Easy Honey Lime Chicken Thighs

This 5 ingredient Easy Honey Lime Chicken Thigh 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.

This marinated baked chicken recipe is one my Mom used to make when I was growing up. It's in my arsenal of easy, tasty, healthy, and economical chicken recipes. And if you like this recipe, you'll also love my Chicken in a Hurry. Both recipes pair well with rice, potatoes, and Healthy Roasted Carrots with Brown Sugar.

Jump to:

• 🥘Ingredients
• 🔪Instructions
• 📖Substitutions & Variations
• 🥗 Side dishes
• 👪 Serving Size
• 🔢WW Points
• 🍽Equipment.
• 🍽Storage
• 🥡Leftovers reinvented
• 🦺Food safety
• ⭐ COMMENTS & REVIEWS
• 📋 Easy Honey Lime Chicken Thighs Recipe
• 🐔More Healthy Chicken Recipes

🥘Ingredients

In addition to boneless skinless chicken thighs, you will need the following simple ingredients for this easy honey and lime chicken thighs recipe:

This honey lime chicken marinade is made with the following ingredients:

• honey * I use liquid honey
• lime juice (from concentrate) or use fresh lime juice, (but double it)
• cooking oil *I use canola oil or olive oil
• onion

*See recipe card for quantities.

🔪Instructions

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!

📖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!

🥗 Side dishes

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, making for a delicious meal! Here are some other side dishes this baked honey lime chicken pairs well with:

👪 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 blue 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 11 ww points (with chicken thighs) OR make it with skinless and boneless chicken breasts and bring the points down to 5 ww points.

*I calculated the marinade at only ½, as you generally would not use more than half. However, the entire marinade amount is included in the recipe nutrition calculation.

🍽Equipment.

I like to use a 9X13 lasagna baking dish with a lid (affiliate link) for this lime honey chicken recipe. That way, I can marinate the chicken in the same dish I bake it in. An instant read thermometer also comes in handy! *see recipe card for equipment photos and links

🍽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.

🥡Leftovers reinvented

Repurpose leftovers into honey lime chicken tacos!

🦺Food safety

• Cook chicken to a minimum internal temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

See more guidelines at USDA.gov.

If you are in search of easy dinner recipes for healthy chicken with a delicious sauce, you'll love this Lime Honey Chicken! It's one the whole family will love!

🐔More Healthy Chicken Recipes