Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken
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Oh man, you are in for a treat with this Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken! As usually, this is a set it and forget it type recipe, with just a few small steps at the end.
I tried to make this dish taste like the Fiesta Lime Chicken that they have at Applebee’s, but I wanted it to be super easy, and also a little bit healthier. So even though there is a cream sauce, it’s made with just 1/2 cup of half and half plus 1 Tbsp of butter for the entire dish, which serves at least 4 people.
But just that little bit of creaminess goes so well with the tangy but acidic lime juice.
When you’re preparing your chicken, make sure to butterfly them lengthwise – no one likes a giant super thick piece of chicken, right? Trust me, you want a high ratio of yummy sauce per each bit of chicken.
Serve it with a nice green vegetable, and maybe some rice. Yeah, rice would soak up that sauce really well.
And if you like this one, you might be interested in 40 other slow cooker dump recipes that are AMAZING!
Ingredients
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts butterflied in half
- 1/4 of an onion minced
- 1 lime
- 1 chicken bouillon cube
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro or 1 tsp dried cilantro
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- a pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup half and half
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 Tbsp corn starch
Instructions
- Place the onions in the bottom of the slow cooker.
- Top with chicken.
- Top the chicken with all other ingredients except the half and half and corn starch.
- Cut the lime in half and juice one of the halves into the slow cooker. It should be about 1 Tbsp of lime juice.
- Cook on high for 4 hours (or medium for 6, low for 8)
- Remove chicken from the slow cooker and cover to keep warm.
- In a small sauce pan, whisk together the corn starch and half and half.
- Heat over medium heat, whisking often until it bubbles and thickens, and then add in the butter and whisk it in as it melts.
- Add the thickened half and half to the liquid in the slow cooker and blend well.
- Close the lid and let the sauce cook for 5 minutes.
- Serve chicken. Top with sauce and garnish with additional cilantro and lime wedges from the other half of a lime.
Have you grabbed my freezer meal plans, yet? I might be biased but I think they are pretty amazing! They have saved our dinner hour for years now. Check them out!
COMMENTS
This recipe needs a little work. You had us add all the ingredients in step 3, then said in step 4, only add a tbsp of lime. Also, in the list of items not to add yet with the half and half, should be the butter. I read through the recipe once before cooking it but forgot about the step 4 change. I put in an entire lime. I hope it isn’t ruined 🙁
Hi! Do you have nutritional info?
Unfortunately, no I don’t.
I made this and even my picky kids liked it!
Awesome Chris! Thanks 🙂
I am not usually a fan of cilantro but my husband is. So I made this mainly for him. OMG it was soooooooooo good. Thank you so much. Your recipes are awesome. We’ve made 3 so far. I put my ingredients in my InstaPot (pressure cooker setting) because I never remember to put them in crockpot before work and food is usually done in an hour or less.
Jessica, I just got an InstaPot for Christmas and I’m still trying to figure it out and properly modify crockpot recipes to work in it. How long do you set your InstaPot for this recipe? I’ve done a couple of recipes now and the meat always seems to be tough. I’ve read that, with an InstaPot, the cooking times need to be longer than the recipe states in order to avoid tough meat. Thank you for your help!
For chicken breasts, especially if you cut into a few chunks, it shouldn’t take more than 8 minutes or so, but remember, when you cook meat, you have to let the cooker come back to pressure naturally, so that your meat will stay moist and tender. Letting the steam out all at once makes it tough.
Agree with Amy B. I added in the butter because I forgot that you are supposed to add it later. Luckily I realized it before I turned on the slow cooker, so I was able to pluck the butter lump out to save for later… but the recipe could certainly be written more clearly.
EDIT: now that I’ve actually made the dish… the half and half and corn starch need to be on LOW to keep from turning into a gloopy disgusting mess. The second time, it worked.
The flavor of this dish is very good, but there is not NEARLY enough sauce. Next time I would double the amount of liquid but keep the amount of chicken the same. Also, this might be because I used dried cilantro instead of fresh, but I dumped in an extra 1/2tsp and I can barely taste it.
Great tasting chicken, the only thing is I can’t seem to get the sauce right. I’ve made this recipe twice and my sauce always clumps up into little balls and doesn’t thicken. What am I doing wrong?
I had the same problem! Cook it on VERY LOW heat, and remove it from the heat the second it starts to look even *slightly* thicker.
Maybe try using less cornstarch?
I made this dish and my family loved it. Put it with some yellow rice and they were going for Seconds. Thanks for the recipe. I added the whole lime.
Lovely recipe, thank you & will definately add it to favourite list (I am new to slow cooking). I also added butter at start. And then saw I needed some more at end to thicken half & half sauce. Was no problem, only noticed my mistake after reading others reviews ..
Yemenis, I used my handwisk to smooth out any lumps. Hope this helps
I never leave comments on recipes, but this one of the best meals I’ve ever made!! And so easy! The flavor is out of this world! I missed that the butter was meant to be used in the saucepan, so mine ended up with a tablespoon extra of butter, but I’m not mad about it! This recipe is outstanding! A new favorite!!
Thank you for the comment 🙂 I am so glad you love it!