Cilantro Lime Chicken Thighs

These cilantro lime chicken thighs are crispy, packed full of fresh flavor and ready in just an hour! Talk about easy and delicious!

There are a lot of things I love but the thing I love the most is dark meat chicken. I mean I love diamonds too but this is a food blog not a diamond blog.

When I was a kid my parents would make us kids eat all the dark meat and take the breasts for themselves. Well, jokes on them – dark meat is the best meat. It almost always turns out moist, flavorful and is a lot cheaper than chicken breast. Plus you get super crispy skin. Who doesn’t love crispy skin? You know those people who hate chicken skin? I can’t be friends with those people.

The thing I love most about this dish is that it only take an hour to come together. The spice mix packs a HUGE amount of flavor and the cilantro lime sauce pretty much tastes like heaven. Unless you hate cilantro. Then I’m guessing you would not be ok with this dish. Sorry cilantro haters – this dish is not for you. But lucky for you I have other chicken thigh recipes you might love like crispy pan roasted chicken thighs, maple ginger chicken thighs or my citrus herb roasted chicken thighs.

I got your back cilantro haters.

This dish is all about flavor and you’re going to love it. The skin is flavorful and the juice left in the pan is full of cilantro lime flavor. If you’re anything like me you will want to suck it up with a straw!

Cilantro Lime Chicken Thighs

These cilantro lime chicken thighs are crispy, packed full of fresh flavor and ready in just an hour! Talk about easy and delicious!

Yield: 6 chicken thigs

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken thighs, bone-in skin on
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika 
• 1 teaspoon cumin 
• 1 teapsoon kosher salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice 
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic 
• 1-1/2 cups chicken stock 
• 1/2 cup lime juice, fresh squeezed 
• 2 tablespoons honey 
• 1-1/4 cup chopped cilantro 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare you chicken by cutting off any extra pieces of fat and set aside. (I do this because sometimes my grocery store does not do a good job of taking off extra unneeded pieces of fat. If your chicken looks good to you feel free to skip this step.)

In a shallow dish mix together smoked paprika, cumin, kosher salt, black pepper, allspice and granulated garlic.

Coat chicken in the spice mixture.

Set a large oven proof skillet over medium high heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Once the oil is hot add the chicken, skin side down, into the pan. Cook until the top is crispy and deep golden brown. Flip and cook for another 5-8 minutes on the other side. Remove the chicken from the skillet and wipe the skillet clean with a few paper towels.

Add the skillet back to medium high heat and pour in chicken stock, lime juice and honey. Stir and simmer for about 5 minutes just until is cooked down slightly. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup cilantro.

Add the chicken back to skillet (skin side up) and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the chicken thighs are fully cooked.

Once fully cooked sprinkle with remaining cilantro. Serve with rice and use leftover sauce in the pan to pour over the rice.