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.
Oh heavenly! This is my favorite and could eat that whole bowl!
I only liked the breast when I was a kid. Now my husband and I fight over the thighs if I make a whole chicken. We would be fighting over all of your chicken thighs, too. The flavor in this recipe is fantastic.
These chicken thighs looks so flavorful. I imagine the flavor is just bursting though. Looks that way from the pretty pics!
I’m always looking for new ways to cook up chicken thighs (a staple in our house) and the spices on this recipe sound insanely good!
I feel like you are the chicken recipe master; you always have the best recipes and these cilantro lime thighs are no exception.
P.S. I also enjoy diamonds.
Such a beautiful dish! I love cilantro and lime combinations. 🙂
We can totally be best friends because I LOVE chicken thighs, diamonds and crispy chicken skin….Pinning this recipe all over the place!!!
Dark meat really does have more flavor. I love that it’s flavored with cilantro and lime (my favorite) and that crispy skin looks incredible!
There are people who hate chicken skin?! I cannot even understand. And I agree. Dark meat is wayyyyyyy better.
These look so good! I love the combination of flavors and chicken thighs are so tasty and eat of all, cheap!
You totally had me at super crispy skin 😉 I wish this were my lunch today!
What an awesome dish! The chicken looks super crispy and delicious!
I love chicken thighs. I am more of a dark meat kind of girl so they just work better for me. I love that dark, crispy skin you got on there and I bet these flavors are perfect together. Must make!!
These looks and sound delicious! I love smoked paprika, such potently wonderful stuff!
A lover of chicken thighs and diamonds. We would get along well, girl! I love the crust that you created on this chicken by putting it in the skillet first. Your presentation is perfection!
I’m obsessed with chicken thighs! I don’t think I’ve seen them any crispier! So perfect!
Can we still be friends even though I don’t like the skin? Pretty please? Its a texture thing…I promise!
Cilantro and lime…how fabulous! And yes to the crispy skin (we can still be friend :)). Great recipe, Brandy.
I’m gradually warming up to the dark meat. Recipes like this help! Pinning to my “recipes to try” board.
I used to hate the dark meat – but now, I’m all over it!! WHY did I take so long to come around?! And these look insane!
Crispy skin is a must of my chicken! These thighs look incredible!
How did you get those gorgeous crispy skins! So want to bite into those right now!
A diamond blog would be so lame. I wonder if those exist. And wow… I can’t believe how crisp the skin got! I need to try these. I like how you addressed the cilantro haters in your post. I bet you’re still going to get comments about that and what to sub for the lime juice from a citrus-juice hater. 😀
This looks soo gooood! I love crispy chicken! I need to give this a try! Thanks for sharing!
Dark meat chicken for the win! The cilantro and lime are just icing on the cake.
Oh my gosh – that skin is the bomb (yeah I said it)! You know what’s funny? If I’d let her, my daughter would eat ONLY the skin and leave the meat for somebody else. She’s a skin thief when it comes to poultry…gotta have your fork poised and ready lest you lose it at Thanksgiving… 😉
I love the sound of this! Makes me think of summertime!
I would happily trade out the chicken breasts for dark meat any day of the week. The golden crust on these is gorgeous!
Oh man these are my kind of jam!!
mm Now a diamond blog.. I could totally run a diamon blog haha. Dark meat is the best! I’m a chicken leg kinda girl haha well chicken thigh, Chicken leg, it’s all good to me!
I always had to fight with my dad for dark chicken meat — by far the best, I totally agree! These chicken thighs look fabulous. I love the crispy skin – yum! I SO want to take a bite!!
A diamond blog…I could get behind THAT! Just look at your crust….oh! Love the flavors, love the look. You nailed it!
In my book, you are the queen of chicken thighs! Love everything about these beauties!