Lime Garlic Chicken with Fresh Pico
Lime Garlic Chicken: This is a light and simple chicken dish that goes great with almost any side. The Pico de Gallo finishes it perfectly! Enjoy!
Lime Garlic Chicken with Fresh Pico
Jump to RecipeThis is an update from the Macheesmo Archives.
Have you ever had those weekends where you find yourself in a serious food coma for about 72 hours? After one of those weekend, it can be a bit more difficult to think about food. And I love thinking about food.
Eventually, however, I will get hungry again and so will you. But I would advise that you treat the next few weeks as a re-coup period because what just happened is going to inevitably happen all over again. So let’s make something healthy and refreshing to start the week and month.
This lime garlic chicken recipe is lightly marinated in olive oil, lime juice, and spices and topped with a home-made pico de gallo. I served mine with a side of quinoa, but you could also do couscous or rice.
Lime Pepper Chicken
Equipment
Ingredients
Lime Pepper Chicken:
- 2 pounds chicken breasts
- 2 limes juice only
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 Teaspoon lime zest
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 Teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ Teaspoon ground pepper
- Pinch of salt
Pico de Gallo:
- 2 large tomatoes chopped.
- 1 red onion chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 jalapenos or other mild chile
- 4 Tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
- 1 Tablespoon lime juice
Instructions
- Combine lime juice, olive oil, lime zest, garlic, thyme, and salt and pepper. Marinade chicken in this mixture for at least 30 minutes, but many hours or overnight is better.
- You can grill these breasts or heat an oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add a drizzle of oil and cook the breasts for about 4 minutes per side. Then transfer chicken to the oven to finish at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes. Check doneness by carefully cutting into one of them or using a meat thermometer. You are shooting for 165 Degrees F in the thickest part of the chicken.
- For the pico, dice up everything very fine and stir together. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. If you can make this a few hours in advance it will be much better.
- Serve chicken with lots of fresh pico and rice. Or slice and make tacos?
Nutrition
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Lime Garlic Chicken
Making the marinade couldn’t be easier. Just mix up your ingredients until they are combined!
Then throw your chicken breasts in with the marinade for at least 30 minutes. Obviously, you could do longer. I like to make it in the morning and then by the time I get home it is ready to rock.
There are a few different ways you could cook these guys. The best way might be to grill them actually, but this time of year you may not have access to a grill.
So, started them off in my iron skillet for about 4 minutes a side on high heat and then transferred them to the oven to finish at 350 for 15 minutes.
If you are skeptical about whether they are done, it never hurts to slice into one to check. The last thing you want is to bite into a peppery, raw piece of chicken.
Oh. Right. The pico. Well, that’s simple enough. Just chop up all of those nice veggies and mix it up! The secret to good pico is that the longer you let it sit the better it will be (within reason).
If you make the pico first thing for this meal and let it sit while the chicken marinates it will be perfect.
As you can see, I like piling my pico so high you can barely even see the chicken, but trust me it is there and it goes perfectly with the fresh veggies. There is something about a dish like this that makes you wake up the next day with tons of energy.
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I'm biting in now, and it's pretty fantastic.
One question, though: Once you've made the pico…
how do you avoid eating ALL OF IT with tortilla chips?
I’ll be making this tonight, the first recipe of yours that I’m trying. I’m very excited.
Update: Made this last night. The tomatoes at the Teet looked horrible, so I went with canned diced. The pico de gallo was still fantastic–I’m with Bill, how DO you avoid eating all of it with chips? I was starting to get a little nervous that we’d eat it all before the chicken was even ready. The chicken had a nice flavor, very tender. Next time, I’d marinate for longer than the 40 minutes I did (didn’t plan ahead to marinate all day).
Cool! And a plus: It´s low carb. Will try this recipe for sure
Wow that looks great! I was just looking for a chicken dish for tonight and I’m not going to be able to go past this one!
I am so going to make this for dinner later! I was just going through Pinterest for ideas and glad my friend recommended your blog and thought might as well check it and was I not disappointed :)
Oh I love this! It looks like the kind of thing I could throw on the bbq too – really fresh and summery. I might add it to our list of Christmas bbq food to cook up this year.
This looks fantastic. So fresh and tasty. It’s going on my menu planner for next week. Can’t wait to try it.
Awesome! Was just looking for a Mexican type chicken dish and found this one. I’m sure my family will love it. It’s on my meal planner list for this week!
I have fixed this several times. I have it marinating right now for tonight. I am using boneless, skinless chicken thighs this time. Great recipe! Only change I make is I add a little cumin to my pico de gallo.
this looks delicious. I would never have thought to add limes to a dish like this. I’m a massive chilli fan so I might have to add some chillis when we try it!
oh my goodness! This looks so good! And healthy.
My husband and i eat alot of chicken and veg which gets bland after a while!
Im keen to try out this recipe!
This is an awesome dish! I bumped it up a notch with spicy instead of mild peppers in my pico, but my family can’t get enough spiciness. The combination of lime and garlic worked surprisingly well together. Love it and highly recommend.
Fresh pico de gallo makes every dish better! Great recipe, cannot wait to try this at home!
Yum! This looks so good. My girls love chicken, so will have to test this one out.
Even though I did not add sufficient salt and had no thyme. This recipe came out amazing!! I cant wait to try it again but this time with more salt and thyme! .
Trying this tonight! I may add capers, because I love salt! I love the low carb aspect of it.
Does this recipe call for boneless breast? It doesn’t say, and the breasts look rather fat! I sure would like to know. Thanks. Look forward to you every Friday.
Where are the responses to the questions?
Must they be boneless?
Really wanted to try it tonight but have same questions as a few followers…
Hi Vicki! I used boneless skinless breasts but you can use whatever you have, just make sure the chicken is cooked through before serving. :) Good luck!
This looks delicious, I’m going to try it! Do you think it would be okay to swap the garlic for garlic oil?