
Oh hey! Just your works-for-everything, anytime, delicious chicken recipe here! I’m not kidding; you’ll come back to this honey lime chicken marinade every week. A little smoky, a little spicy, a tad sweet and citrusy, with a splash of umami savoriness—it’s the bomb!
This chicken is perfection grilled, or you can bake it, cut it up and make kebabs, or throw it in the slow cooker or Instant Pot for shredded chicken. And don’t throw out that marinade! Simmer it into a sauce and drizzle it over your entire plate.–Tara Teaspoon
Honey Lime Chicken FAQs
Yes, definitely. You can make it with boneless thighs or bone-in legs, thighs, or breasts. Keep in mind that the cooking time will be longer for any of these options.
Try this chicken with a side of rice and roasted carrots, or slice it up and serve it with bacon fat flour tortillas and all your favorite taco toppings.
You sure can. Some of our testers felt the same way. Cut the honey in half–to two tablespoons–and you’ll be set.
There’s no need to worry. Salmonella is killed at 150°F (65°C). Simmering the marinade takes care of that.
☞ Like chicken recipes? Try these:
Spicy Honey Lime Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 large (about 2 pounds) chicken breasts, or substitute 6 thinly sliced chicken cutlets
- 1/2 cup fresh lime juice (from 4 to 5 limes)
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 chipotle chili in adobo, finely minced
- 2 teaspoons adobo sauce, from canned chipotle in adobo
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- Oil, for the grill
- Cherry tomatoes, for serving (optional)
- Fresh green salsa, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Using a sharp knife, cut each chicken breast in half horizontally to create a total of 6 thinner pieces. (If you purchased chicken cutlets, skip this step.)
- Place the chicken in a zip-top freezer bag or glass dish.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the lime juice, honey, chipotle chili, adobo, onion powder, cumin, salt, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour the mixture over the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.
- Heat a grill or grill pan to medium heat. Oil the grill grates or pan.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade and transfer it to the grill or grill pan. If using the marinade as a sauce, transfer it to a saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Grill the chicken until cooked through to an internal temperature of 165°F (74°C), about 4 minutes per side.
- Serve drizzled with the cooked marinade sauce and topped with tomatoes and green salsa, if desired.
Notes
Instant Pot Shredded Honey Lime Chicken variation
No marinating is needed. Place all of the ingredients in an Instant Pot or multicooker with 1/4 cup of water. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it into pieces. Simmer the juices until reduced and thickened. Strain it before serving, if desired.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
This honey lime chicken was fabulous! It was a bit spicy, but not too much, and really juicy. I highly recommend serving it with the marinade so don’t skip the step of heating up the sauce!
I wanted to make this spicy honey chicken dish because the ingredient list sounded delicious. We have limes from our tree that need to be used, and I knew the dish would come together in a flash. It’s perfect for a weeknight meal, lunch, or BBQ with friends. There’s a nice smoky hint from the chipotle and a refreshing tang from the lime.
We served this spicy honey lime chicken sans sauce with roasted corn and cauliflower rice.
This honey lime chicken is an easy, tasty, and fun dish to prepare and eat! Even with impending rain, I had the urge to grill today, and once I had a can of chipotles in adobo sauce, I was good to go. My wife and daughters went shopping and came home with chicken breast tenderloins which were perfect for this recipe.
This is a quick and delicious way to make moist and flavorful shredded chicken in an Instant Pot. I’m glad to have discovered it.
I made the Instant Pot variation of spicy honey lime chicken. The cooking method is spot on for tender, moist, and easy-to-shred chicken. Chicken thighs would be a nice alternative to breast meat.
This spicy honey lime chicken is a perfect warm-weather dish, but it’s so versatile you can make it during a long, cold winter when you need a taste of summer. It’s a wonderful combo of flavors, too: sweetness from the honey, spice from the chiles, tartness from the limes.
This lime chicken marinade is quite tasty and complex, with a good balance of chipotle smoke, citrus, and sweetness from the honey. I used 4 pounds of skinless, boneless thighs for a cookout, so I doubled the marinade recipe. I was a bit reluctant to use the marinade for a sauce, so I served the thighs with store-bought salsa verde.
I found this spicy chicken dish to be extremely flavorful and reasonably easy, which was nice. I also appreciate the number of ways in which it can be enjoyed. I chose to cook chicken breasts on a charcoal grill but will also be giving the kabobs a try.
The dishes name speaks for itself, this chicken is flavourful! It has a tangy and spicy aroma to an otherwise bland meat. While the taste was good, we found the meat dry once cooked to an internal temp of 74 degrees. We recommend cutting the meat thinner for the cooking time to be more accurate and to get more juices in the meat. With that being said, this is still a recommendable, simple, and tasty dish for lunch or dinner.
Thanks, Loagen! We’re so pleased that you enjoyed this. You may want to cook your chicken a few minute less to avoid it being dry. Please let us know what you try next.
I would love to try this recipe. Can it be made using an oven broiler? And what about roasting /baking in the oven, as in sheet pan chicken?
Binnie, we didn’t try it this way, but I think it should work. You’d just need to monitor the internal temperature so that you don’t overcook it.