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Our Crispy Cilantro Lime Chicken Recipe is full of incredible flavour! Juicy on the inside bone-in chicken thighs with a golden, crispy skin!
Mexican-inspired Crispy Cilantro Lime Chicken that marinates in no time thanks to a rich-in-flavour sauce. Garlic, cilantro and lime takes simple oven baked chicken thighs and turns them into a mouth-watering recipe thanks to all of those flavours mixing through the incredible pan drippings!
SUCCULENT CHICKEN THIGHS RECIPE!
No need to go anywhere or get take out when you can have juicy and crispy chicken on your table in no time with everyone feasting on some incredible chicken! The sauce is so good you’ll be licking your plates clean!
HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN
With simple ingredients you may already have on hand that create some explosive flavours in this chicken.:
- Fresh lime — use fresh lime juice for the best flavour. Don’t go for the bottled stuff.
- Cilantro — substitute with fresh parsley if you don’t like cilantro.
- Garlic — you could use green onions/scallions (about 1/4 cup chopped) instead of garlic if you prefer
- Red chili flakes — if you don’t like a bit of heat, leave it out all together. Or for more heat, add more!
- Brown sugar — you can also use honey if you prefer. I love brown sugar in this. It balances out the acidity of the lime juice.
- Cumin
CHICKEN THIGHS OR BREASTS?
I used bone-in, skin on thighs in this recipe, but you can use skinless and boneless chicken breasts if you prefer. The cooking time will change slightly, depending on the size and thickness of your chicken breasts. Chicken always needs to be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
SIDES:
Even though there are many Cilantro Lime recipes out there, I KNOW you guys will love and appreciate this one. Because CRISPY SKIN wins food lovers over EVERY SINGLE TIME.
WATCH HOW WE MAKE Crispy Cilantro Lime Chicken
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Crispy Cilantro Lime Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 1/4 cup lime juice fresh squeezed, juice of 2 limes
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes or pepper flakes
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- 6 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs or bone-off
- 1 pinch salt to taste
- 1 pinch pepper to taste
- 1 pinch fresh cilantro leaves to serve
- 2 lime slices or wedges, to serve
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).
- In a medium-sized shallow bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons olive oil together with the lime juice, chopped cilantro, chili flakes, garlic, sugar and cumin. Add the chicken thighs to the marinade and toss to evenly coat. Cover and refrigerate thighs for 15 minutes.
- Heat the remaining one tablespoon of oil in a non stick pan or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add in the thighs along with any marinade left over in the bowl, and sear chicken -- skin-side down -- for 4 minutes on each side until golden and crispy (chicken will not be fully cooked).
- Transfer to preheated oven and bake until the chicken is cooked through (about 15-20 minutes).
- Garnish with fresh cilantro leaves and lime slices or wedges.
- Serve over steamed rice or cauliflower rice, and drizzle with the pan juices.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Excellent! Next time I pat off some of the moisture from the marinade as it splattered the heck out of my stove stop. I still put the remaining marinade into the pan just before going into the oven. Otherwise, I feared the garlic in the marinade would burn on the stove top. Served it over rice! Excellent weekday meal.