Zesty Lime Grilled Chicken with Pineapple Salsa is made with grilled chicken breasts – fresh and flavorful, perfect for weeknight summer dinners.
Zesty Lime Grilled Chicken
Grilled chicken in the summer is easy and quick! We love grilling and often make Grilled Chicken Bruschetta, Korean Grilled Chicken and Grilled Bourbon Chicken, just to name a few!
Hey guys, I’m Sarah Thomas-Drawbaugh. I’m a recipe developer and creator of Healthyish Foods®, a food blog focused on mostly healthy recipes with an occasional dose of “ish”. Click here to sign up for my free weekly recipe round up, where you’ll get more recipes like this one.
I love Healthyish® meals like this one because they come together quickly, and cleanup is a breeze. Plus, if you have any extra salsa, you can enjoy it over grilled fish or with a side of veggie chips.
Loaded with flavor, this zesty lime chicken paillard is easy to make, delicious and perfect any night of the week. The meat is fork tender and the salsa adds that extra punch of flavor we all love. And if you do not have a grill, do not worry. You can also use a grill pan on the stove top.
Citrus lime marinade for chicken
- olive oil
- lime zest
- Juice from 1 lime
- garlic
- cilantro
- salt and pepper
What to serve with cilantro lime chicken
The grilled pineapple salsa on top of the chicken makes this a complete meal. You can also serve this over a bed of mixed greens or with grilled vegetables on the side.
If you want a starch, brown rice, orzo or couscous would be great.
More Grilled Chicken Recipes You Will Love
- Grilled Chicken with Spinach
- Grilled Chicken Bruschetta
- Grilled Bourbon Chicken
- Korean Grilled Chicken
- Grilled Chicken Salad with Mango Avocado
Zesty Lime Grilled Chicken Paillard with Pineapple Jalapeno Salsa
Ingredients
Chicken and marinade
- 1.5 lbs chicken breast, thin cut will work well too
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lime zest
- Juice from 1 lime about 1 tablespoon
- 2 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Pineapple Jalapeno Salsa
- 1 cup grilled and diced pineapple
- 1 cup grilled sweet corn
- 1 tablespoon diced jalapeno
- 1/3 cup diced red bell pepper
- 1/3 cup diced shallots
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- Pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat your grill to 400F degrees.
- If your chicken breasts are thick, butterfly them and add them to a Ziploc bag. Gently pound the chicken using the soft side of a mallet. You will want the chicken to be about ¼ inch thick.
- Once the chicken is pounded thin, add the olive oil, lime juice, lime zest, thinly sliced garlic, chopped cilantro, and salt and pepper to the Ziploc bag.
- Zip the bag closed and massage the chicken making sure it is evenly coated in the marinade.
- Let the chicken to marinate for 20-25 minutes before grilling. While the chicken is marinating, you’ll prepare the salsa.
- Dice the grilled pineapple into small evenly sized cubes. Add it to a mixing bowl.
- Next, finely dice the shallots and jalapeno. Add them to the bowl with the pineapple.
- Dice the red pepper and remove the corn kernels from the cob. Add everything to the mixing bowl along with a pinch of salt. Canned corn will work fine too!
- Add the lime juice and gently combine all of the ingredients. Once well combined set aside.
- Carefully place a sheet of foil on the heated grill.
- Place the chicken on the foil, since it is well coated in the olive oil mixture it will not stick.
- Grill for about 3 minutes on each side. Since it is pounded thin, it will cook pretty quickly.
- Remove from the grill and arrange the chicken on a platter. Top with the pineapple jalapeno salsa. As an optional garnish, try adding some crushed peanuts and sliced scallions.
- Serve immediately and enjoy with a few lime wedges!
Oh. My. Goodness.!!! This is so good. It’s going into the ‘keeper’ binder. Did use extra garlic, which I do for all recipes. Hubby did the grilling. I might use Fresno chili next time.
My whole family loves this recipe! We have made it several times and it is delicious. For extra flavor we baste the chicken with the marinate while it’s grilling. This last time I made it I added cilantro and a pinch of lime zest to the salsa and it was great. Thank you so much for the WW personal points button, that makes it so easy!
Followed the recipe precisely. The chicken was low on flavor, and the salsa didn’t give it any POP!
Since most of the marinade does not stay on chicken when cooking (or after) would the fat g and carbs be less?
Just made this dish!! Love love it!
Hubby and I are vegetarian so I used salmon instead of the chicken…,but did chicken got the kids!!! I figured I would use the same marinade!! Very very delicious! Thank you!
We absolutely love this recipe!! If we were to make it with fish instead, would you still recommend marinating?
I’m obsessed with this recipe! The chicken and salsa compliment each other PERFECTLY. My husband hates anything with chicken breasts but LOVED this. The perfect summer dinner.
Thanks Nicole!
we loved this! we added a shot of blanco tequila to the marinade and it was great!
I never leave reviews, but this is too good not to! This is my favorite recipe at the moment. I love to double the salsa ingredients and with the leftovers add some black beans and have it as a snack with chips the next day. SO GOOD!!!
Thanks Natalie!
The family loved it. Great easy marinade. We love fresh pineapple, only wish the salsa had more moisture.
Can you make the salsa in advance? I’d like to make it a couple of days early, but I’m wondering if it would get soggy.
What’s a good low-point side to have with this chicken?
This BY FAR is my favorite summer recipe!!!
Thanks Tara!
My husband made this for us tonight. Delicious! the chicken was tender, the only thing he said was chopping everything took a bit of extra time than he expected. We will put this as a winner! Perfect summer meal
I made this for dinner, and it was yummy – everyone loved it. However, when I figured the WW Smart Points using the WW app, It came out to 10 smart points per serving for the blue plan, not 4. Can you explain what you did that made the points lower? It was delicious, but I’ll have to make some changes to my day’s food plan. Thanks!
Did you use recipe builder?
I found the same thing. Building food based on the calories and nutritional information provided here I got 10 points for green.
The only accurate way to determine any recipe’s SmartPoints® value is to plug the ingredients into the recipe builder on the Weight Watchers website (Click on “My Foods,” select “Recipe,” and click “Create a recipe.”)
The SmartPoints® calculator isn’t meant for recipes and will often give you the wrong points (usually higher) because it’s counting 0 points foods such as eggs, chicken, fruits and vegetables. So if you see a recipe with a SmartPoints® value that’s different from what the calculator tells you, that is why.
Very interesting Gina. I just did it using the ingredients you used here and I got 6 points for green (I did leave out the jalepanos). It’s interesting how different the points can be!
Gina, this was absolutely fabulous!!! I constantly eat chicken breast during the week, and I get so bored doing the same thing. Now, this is going to be my “go-to”! Also, have you thought about putting the salsa on pork?
great!
Oh My GOODNESS! This was phenomenal! My whole family went back for thirds! So fresh, so tasty, so healthy, all wins! Honestly, I have yet to make a recipe from Skinnytaste (>5 years!) that wasn’t well received. Thank you, Gina!!
Thanks Jillian!
Made this last night as part of the 6/29 meal plan. Probably the best grilled chicken we’ve had – super moist and flavorful (which is rare for chicken breast!). The salsa was a great counterpoint. Will definitely put in the rotation!
Great! So glad you enjoyed it!
We loved it! Thanks Gina!
I may must have made a mistake. All that work and no flavor. I marinated more than recommended. No flavor. Salsa dull. To much work. No flavor
I emailed this recipe to my husband and he made it for dinner the other night.
Delicious and good for a summer day!
This was so good that my daughter didn’t even ask for ketchup.
This was amazing! We loved it. Huge hit. Best new recipe we have tried in a long time. One super nice element is you could make all of this in advance and then when your guest comes pop the chicken in the marinade and there you go. So good. We will do this again.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Had this 2 nights in a row, absolutely delicious we loved it!! Added some mrs dash fiesta lime seasoning to the chicken and it marinated for about 45 minutes came out perfect on the grill, and the salsa was so good!! Definitely a keeper!
Yay!!!
OMG….this is so good. I even had this for breakfast the next day!!! It is even good cold!! I used the left over chicken in tacos the next evening and my friends could not get enough of them;they were a big hit and I ended up copying the recipe for all of them. The seasoning and the salsa just go so well together. I like a lot of salsa so I doubled the recipe. For you WWW followers, this is so tasty!!!
This recipe is super good. I planned it for a Fathers Day meal, but it rained. So instead of grilling on the charcoal grill as we usually do, I heated a cast iron skillet and grilled the pineapple, corn and then the chicken on it. Everything came out great. I did steam the corn in the microwave first in the shuck. My husband loved it. I served it with wild rice. I hope to grill It outside the next time to get that really good smokey flavor.
This recipe was delicious! I used fresh pineapple. I don’t think I’ve ever had grilled pineapple – I highly recommend that you DON’T skip this step! It was delicious! (I saved the extra pineapple to eat with breakfast.) The fresh salsa is so tasty and could likely be served as a side salad or as a dip. This dish screams summer BBQ!
Is there possibly a typo in this? I made this tonight and it was amazing! My only issue is the recipe calls for shallots in the salsa but the photo shows scallions. I didn’t have shallots but I had scallions so I went for it. This is going into our rotations. Excellent job!
This sounds delicious! If I don’t have a grill how would you recommend that I cook the chicken in the oven or on the stove top? Thanks!
Grill pan or skillet.
Just wanted to thank you for adding the feature that allows the servings to be adjusted up or down. That really saves time. Wish more sites did that. Thanks for all the tasty recipes also.
Hi Gina. Should we take the seeds out of the jalapeños or keep them in when preparing the zesty lime chicken with jalapeño pineapple salsa ? Love all your recipes and every time I make them for guests they are impressed but I maker sure you get all the credit!!! Kindly advise pat
Question – why do you place a cheer of fool on the grill and not the marinated chicken directly on the grill grates? Thanks.
That was supposed to say a “sheet of foil”, not a cheer of fool.
I had the exact same thought…
Me too!
Makes certain then that a chicken cutlet that’s really thin won’t stick to the grill grates – at least that’s my assumption. I have some grill sheets that aren’t foil, but they allow grill marks on the food without it sticking to the grill. It’s nice to NOT have to clean the grill every time.
That salsa sounds absolutely awesome. Can’t wait to make this for the boys one of these summer nights.