by Alyssa RiversThis website may contain affiliate links and advertising so that we can provide recipes to you. Read my privacy policy.
Delicious spiced rubbed chicken cooked to tender and juicy perfection. It gets glazed with the most amazing honey lime sauce and is sure to be a huge hit!
Maybe I am a little obsessed with quick and easy skillet meals lately. But if you lived one day in my life lately you would understand why. It is just non stop from the second the alarm goes off for school. Going to the grocery store, doing taxes, piano practice, chasing after a toddler, and going to the gym are just a few of the things that make my days fly by. And then you check the clock and it is 6 pm and remember that your kids have to eat.
So because I buy my chicken in bulk at Costco I always have chicken on hand. So I am always trying to create new and delicious meals. The great thing about this Honey Lime Chicken is that I had all of the ingredients on hand. And it only takes a few ingredients to make the flavor of this chicken amazing!
The glaze on this chicken. Oh my goodness. It is just a few simple ingredients! Honey, Lime, and soy sauce and garlic. It creates such a sticky thick glaze and gives the chicken SUCH amazing flavor. It became an instant favorite at our house.
Back it up. I am getting a little ahead of myself. Let’s first talk about how you prepare the chicken. You rub the chicken in a blend of delicious and flavorful spices that get pan fried to tender and juicy perfection. It creates this flavorful crust and when you cut into the chicken it is cooked to perfection!
This meal is quick and easy and you are going to love it. It will be one that your family will want to make again and again!
Skillet Honey Lime Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs chicken breasts will also work
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 cup honey
- Juice of one lime
- zest of one lime
- 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 garlic clove minced
Instructions
- In a medium sized skillet over medium heat add olive oil. In a small bowl combine cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper. Rub on chicken and place in skillet. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side or until chicken is no longer pink and 165 degrees. Remove chicken and set aside on plate.
- Add honey, lime juice and zest, soy sauce and garlic. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and reduce heat and whisk until it starts to thicken. About 2 minutes.
- Add the chicken back to the skillet and coat in the sauce. Garnish with lime wedges if desired.
Nutrition
Serves: 6
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.
Could I make this ahead and do the last step with sauce and finish the temp raise a day or two later? Looking for meals to take and cook on vacation. Thanks!
Yes, that sounds great! Way to get ahead.
Wow! This chicken was amazingly delicious! I doubled the recipe and made two variations.One with the honey lime sauce and the other with just the dry rub. My family couldn’t decide which one they liked best. I will definitely add this recipe to my repertoire!
I will definately be trying this recipe this week! I loved reading the positive comments as cooking and eating delightful dishes are therapeutic for me…lol! I will give feedback once I try it. Thank you for sharing this recipe. Looks great!
Amazing dish, love it and so easy!! I get so bored and i am constantly looking for new easy dishes to make!! I omitted the soy sauce and salt as i am on a salt restrictive diet and still awesome. The hubby loved it!
My whole family loved this! My little 3 year old boy said “OH MY GOSH. This is so good.” Thanks for the recipe!!
I just tried this for the first time tonight and wow! The sauce is just delicious! The sauce was a little thinner than I’d like, so I also used little cups and dipped it in the sauce as we ate. It was great. Will definitely be saving this one! Thank you!
I don’t understand how searing the chicken for four minutes on each side is a safe way to cook chicken thighs? It would still need to go in the oven wouldn’t it?
For this recipe you will be searing/cooking the chicken until its internal skin reaches 164 degrees. Once you make the sauce, you will then put cook the chicken for a little longer all together. It turns out to be a simple and delicious meal. Hope that helps! XOXO
Delicious but I genuinely do not care about your life story.
That was a very unkind comment.
That is what food bloggers do. They connect their life stories to the food they cook to relate and connect with their readers. If you don’t care about the story, then skip ahead to the recipe, but please don’t leave rude comments like this.
I never cook anything and made this chicken not really expecting a lot but it was actually really good, moist, and for someone inexperienced in the kitchen like me it was easy. I’m a college student so these ingredients are things you usually have at home and I didn’t have the cumin but was able to find a small bag for $1.00 instead of buying a whole bottle of spices. Overall good recipe and I would recommend it was a hit with me and my friends.
That is great to hear! I am so glad it was simple for you and you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for sharing! XOXO
I’ve just made this. Thank you for your recipe, easy to follow and tastes great. I’m not a great cook but by making this I’ve gained a bit of confidence. Thank you
I loved the honey lime chicken, but the sauce was too thin. I added a bit of cornstarch to thicken it.
I usually don’t leave a comment because I’m not that impressed; however this is REALLY delicious, quick, tasty and my husband and I loved it. The lime is counterbalanced perfectly with with the sweetness of the honey. Great recipe! Thank you.
This was lovely. The flavor was excellent and my family loved it! Thanks so much!!!
That is GREAT to hear! Thanks SO much for sharing! XOXO
Couldn’t get sauce to thicken, any thoughts?
This does take a bit to get the sauce to thicken. A little longer may help.
This was a great recipe! I don’t care for honey so substituted agave light syrup. It’s sweet but less glycemic and doesn’t seem to get so dark and gooey in recipes. In addition, I julienned about half a green pepper to put in the sauce a minute or so until they were tender but not mushy. And I did not zest any lime as the lime I used was extra juicy. Lastly, with lime, tequila is a great complement so I added two tablespoons of tequila about one minute before removing from the pan to help deepen the sauce and get the caramleized goodness off the pan. I did garnish with some dried cilantro from my garden but think a bit of fresh cilantro would also be good. I prepared this with chicken breasts (2 breasts so halved the ingredients) and had baked sweet potato and green salad with the chicken. YUM!!! Thanks for sharing.
This was SOOOOOOOOO tasty!!! I only had a lemon on hand instead of a lime so I subbed that, but followed the directions completely. It was such a lovely complex flavor. sweet and sour! I will be making this one again.
That is awesome! I am so glad that you still loved the chicken with the lemon! Great idea! Thanks so much for sharing! XOXO
I was looking for a quick meal to make after getting home from work last night. I saw this recipe and thought it seemed pretty simple. The picture looked great, but I didn’t expect my chicken to look anything like the photo. I was pleasantly surprised. This chicken was beautiful, delicious and so easy! Thank you!!
I made this use using chicken legs, only other change I made was to add a tsp of sesame seeds to the glaze and bake the legs at 350*
I am ready to try many more recipes after making this one! I have been looking for recipes online for a while with this level of finesse. I am always looking for cheap, and healthy meat recipes. This site delivers! The flavors in this recipe are unreal – restaurant quality. The sauce and then rub on this chicken gives it a hint of heat, coupled with the needed sweetness, along with the surprisingly refreshing taste of lime. I doubled the sauce as suggested, along with adding more garlic and it was wonderful when served with rice. This is a recipe I will make many more times.
I’m a paleo fanatic so I left out the soy and the recipe was still delicious. If your into paleo you can replace the soy with coconut aminos. I’m out so I tried it w/o and still yummy!! Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Lynnia
Just made this and my undemonstrative husband took one bite and said, WHOA! That, believe me, means this recipe is a winner. I couldn’t stop scraping the pan to lick every last drop of sauce…it’s THAT good. I prefer chicken tenders and I suggest doubling the sauce, you won’t be sorry. This is going in my absolute favorite recipes collection. So thank you, Alyssa, because your idea of delicious food matches mine!
hey girl this looks amazing!