Cilantro Lime Chicken
on Jul 06, 2020, Updated Apr 13, 2025
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Five ingredients, stupidly easy, amazingly flavorful. A terrific year-round weeknight chicken recipe.
This is a wonderful “Ooh, what’s that amazing smell?” recipe. And better yet, it’s a wonderful, “Oh my god, this is stupidly easy” recipe. Two great recipe attributes, all in one. Plus, chicken.
What I thought was interesting about this dish is that it feels kind of Asian and it also feels a bit Mexican. Cilantro (or fresh coriander) is used in both Asian (Southeast Asian in particular) and Mexican cuisines, as are garlic and lime. And chicken is pretty common in these (and pretty much every other) cuisines as well. Interesting right?
5-ingredients, stupidly easy, amazingly flavorful. A terrific year-round weeknight chicken recipe.
So this gives you choices about how you want to serve it. Whichever direction you pick, rice is always a good move, brown or white. If I were going Asian, I might pair this with Thai Green Beans, Thai Cucumber Salad, Kale, Cabbage, and Mint Salad with Peanut Dressing, Chili Crunch Cole Slaw, or Blistered Green Beans with Miso Butter.
If I were going Mexican: Grilled Corn, Three Bean Salad, or maybe Pan-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Chorizo and Toasted Breadcrumbs (more Spanish than Mexican, but it would work, I know it).
I also might slice up leftover chicken and wrap them up in warmed tortillas with some chopped tomatoes, Salsa Ranchera, or Persillade and a bloop of sour cream and call it lunch.
Or you can also slide right on out of those two lanes and match it up with all kinds of things. It’s a very simple chicken preparation, and so it buddies up with pretty much anything you are in the mood for. Slice or cube it and put it atop a salad. Use it to make burritos or enchiladas…add it to pasta salads…make a full-on chopped salad with it.
In the photos, it is with Sugar Snap Pea Salad and Steakhouse Tomato Salad. Just hanging out being summery.
It’s not a showy or spotlight-hogging chicken recipe — rather a flexible one, an accommodating one. Would that everything and everyone be so flexible and accommodating?
What to Serve With Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Herby Brown Rice
- Chili Crunch Brussels Sprouts
- Green Bean Nicoise Salad
- Tomato, Avocado, and Cucumber Salad
- Stewed Chayote with Tomatoes
More Weeknight Chicken Recipes
- Roasted Chicken Thighs
- Chicken with White Wine, Leek, Spinach, and Arugula Pan Sauce
- Baked Chicken Legs with Herbs and Lemon
- Greek Roasted Chicken Thighs
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Cilantro Lime Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds total)
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- ½ cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- Juice and finely grated zest of 2 large limes
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and cook for about 4 or 5 minutes on each side, until cooked through. Lower the heat if the outside of the chicken is getting too brown. Remove the chicken to a plate.
- Return the skillet to medium heat, add the butter, and when the butter is melted, add the garlic. Stir the garlic for 1 minute until it’s golden brown. Add the cilantro and lime juice and zest and stir, scraping the bottom so that any browned bits are released and become part of the sauce. Return the chicken to the skillet, along with any juices that might have accumulated, and turn the chicken so that it is coated with the sauce and cilantro. Transfer the chicken to a serving plate, and pour over any sauce left in the pan, scraping to make sure you get all of the herbs and garlic.
