael
Fantastic recipe! I marinated the chicken for 24h – and was rewarded with a super soft and delicious meat. Thank you very much!
Deanna
Has anyone left it in the marinade overnight? Did it effect the texture of the chicken? Make it a bit mush? Wondering how long to marinade, diff want more than a half hour.
Layla
The general rule is the longer you marinate the chicken the better. Enjoy! 🙂
Melissa
GEnerally that’s not the case with chicken. Especially in a marinade that contains so much acid. The acid will make the chicken mushy