The Tequila Lime Chicken from a well-known restaurant chain is identical to this hot, marinated, grilled chicken meal. Enjoy! If desired, serve with rice and pico de gallo salsa.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 50 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- ⅓ cup teriyaki sauce
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon tequila
- 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 2 teaspoons minced tomato
- 1 ½ teaspoons chopped green chile peppers
- 1 teaspoon minced onion
- ¼ teaspoon dried parsley
- ¼ teaspoon hot pepper sauce
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch dried dill weed
- 1 pinch paprika
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 pinch ground cumin
- 1 pinch chili powder
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar/Monterey Jack cheese blend
- 2 cups crumbled corn chips
Instructions
- Combine water, teriyaki sauce, lime juice, garlic, liquid smoke, salt, ginger, and tequila in a medium nonporous glass bowl and mix all together. Add chicken and turn to coat; cover bowl and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.
- Meanwhile, make the Mexi-Ranch Dressing: mix mayonnaise, sour cream, milk, tomato, peppers, onion, parsley, hot pepper sauce, salt, dill weed, paprika, cayenne pepper, cumin, chili powder, and ground black pepper in a medium bowl and mix well until smooth. Cover bowl and chill until needed.
- Set oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source and preheat the oven’s broiler, or preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat and lightly oil the grate.
- Remove chicken from marinade, discarding any remaining marinade. Grill or broil chicken for 3 to 5 minutes per side, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.
- Arrange cooked chicken in a 9×13-inch baking dish. Spread a layer of Mexi-Ranch dressing over each piece of chicken, followed by 1/4 cup of cheese blend. Broil in preheated oven for 2 to 3 minutes, or just until cheese has melted.
- Spread a bed of about 1/2 cup crumbled corn chips or tortilla strips on each of 4 plates. Slide a chicken breast onto the chips on each plate and serve.
- The nutrition data for this recipe includes information for the full amount of the marinade ingredients. Depending on marinating time, ingredients, cooking method, etc., the actual amount of the marinade consumed will vary.
- Crumbling store-bought tortilla chips is the easy way to make the bed of crunchy chips that the tequila lime chicken rests on. But you can make tortilla strips like those served at restaurants by cutting a stack of eight 6-inch corn tortillas in half. Stack the halves on top of each other and slice the tortillas into thin strips. Fry the tortilla strips in batches in 2 cups of oil, preheated in a large skillet, for 3 to 5 minutes or until crispy. Salt lightly and cool on paper towels to drain.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 1030 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 68 g |
| Cholesterol | 98 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 41 g |
| Saturated Fat | 15 g |
| Sodium | 2237 mg |
| Sugars | 8 g |
| Fat | 65 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Amazing twist to jazz up chicken breasts. It does indeed taste like the restaurant version. I didn’t have the sour cream, so substituted with plain greek-style yogurt and it was still great! A big hit with the family. I will definitely do this one again.
The whole family loved this! Especially the sauce. Its been added to the rotation of weeknight recipes.
This was fantastic! I made a bit more of the sauce, other than that, perfect. It’s a keeper.
love!
Baked the chicken under the broiler. I should have sliced the breasts in half as they were apparently too thick and did not get done. Had to finish cooking them in micro wave which turned out okay but ruined the overall appearance somewhat. Overall taste was still good and home made sauce was yummy.
super easy, whole family loved it
The only difference is I grabbed Cracker Barrel ‘brand’ white cheddar (on accident) and used Mexican white cheese instead of Jack. Oh, and used A whole shot (1oz) of tequila for the marinade. Exceptional meal when combined with refried beans and arroz rojo (Mexican red rice); and used blue corn tortilla chips for color. Made the Mexi-sauce per recipe and it was phenomenal. Thank you for this recipe!
This was delicious as the recipe is written…my whole family loved it. I served the chicken on a bed of shredded lettuce and the crumbled chips and topped with diced tomato, sliced green onion and diced avocade with a drizzle of left over sauce. It was even beautiful! The reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is that despite the ingredients (green chilis, cumin, chili powder, cayenne, hot sauce — made the Mexi sauce from scratch) there was NO heat/spice to the recipe at all. (I’m not familiar with the original restaurant version…is that spicy?) Next time I will definitely kick up all those ingredients.
Omg- this was amazingly delicious. I’ve never had the restaurant’s version, but my boyfriend has and asked me to make it. I can’t wait to have it again!
Personnly did not care for the combo of the sauce and the cheese, too much dairy on the chicken and dominated the dish. Next time I will use less of both or pass on the cheese.
I marinated the chicken overnight and it turned out perfect! Everyone that had it loved it! I will definitely make this recipe again. It was quite easy once the ingredients were gathered and turned out amazing! Loved it!
We really enjoyed this. After grilling it, we cut it into small pieces for burritos. It was a hit!
I used to work at said restaurant as well. This is a perfect duplication. Skip all the ridiculous ingredients for the sauce. Stir together equal parts ranch dressing and salsa. Congratulations you just saved $20 and have an extra hour in your day. Fantastic recipe.
Just AWSOME, skipped the tomatoes I don’t like them but everything else was yummmmy over egg noodles. A keeper
My boyfriend loved this recipe and I liked it. The sauce was pretty unique (I have not had the actual restaurant version, so it was at least unique to me), and the teriyaki, sour cream and mayo flavors came through the most. I’m sure the mexi-ranch tastes fine if you just combine ranch and salsa, but if you have the time, it really isn’t that much extra work to make the sauce yourself. We used leftover tomatoes, onions, green chili peppers, garlic, hot sauce, lemon juice, and spices to make some salsa as a snack while we waited for the marinade to soak in. Some additions/changes/notes: -I added hot teriyaki sauce instead of regular. Even so, the dish hardly tasted spicy at all. -Instead of corn chips, we used a bed of white tortilla chips. This seemed pretty unnecessary and was only useful to sop up any extra sauce or cheese that fell off of the chicken. -People kept saying to use less liquid smoke, so I halved the amount and used 1/2 tsp. However, I’d use the amount suggested in the recipe next time. I couldn’t really detect any smokiness in the chicken. -I used the recommended amount of tequila in the marinade, not having read all of the reviews stating to up the amount substantially. I would add more next time. -Marinated for 2 hours. 3 hours might’ve made this a bit more flavorful. -I omitted the parsley as I didn’t have any on hand. All in all, I don’t necessarily know if I would actually made this again, but it was fun to try it out.
This came out excellent. I followed the original recipe, and only substituted fresh parsley for the dried parsley, and served it over linguini noodles, instead of the chips. I will certainly make this again.
I made this recipe just how it called for and it was very good.I marinated the chicken over night which I think made it more tender and moist. The sauce had just the right spice and hotness to give it that kick. This recipe will be a keeper.
Used it on Tilapia, no smoke flavor,was great!
The idea behind this recipe is a good one and the recipe itself has a few issues that are significant enough for the 3 star rating. The primary issue is the marinade. Also, the addition of the more ‘asian’ ingredients was not what we were looking for. We used equal parts lime juice and tequila, added garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, olive oil, chopped red onion, chopped cilantro, smoked tabasco in place of the liquid smoke and NO water. 2 hours of marinating time was absolutely sufficient. The chicken was moist and flavorful and not mushy from too much time in an acidic marinade. Contrary to all the suggestions to simplify the mexi-ranch dressing I followed that part of the recipe very closely. It was a great way to use spices that often expire before we can get them used up. It was also much more complex than the ranch/salsa combination. I left out the tomato and peppers and used significantly more of the hot sauce – more like a Tablespoon or more. I made this a day in advance and transferred it to a squeeze bottle. I opted for 20 minutes in the oven at 425 for the chicken to allow me to spend time with my guests instead of over the stove. For serving, a piece of chicken on the crushed chips, a nice squiggle of the dressing from the squeeze bottle, a couple of spoonfuls of a mixture of black beans, corn, Ro-tel, red onion, orange bell pepper, cilantro, and cumin simmered together stovetop, and a sprinkle of shredded cheddar/jack cheese.
The flavor just didn’t “wow” me and serving this on crushed corn chips didn’t do much for me either. Sorry, I really thought I would enjoy this much more than I did. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
This recipe was a huge hit with all of my friends! I will be making this one very often!