A big thank you to Susan Conley from CooktheStone.com for this amazing guest post! I’ve been out of town rafting for most of the last month and just ran out of time to post…Excuses, excuses, I know! But Kris and I have been practicing a lot of Dutch oven recipes, which I do plan on posting soon, promise. In the meantime, please enjoy this delicious recipe for Grilled Chicken Breasts in Lime Sauce.
Chicken breasts are so versatile we can spend an entire day discussing the many recipes that you can make out of it. There are also many ways to cook chicken breasts, from grilling to baking to frying.
But this is not to say that chicken breast is the part of the poultry that’s easiest to grill. Certainly far from it! Grilling chicken breast is quite difficult especially for novice grillers. In fact, I remember having to serve dry and cardboard-like breasts the first time I grilled this kind of meat.
Eventually, I learned some tricks to grill juicy and yummy chicken breasts. I will share those tricks before I discuss the grilled chicken breast recipe later in this article.
Tips for grilling chicken breasts
One of the most important tips you should know regarding chicken breasts is choosing the right size of meat. Unlike drum sticks, bigger is not always better when you buy chicken breasts. Why? Because large breast halves can take a lot of time to cook which can leave you with dry and stringy meat.
Thus, I suggest you opt for breasts that are between 5 and 8 ounces in weight. These can cook faster and retain moisture better than bigger chicken breasts.
You should also pound chicken breasts well before grilling. Chicken breasts are thicker on one end, so you need to pound or butterfly them to even out the thickness and cut down the cooking time.
Here’s the simplest way to pound chicken breasts–dip the meat lightly in water then put it inside a zippered bag. Pound it gently with a heavy skillet or a meat pounder. Pound it gently down and away from you. Try to achieve a thickness of at least a quarter of an inch.
And before you add the chicken breast to the grill, remember that it will likely stick to dirty grates because it lacks fat to protect it from the heat. Of course, dirty grates are also very unappetizing.
You can use a wire grill brush to clean the grates. If there’s a lot of gunk to remove, you can crumple up a damp newspaper and use this to clean the grates. Finish the job by wiping the grill with damp paper towel.
You don’t really have to clean the grill every now and then. You can do so once or twice each summer. Aside from preventing the chicken breasts from sticking to the grill, cleaning the latter can also prevent flare-ups and fires due to built-up grease.
Before grilling the chicken breast, you need to preheat the grill. For a gas grill, at least 10 minutes is needed for the grill to heat. Preheating a charcoal grill, meanwhile, will take 30 minutes. Don’t even attempt to add the breast to an under-heated grill because I assure you that it will stick.
In my experience, it would only take a few minutes for chicken breasts to get cooked when placed on direct and medium high heat. If you are not sure about the doneness of the chicken, simply make a small incision and peek into the middle of the meat to determine if it is cooked or not.
Grilled Chicken Breasts in Lime Sauce Recipe
Now let’s go to the grilled chicken breasts in lime sauce recipe. This one makes four servings. You should be done with it in less than an hour.
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- 4 6- ounce skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Ground black pepper
- 2 tsp Olive oil
- 1 tbsp Brown sugar
- Cooking spray
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1 tsp Cornstarch
- 2 tbsp Water
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 3 tbsp Lime juice
- 3/4 cup Chicken broth
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Start by placing each chicken breast between two sheets of plastic wrap.
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Pound the chicken breasts to ¼ inch thickness. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
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Oil the grates and light the grill. Don’t forget to preheat it. Then grill the chicken over high heat. Cook for about four minutes on each side. Remove from the grill
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Add the sugar, chicken broth, two tablespoons of lime juice and mustard in a pan placed over medium heat. Mix water and cornstarch in a bowl then add this mixture to the pan. Stir well.
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Bring the mixture to a boil then continue to cook for a minute or so, or until the sauce slightly thickens.
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Whisk in the remaining lime juice and butter. Stir until the butter melts.
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Place the grilled chicken breasts in the pan then simmer for two minutes or until the chicken has been thoroughly heated.
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Serve while warm.
The post is so lovely! Thank you, Emily for sharing my recipe 🙂
Thank you, Susan!