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
Made this two weeks ago and I’m making it again this week! The only thing I am doing differently is doubling the sauce! 😉
I’ve made this once before and it was absolute PERFECTION. Everyone loved it! I’ll be making this tomorrow and I can hardly wait 🙂 Great Recipe Sally <3 <3 <3
Made this for dinner today for the family along with your green bean casserole recipe as a side!
TOTAL HIT! Everyone loved both the dishes!
Here in Pakistan, we like our food a little spicy so tweaked the spice level up a bit. Instead of 1/2 tsp of red chili flakes, I put in 1tsp of them. It was really delicious!
Thank you for blogging your tried & tested recipes. Its my go to, I’ve never had a bad experience with any recipe I’ve tried. Whether sweet or savory 🙂
My family loves this dish I make the sauce and chicken as it says but i make triple amount of sauce and out it over egg noodles ! It’s so good as a light pasta dish . Not like Alfredo where its so saucy ! Thicken it up a bit with a little bit of cornstarch !
Hi Sally: I would like to make this dish but not use the oven. Is it possible to use the electric frying pan with the lid on for the last cooking time? It is too hot here to use the oven during the Summer.
Hi Maureen! You can continue cooking the chicken on the stove until cooked through. Place the lid on top of the skillet so the chicken cooks more evenly.
What kind of onions are best in this recipe? I see you used red but recipe just says onions.Debbie
Hi Debbie! I like to use red onion, but I’ve made this dish before with yellow onion and it’s still wonderful. Choose whichever you have or like best.
We love this recipe for a quick yet delicious week night meal! This meal is so easy to make, double or tweak with ingredients on hand. I often make double and bring it to work for lunch over a salad.
Made this last night and it was a HIT!!
I loved it. Added tiny potatoes and used half and half (only because I had it on hand).
It was marvelous. Thank you so much. Will be making it again.
Another great Sally recipe–made this tonight and it elevated the routine chicken breast dinner into something special. Thanks!
Oh my gosh! The only change I made was to triple the red pepper flakes. This was a huge hit in our house!! Thank you!
Made this tonight. Substituted 3/4 tsp dried oregano for cilantro. Used coffee cream b/c it is what I had on hand. Cut back the red pepper flakes. Added fresh garlic. Served over spaghettini. Excellent! Next time will double the sauce and pound chicken breast a bit thinner. Thanks for this recipe, Sally!
We made this tonight. We doubled the sauce and served it over the chicken and rice pasta. It was very good!!!
I always look forward to opening my email to see what fantastic recipe you have for me every day.
I need to tell you I love your videos, they are fast, easy and not a bunch of talking…keep up the good work.
Going to try this chicken…
Thanks Rosie
Could you substitute basil for the cilantro, since my family doesn’t like cilantro.
Absolutely!
Currently making this recipe and it already smells so delicious and I haven’t even tried it! It’s seems like a quick meal didn’t take too long for me to prep. I can just imagine the taste yummmy! Thank you for sharing!
This is my FAVORITE recipe of all time! It is so easy to make. It looks beautiful when it’s served and the taste is incredible! Thank you so much for sharing!!!
I just want to tell you that this is one of our favorite meals! My boyfriend and I both love it, and he requests it all the time! We especially love that delicious sauce. Thank you so much for sharing it!
This is one of my favorite recipes. I double the ingredients for the sauce so I will have enough for penne pasta. I love cilantro and red pepper!
Loved this! I altered because I didn’t have everything but we Loved it!! Thanks!
Loved this recipe. I don’t like cilantro so I left that out and added fresh jalapeños. I doubled the sauce and served it over angel hair pasta. It was soo good.
This dish is amazing. My fiancé and I absolutely love it. I make it as described with a side of cilantro-lime rice and asparagus and pour the sauce over everything. 5/5!
Made this last night & also doubled the sauce as I used 8 chicken breasts. It was soooo good! Everyone loved it. I used heavy cream and omitted the pepper flakes.
Can this dish be cooked on the stove top?
When you add the chicken back to the skillet in step 5, cover it and finish it off on the stove top. If you don’t have an oven proof skillet you can also transfer everything to a baking dish as this point and finish it in the oven as instructed.
Just made this for the second time and I just can’t get enough of it. It’s just sooooooo good. Used thin cut chicken breasts this time because I grabbed these by mistake at the store but still was delicious. Definitely going to be my go to recipe.
This was AMAZING!! Thank you for sharing it! My family ALL loved it and requested I make it every week. Even my husband said it was the best chicken ever. Great job Sally and thanks again!
This has been one of our absolute favorite recipes over the last couple of years. We also added mushrooms, and then tripled all of the ingredients (except same # of chicken breasts) to make a lot more sauce. We then cook rice and serve the sauce and chicken over a bowl of rice. When we store our leftovers we just pour it all in together and its almost even better the next day when the sauce has soaked into the rice. Thank you for the recipe!!
Made this for the first time and I am in love! This is my new favorite chicken recipe! I will be making this MANY more times!
OMG…I have made this 3 times in the last 3 weeks. This is a first for any recipe! Forwarded the recipe to my mom, and she is as devoted. She made it and took the leftovers to work. Her co-workers were drooling over how good this recipe is. I did take some of the commenters advice and doubled the sauce. Heaven in a Lodge skillet pan! Thank you so much!
This is by far my new favorite meal of all time. I’ve made it 3 times now! This time I’ve doubled the sauce recipe because it’s just sooooo good. I serve it with spaghetti noodles tosses in the sauce and a side salad. I will say the red pepper flakes are a must even if you don’t like spicy food. The last time I made it I didn’t have any and it just wasn’t the same. The red pepper flakes really elevate the dish.