This cilantro lime chicken simmers in a creamy flavor-packed sauce and comes together in just one pan and in around 40 minutes from start to finish. This easy chicken dinner recipe is a favorite in my home—and many readers’ homes too—all year round!
I originally published this recipe in 2015 and have since added new photos and more helpful success tips. And based on reader feedback, increased the amount of creamy sauce! 😉
While I enjoy baking desserts the most, dinner is an everyday adventure. And if you’re like me, you’re constantly searching for quick and easy dinner recipes. Well, you’ve come to the right place! This is my one-pan creamy cilantro lime chicken, a consistent crowd favorite.
One reader, Marci, commented: “Thank you for this recipe. My family has been obsessed for months; we have it at least once a week and I recommend it to everyone. ★★★★★“
Another reader, Rose, commented: “Omg what a flavor bomb!!! This was absolutely delicious!! … Wish I made a double batch, but will be making again and again!! ★★★★★“
And another reader, Allison, commented: “STAPLE DINNER in our house and a GREAT thing to serve to guests! Everyone LOVES this ★★★★★“
Today I’m going to show you that one skillet is all it takes to transform chicken into something you and your family will love. The process is a lot like my skillet apple cider chicken and this creamy lemon thyme chicken. Pan-sear the chicken on the stove, make a flavorful cilantro lime pan sauce, then bake the chicken in the sauce to finish.
Here’s Why You’ll Love This Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Quick and easy 1-pan meal
- Extra tender, juicy chicken
- Creamy, buttery, zesty sauce tastes amazing on rice and vegetables, too!
- Undeniably crowd pleasing, so you’ll want to make it again and again
Grab These Ingredients
- Chicken: I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Pound them down to even thickness. You could use boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead if desired.
- Salt & Pepper
- Olive Oil
- Chicken Broth
- Fresh Lime Juice
- Onion: Yellow, white, or red—chef’s choice!
- Cilantro
- Red Pepper Flakes: Adds a bit of heat, but feel free to reduce or increase the amount to your liking.
- Heavy Cream: Just enough to make the sauce taste creamy and rich. See below for a dairy-free alternative.
- Butter: Adds so much delicious flavor!
Start the Chicken, Then Make the Pan Sauce
The process is the same as my lemon thyme chicken and creamy garlic chicken and vegetables, so if you’ve made either of those before you know how easy it is!
Cook the chicken in a large oven-proof skillet until both sides are browned—the chicken will cook again in the oven so if the centers aren’t cooked all the way through yet, that’s fine. Remove the chicken temporarily and set it aside.
If you’re in the market for a new skillet, I own and love this one.
Now, using the same skillet, make the pan sauce. The juices left behind by the chicken are key for flavor, so don’t clean the skillet before making the sauce!
Simmer the pan sauce until it has reduced and thickened.
Add the chicken back to the skillet:
Bake in the oven until the chicken is cooked through. Garnish the saucy chicken with extra cilantro (flavor! flavor!) and a squeeze of lime. Serve with rice and veggies, and smother them with the sauce, too!
Yes! Use full-fat canned coconut cream instead of heavy cream and coconut oil instead of butter for a dairy-free version with a delicious coconut-y twist.
No problem! After you cook the chicken and sauce on the stove, you can transfer both to a baking dish.
Yes, you can use chicken thighs instead if you prefer. No changes necessary!
Yes! The recipe below reflects an almost-doubled portion of the sauce. Before 2025, it made only about half as much, but now there’s plenty to generously coat the chicken and spoon over any sides you’re serving.
Yes, and this 10.25-inch cast iron skillet is a good size. This particular skillet is a workhorse and I use it for nearly everything from bruschetta chicken and walnut crusted chicken to honey skillet cornbread, too.
What to Serve With Cilantro Lime Chicken
We enjoy this chicken with a side of rice and a green vegetable like roasted broccoli (and the cilantro lime sauce poured over everything, of course!), but here are a few more suggestions for tasty pairings:
- Cornbread or cornbread muffins
- Soft dinner rolls or honey whole wheat dinner rolls
- Roasted or steamed asparagus, green beans, or Brussels sprouts
- Mashed or roasted potatoes
- Zucchini fritters or corn fritters
Creamy Cilantro Lime Chicken
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: serves 4
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This cilantro lime chicken simmers in a creamy flavor-packed sauce and comes together in only 1 pan!
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds (24 ounces/680g) boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) chicken broth (I recommend reduced sodium)
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) fresh lime juice
- 1/2 cup (60g) chopped red onion
- 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 1/2–1 teaspoon red pepper flakes*
- 1/3 cup (5 Tablespoons/80ml) heavy cream*
- 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons/56g) unsalted butter
- optional: lime wedges and more cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
- If the chicken breasts are uneven in thickness, pound them down so they’re all even. This way all the breasts will cook through simultaneously. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.
- In a large ovenproof skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 6–7 minutes, turning once. You want the chicken nice and browned on the outside. (It doesn’t have to be cooked all the way through yet.) Transfer chicken to a plate and cover with foil until step 5.
- Remove skillet from heat and add the broth, lime juice, onion, cilantro, and red pepper flakes. Return to heat. Cook and stir to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. Bring to a boil. Allow to boil, uncovered, for 10-12 minutes or until the liquid is reduced to 1/2 cup. Reduce heat to medium-low, then add the cream and butter. Stir until butter has melted, then remove from heat.
- Add the chicken back to the skillet, turning once to coat both sides in the sauce. Transfer the skillet to the preheated oven. Bake uncovered until the chicken is completely cooked through, about 5–10 minutes (internal temperature should be at least 165°F (74°C)).
- Serve chicken with sauce spooned on top, and garnish with lime wedges and cilantro, if desired.
- Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for a few days. You can reheat on the stove over medium heat, in the microwave, or in the oven.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Meat Tenderizer | Large Oven-Proof Skillet (I own and love this one) | Tongs | Citrus Juicer | Instant-Read Thermometer
- Red Pepper Flakes: Adjust the amount of red pepper flakes to your liking. This amount made the chicken mildly spicy. The cream in the sauce mellows out the spice.
- Heavy Cream: You can use whole milk or half-and-half instead, but for the thickest, richest sauce I highly recommend heavy cream. If using whole milk, make sure it is at room temperature to help prevent curdling.
- Dairy-Free: Use coconut cream instead of heavy cream and coconut oil instead of butter.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 chicken breast + 1/4 of the sauce
- Calories: 396
- Sugar: 1.5 g
- Sodium: 254.4 mg
- Fat: 23.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 4.3 g
- Protein: 40.8 g
- Cholesterol: 165.9 mg
Reader Comments and Reviews
We enjoyed this with brown rice. “So good,” said my toddler, which makes this a win!
Easy and delicious dinner option. Came together quickly… while the chicken cooked, I was able to prep everything else for the dish. Thanks!
This was delicious! The most tender, flavorful chicken. We served with rice. This will definitely be a repeat meal.
turned this into tacos! so absolutely delish
I am wondering if I make it in the morning ,then bake it at dinner time.Will it be ok.
Hi Mary! We wouldn’t leave the chicken half-cooked all day. It would be best (and safest!) to make the recipe all at once, either in the morning or the evening.
This was so good! I ended up making extra sauce the next night, added rice and ate it as a chunky soup.
The sauce was thin/runny; followed directions to the tee. Cornstarch slurry next time??
You can absolutely try that next time!
OMG!! I made this last night and it is A-mazing!
My husband loved it….this will definitely be a go-to recipe from now on!
Very good.Will be making again.
I have made many of Sally’s recipes and have yet to find one that wasn’t a huge success we have an abundance of limes growing in our garden in South Africa and the chicken breasts with lime and coriander is a favourite with family and friends alike, very easy to make and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Served with tenderstem brocolli and smashed roasted baby potatoes, absolutely delicious
Phenomenal! I knew Sally was the baking queen but wasn’t aware of her full repertoire of cooking skills.
Discovered I did not have cilantro during prep and subbed basil. It was outstanding. Instructions and timing were spot on. No leftovers
Wish I had doubled the sauce.
Looking forward to making this with cilantro soon.
made this last year. it was great. will make it soon. this was a good reminder
one of my favorite internet recipes i have tried. i added a little bit of garlic/ garlic powder to mine but its perfect without
Hi there,
This looks like a fabulous recipe! Excited to try it. How would I go about doing this in a crock pot in your opinion?
Thanks!!
Hi Brittany! We haven’t tested this recipe in a crockpot but let us know if you do!
DELICIOUS! I used fresh cilantro (3T) and 1/4t red pepper. Made this in my 12″ cast iron skillet. Sauce was so creamy and flavorful. Very easy to make – one pan. A new family favorite!
Do you think I can use the sauce as a pasta sauce?
Hi Chen, if you’d like to, we can’t see why not!
Very good & easy to make! Highky recommend, Thank you sally.
This dish was a big hit at our house. We will make it again!
AMAZING. Straight to the top of our favorites list. Thank you!
I was so excited to make this after reading all the reviews. It didn’t turn out for me and I can’t figure out what went wrong. I doubled the sauce as others suggested and it took forever for the liquid to reduce. Maybe there was too much liquid left when I added the cream? The cream curdled and the sauce was really weird and broken. I thought maybe it was just ugly and would still taste good, but it wasn’t good. I double checked quantities and the cream was still good. So weird! I ended up finishing the chicken in the air fryer and just throwing out the sauce. It also seemed weird to add raw onion straight to the liquid, rather than softening it in the pan first. It definitely seems like user error with all the raves, but I’m not sure if I’ll try it again!
Made this for dinner, and it was a BIG HIT! Will definitely make this again. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
OMG. We loved this! Thank you Sally for another great recipe!
The unique flavor of this dish is amazing! Cilantro-y and lime-y. So delicious!! I made three batches of the sauce and didn’t let it cook down as much as the recipe said, and it made plenty. Definitely making this again!!
This was delicious! I made it the day before serving. The only changes I made was I dredged the chicken before frying, and doubled the sauce recipe. Definitely making again!
It smelled like maybe the cilantro burned but luckily I tasted it before throwing it out. An absolutely delicious recipe! I used thighs, more flavorful than breasts in my opinion and served it with cilantro lime rice. Honestly it may have been even better the next day. I’ll be making this again soon.
I meant to add that I doubled the sauce after reading other reviews. I wish I would’ve tripled it. There’s barely any sauce the way it’s written and believe me you’ll want a lot of it. So delicious!
Delicious! Added a clove of garlic and served it with cilantro-lime rice and spinach salad. Thank you for the inspiration 🙂
Is this recipe Keto Friendly
Hi Linda, While it should be, we do not specialize in keto recipes so you will want to double check all of the ingredients to be sure!
I can’t recommend this dish highly enough! It’s so full of flavour and so easy to make and my family absolutely love it. I can’t get enough of it!
Great flavor! It was a hit for the entire house (kids and adults)!
I paired it with brown rice and used chicken thighs instead of breasts.
Oh, I did use about a tsp of red pepper flakes and it was very subtle heat.
Thank you!
Hi there, I don’t have a skillet that can go in the oven..could I transfer everything to a baking dish and bake it that way? ♀️
Absolutely!