Spicy Honey Citrus Chicken
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Spicy Honey Citrus Chicken is the perfect healthy grilling recipe! Made with simple ingredients and full of flavor, this easy chicken marinade is delicious! Gluten free and paleo – this chicken dish is a must try! This post is sponsored by our friends at Kingsford Charcoal.
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It’s officially grilling season and we’re SO excited. This week we’re bringing you all new grilling recipes so that you can be set for Memorial Day Weekend + beyond.
We love grilling year round, but the second the weather gets warmer we really can’t wait to be outside with family, cooking up delicious food – especially right now when we’re spending more time at home!
This Honey Citrus Chicken is the perfect grilling recipe. It’s simple and easy to make.
If you’re looking for other grilling recipes – check out Honey Chipotle Chicken or these Healthy Grilling Recipes!
We made this on our pellet grill with Kingsford Hardwood Pellets. They’re our grilling go to! They give such a nice flavor to the food.
We grill at least 2 times a week in the summer. It’s such an easy way to make fresh, delicious meals.
Let me show you just how easy it is to make!
Ingredients for Honey Citrus Chicken Marinade:
To make citrus grilled chicken you’ll need:
- chicken
- lemon, lime and orange juice/zest
- olive oil
- honey
- red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper
You can find substitutions for all of these ingredients below in the green shaded substitutions box.
How to make citrus honey grilled chicken:
Making this grilled chicken is SO easy.. ready for this? Gather your ingredients, whisk together your marinade, let the chicken marinate annnnd GRILL!
We like to marinate our chicken overnight, but 30 minutes is totally enough time!
Substitutions for this citrus grilled chicken recipe:
Here are some ways you can adjust this honey citrus grilled chicken recipe depending on what you have.
To make Whole30– omit honey and sub in date paste.
Citrus- If you don’t have one of the citruses listed, this recipe will still work. Sub in more lemon, lime or orange to compensate.
Red Pepper Flakes – This chicken is meant to be spicy. If you prefer less spice, cut the red pepper flakes in half or omit completely.
Baking in oven – You can bake the chicken in the oven at 400 for 20-25 minutes if you don’t have a grill.
Chicken– You can use chicken thighs or chicken tenders instead of chicken breasts. This marinade would also be good on a drumsticks or wings!
Other protein – You can use this marinade on salmon or even flank steak! It will also work on veggies.
How to grill chicken:
We recommend grilling chicken on medium to high heat around 375 degrees. Depending on the thickness of your chicken you’ll need about 7-9 minutes on each side.
How do you know if your chicken is done? You can check the internal temperature of chicken to make sure it’s cooked thoroughly, it should be at 165!
Can you cook this chicken on the stove? Yes! You can pan sear the chicken for 7-8 minutes on each side.
Can you bake this chicken? Yes you can! Bake the chicken on a lined baking sheet at 400 for 20-25 minutes.
Can you cook this in the instant pot? We wouldn’t recommend it, but you can cook it for 11 minutes on sealing, pressure cook.
We love this instant-read thermometer for checking the internal temperature to make sure your meat is cooked thoroughly!
Tips for best citrus grilled chicken:
- Cut if pieces are too large – Some of the chicken breasts I see at the stores are enormous and super thick. You can butterfly them and cut them into smaller pieces to avoid getting tough, oversized chicken pieces. Butterflying the chicken helps to ensure you have even thin pieces.
- Pound/Tenderize– Ever had chicken that is way too bouncy or rubbery? Yuck! The easiest way to prevent that is to tenderize your chicken with a meat tenderizer. Put your chicken in between parchment paper or plastic wrap and pound the chicken until it is thinner.
- Marinate – Make sure you marinate your chicken! It’s SO important for extra flavor. 30 minutes will do but 1-3 hours is even better (or even 24 hours!)
Our favorite way to grill chicken:
Our favorite way to grill chicken is on our pellet grill with Kingsford Maple Hardwood Pellets.
They’re made with all-natural, 100% flavor hardwoods and absolutely no fillers, preservatives or binders – giving you the best in wood-fired flavor with every use.
We cook everything on our grill with them.. from Vegetable Kebabs to Asian Salmon! The maple adds a hint of sweetness that is SO delicious, and there really is nothing better than that classic smoky flavor you get with Kingsford’s Hardwood Pellets!
You can grab the pellets online with free delivery at Home Depot or Lowe’s!
Now, more than ever – we’re spending more time at home – so it’s so nice to sit back and relax while eating dinner outside.
My ideal summer evening is hanging out with Tyler and our families in the backyard with a cucumber vodka cocktail, grilling and enjoying the warm weather!
Storing honey citrus chicken:
Storing: You can keep this grilled chicken in the refrigerator for up to 5 days – it’s great for meal prep!
Freezing: We wouldn’t recommend freezing this grilled chicken. Reheating frozen chicken can make it bouncy and unappetizing.
Reheating: You can reheat this recipe in the toaster oven, oven or on the stove.
What to serve with this easy grilled chicken:
- Our favorite way to serve this is with a salad. Any greens, fruit, cheese or nuts will be good
- Strawberry Avocado Goat Cheese Salad
- Vegetable Kebabs
- Healthy Green Beans Almondine
- Healthy Lemon Basil Risotto
Love chicken? Check out our favorite healthy chicken breast recipes!
We hope you love this easy grilled chicken recipe as much as we do! It’s perfect for meal prep, making for a crowd, or enjoying for an easy weeknight dinner!
Other healthy grilling recipes:
Looking for other easy grilling recipes? Check out these 40+ Healthy Grilling Recipes. Click here to grab our free healthy grilling cookbook.
Spicy Honey Citrus Chicken
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon lime zest
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 lbs chicken breasts
Instructions
- Whisk together marinade
- Pour marinade into a ziploc bag or container.
- Add chicken to marinade and allow it to marinade for at least 30 minutes. (No more than 2 hours is best!)
- When ready to cook, heat grill on high and cook on each side for 7-9 minutes or until chicken is cooked thoroughly (internal temp should be 165)
This is absolutely delicious!! So easy to prepare! I made it in my cast iron grill pan and it worked great! Grilled some pineaplle to go with it! Soooo good!
making it tonight!
Hope you like it!
This was great! Just made some tonight in kebabs. Love the spicy citrus combo!
Great idea,Bryn!! I need to try that. Glad you liked it 🙂
Wow this was so easy to make the marinade in the morning before work. It was delish and so flavorful. Not spicy at all for those worried about the heat. My only regret is I didn’t make a lot more for on top of my lunch salad tomorrow. Such great flavor even the kids loved! This will be in my summer grilling rotation!
Love the idea of using the marinade recipe as a dressing recipe – I’m totally going to try this! Thanks Melissa!
This was delicious and so easy to make! Even my husband liked the chicken and it stayed moist on the grill.
Thank you so much, Colleen! Glad you liked it!
Yum! I can’t wait to try this on salads!
Hope you love it, Becca!