Margarita Chicken

Name: Margarita Chicken
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 23 min
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 2 limes, zested and juiced (save the limes to toss in the marinade as well; 1/4 cup olive oil; 1 teaspoon chili powder; 1 teaspoon cumin; 1 tablespoon tequila; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon black pepper; 1 clove garlic, minced; 4 boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/2 inch thickness; 1/4 cup sour cream thinned with a teaspoon or two of milk; Lime wedges for garnish

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Turn your favorite festive cocktail into a spicy supper with this easy recipe for grilled Margarita Chicken!

PIN this recipe for Margarita Chicken now… So you can make it later!

When Cinco de Mayo falls on a weekday and you get a craving for scrumptious Mexican food, it’s a little tricky to celebrate with actual margaritas, which is why this recipe for Margarita Chicken comes in so handy!

It’s chicken dinner but with a little bit of spice and lime and zing to it, because even if Cinco de Mayo IS on a Thursday, we still need to be a little festive.

It also gets the grill into the action, and now that it is light outside well into the dinner hour and the dogwoods are blooming, it’s time to cook outside!

So grab yourself some chicken and some limes and let’s get this well-behaved but still zesty party started with this suppertime version of your favorite cocktail!

Ingredients You Need To Make Margarita Chicken!

Limes
Olive Oil
Chili Powder
Cumin
Tequila
Salt and Pepper
Garlic
Boneless Chicken
Sour Cream
Milk

Here’s How To Make Margarita Chicken!

STEP 1: Put the following in a zipper plastic bag: The juice from two limes, a quarter cup of olive oil, a teaspoon each of cumin and chili powder, a tablespoon of tequila (yay!) a pinch each of salt and pepper and a minced clove of garlic. Close the bag and squish it around a bit until it’s nice and mixed up.

STEP 2: Make sure your chicken is about 1/2 thick (either slice or pound it) and then drop it in the bag with the marinade. More squishing, and then let it lounge around in your fridge for about 8 hours (overnight is fine too!).

STEP 3: Once it has soaked in this marinade for a good long time, all that’s left to do is grill it up until it is lovely and tender…about 3-4 minutes per side, or until a meat thermometer measures about 165.

STEP 4: Now mix up a little sour cream with milk (this makes it drizzleable!) to decorate your lovely chicken. I like to serve mine on a bed of rice that I’ve tossed with a little olive oil and lime juice, and I give the chicken both a scattering of lime zest and a nice squeeze of lime juice for good measure.

It’s also nice to give each person their own lime wedge for extra squeezing. Plus it’s pretty. I’m a big fan of pretty at suppertime.

Can I leave out the tequila to make this alchohol-free?

You can! There are actually some alcohol-free tequilas out there, but you can also just use a tablespoon of white wine vinegar.

Can I use boneless chicken thighs?

Yep! Or a mixture of both. The chicken thighs might need a little more cooking time.

How do I zest and juice a lime?

Start with the zesting! There are all kinds of fancy lemon zesting tools out there, but I love my microplane zester – it does the job quickly and you can also use it for cheese. Simply drag the lemon over the zester and little chopped lemon peel pieces will come out the other side. As for juicing, you can get as fancy as having a citrus juicer that squishes the juice out and leaves the seeds, or you can simply squeeze that lemon juice into a prep bowl with your hands.

Easy and delicious! And now I think we all deserve an actual margarita for dessert. :)