Easy Honey Lime Chicken Thighs

These 5-ingredient Easy Honey Lime Chicken Thighs recipe is the perfect easy and healthy meal. It's also quick and only requires a few pantry ingredients. Although there is a 30-minute marinating time, it's totally worth it for the depth of flavor you get from the marinade, which doubles as the honey lime sauce after it's cooked. And you can have the meat marinating while you're preparing the side dishes.

The tart citrus tang and the sweet honey combination make this easy chicken dish stand out! It's also dairy-free, gluten-free, and Weight Watchers friendly.

🥘Ingredient Notes

To get that delicious glaze and tender chicken, here is what you need to know about these simple pantry staples:

• Chicken Thighs: I love using boneless, skinless chicken thighs for this recipe because they stay incredibly juicy at high heat. If you want to save on points, boneless skinless chicken breasts work perfectly too!
• Honey: I recommend using liquid honey so it whisks easily into the lime juice and oil. The honey is what creates that sticky, caramelized "restaurant-style" finish during the broiling step.
• Lime Juice: While fresh is always spectacular (and allows you to use the zest for garnish!), I often use bottled lime juice from concentrate for the marinade to keep it a "Lazy Way" win. If using fresh, you may need 3-4 large limes to get ¼ cup.
• Cooking Oil: Use a neutral oil with a higher smoke point, like canola or light olive oil. This helps the chicken sear and prevents the honey from burning too quickly.
• Onion: Don't skip the diced onion! It softens in the honey-lime mixture while baking, adding a savory depth that balances the sweetness.

*Please see recipe card for full list of ingredients and quantities.

📖Substitutions & Variations

• Chicken - I often use chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs *chicken breasts are less points. You could also use chicken tenders or bone-in chicken thighs.
• Spicier - add additional crushed red pepper flakes into the marinade while cooking to imbue heat into the dish and garnish
• Kid friendly - skip the lime zest and add extra honey!

🔪Step-by-Step: How to Make Honey and Lime Chicken Thighs

Heads up: the chicken needs to marinate in the honey lime mixture for a ½ hour before baking it. *You could also marinate it longer (prepare it in the morning, refrigerate all day, then pop it in the oven when you get home)

1. Spray a large glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F/205 degrees C. Place chicken pieces in the bottom of 9x13 baking dish and scatter chopped onion over the chicken. Score chicken (poke holes in it with a fork).
2. Mix honey, lime juice and oil together.
3. Pour marinade mixture over raw chicken with onion. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
4. Cook chicken, uncovered,  (in marinade) for 30 minutes, turning after 15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Turn the oven up to broil for 3-5 minutes (watch carefully so it doesn't burn)

Serve over rice or with baked potatoes, If desired, spoon over little of the marinade over the cooked rice.

Hint: I like to garnish it with lime zest, lime wedges, and crushed red pepper to give it some color and a little zip!

🥗 What to Serve with Baked Honey Lemon Chicken

This chicken goes well with a side of rice or on a bed of rice. You can use brown rice, Mexican rice, Spanish rice, or plain white rice. You could also serve it on a bed of cauliflower rice or over mashed potatoes.

For sides, I like to serve it with Healthy Glazed Carrots (with Brown Sugar) (shown) or Easy Green Beans and Mushrooms.

👪 Serving Size

This Honey lime chicken recipe makes 6 servings. If you want to cut the recipe in half, double or triple it, simply click on the servings in the recipe card, select the number of servings you'd like, and the ingredient amounts will adjust accordingly.)

🔢WW Points

This recipe is 10 ww points with ALL the marinade. However, if I calculate the marinade at only ½, the recipe is 5 ww points, as you generally would not use more than half. However, the entire marinade amount is included in the recipe nutrition calculation.

🍽Storage

Store leftover chicken in the fridge for up to 3 days in a sealed container. You can freeze this recipe in a sealed container for up to 3 months.

❔Recipe FAQs