This sweet and sticky chili lime sheet pan chicken is going to make your weeknight cooking a whole lot better! The chicken is simply prepared and gets coated in a bold, flavorful glaze with lots of spice and a little sweetness. It comes together really quickly and also makes for the perfect leftovers.
I love this dish for many reasons, but mainly because it requires little effort to create something really, really good. You’re basically going to gather up a mix of chicken breasts, thighs, and drumsticks (all with the skins on for lots of juicy flavor) and spread them out onto a sheet pan. These bake off first until they’re pretty much done, while the sticky chili lime glaze works on the stove.
The glaze is a mixture of bold ingredients that all come together in one sweet and spicy sauce. Once it’s cooked down, half of it gets brushed onto the chicken before a final roast in the oven to achieve that crispy, charred skin. The rest of the glaze cooks down even further so that it’s nice and thick to coat the chicken right before serving.
It’s really as simple as that, but the result is juicy, extremely flavorful, chili lime sheet pan chicken perfection.
And actually! I used the leftovers of this chicken to make my turmeric coconut chicken soup when recipe testing…which turned out amazing. So I highly recommend if you’re cooking for just yourself or two people that you still make the entire batch of chicken so that you can use it for leftovers the next day or so!
PrintSticky Chili Lime Sheet Pan Chicken
an easy weeknight sheet pan chicken with a sweet and sticky chili lime glaze brushed on top
serves: 4
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs chicken breasts, skin-on
- 1 ½ lbs chicken thighs and drumsticks, skin-on
- neutral oil
- kosher salt
- ½ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup lime juice
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 ½ tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp red chili paste
- 2 serrano peppers, thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1” piece ginger, sliced
Garnishes
- sesame oil
- toasted sesame seeds
- sliced green onions
- lime wedges
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F.
- Spread the chicken out onto a sheet pan in an even layer, skin-side up. Drizzle a touch of oil over the chicken and toss well to coat on all sides. Season with a pinch of salt. Bake the chicken for 20-25 minutes, or until just almost done.
- Meanwhile, combine the rice vinegar, honey, lime juice, water, fish sauce, soy sauce, red chili paste, sliced serrano peppers, sliced garlic, and sliced ginger in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Allow the mixture to come to a boil, whisking so that all of the ingredients combine. Lower the heat to medium-low and allow the glaze to simmer for about 20 minutes until slightly thickened, whisking often (be careful so this doesn’t burn; adjust the heat lower if needed).
- Remove the chicken from the oven and turn on the convection heat, still at 450°F. Use about half of the glaze to brush the chicken generously. Return the chicken to the oven and cook 4-5 minutes longer, or until the skin is charred and crispy.
- Meanwhile, return the remaining glaze to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook for another 5 minutes or so until thick and syrupy.
- Brush the glaze onto the chicken right before serving. Garnish the chicken with a drizzle of sesame oil, the toasted sesame seeds, a pinch of sliced green onions, and a squeeze of lime juice.
Notes
Use any leftover chicken for this turmeric coconut chicken soup!
What if I do not have a convection oven?
If your oven doesn’t have the convection setting, try turning it on low broil for those last couple of minutes. You’re just looking to get the skin nice and charred. Let me know how it goes!!