Chicken Lime Tacos with Fresh Salsa & Cheese

These chicken lime tacos are an easy dinner when you fancy something fresh, colourful and a bit different from the usual chicken and rice or chicken pasta. The chicken is cooked with lime, garlic, coriander and spring onions before being piled into small tortillas with lettuce, tomato, salsa and grated cheese.

They take around 30 minutes from start to finish and everyone can assemble their own tacos at the table, which is always handy if you have people who disagree about how much salad or salsa belongs in a taco!

The recipe makes ten small tacos, so you can serve a couple per person with extra salad or other sides, or simply put everything in the middle of the table and let everyone help themselves.

If chicken is something you cook regularly, have a look through my healthy chicken recipes too, as I’ve got everything from curries and pasta to tray bakes and fakeaways.

Warming the tortillas

Warm tortillas make a big difference to tacos because they’re softer and much nicer to fold around the filling.

You can warm them briefly in a dry frying pan, turning them so that each side gets some heat, or pop them into a warm oven for a few minutes.

Don’t leave them in for ages because you want them soft and flexible rather than crisp.

Building your chicken tacos

Divide the chicken mixture between the ten tortillas and then add the shredded lettuce, diced tomato and grated cheese.

Finish each one with some salsa.

I wouldn’t get too hung up on making every taco identical. If one person wants hardly any cheese and someone else wants theirs loaded with salsa, that’s part of the joy of this sort of dinner.

You could also put out some extra lime wedges, sliced spring onions, fresh coriander or jalapeños for anyone who wants to add more flavour.

What cheese works well with chicken tacos?

I’ve used Monterey Jack because its mild flavour works really well with the lime chicken, but you don’t need to buy a particular cheese purely for this recipe.

A grated mature or medium cheddar would work if that’s what you already have in the fridge. You could also use less cheese or leave it out completely if you prefer.

I’m much more in favour of adapting a recipe to what you’ll actually eat than buying an ingredient that’s going to sit in the fridge for three weeks afterwards!

What salsa should I use?

You can use your favourite shop-bought salsa to keep things easy, or make my fresh homemade salsa if you have a little more time.

A tomato-based salsa works particularly well because you’ve already got plenty of lime and garlic flavour in the chicken.

If you’re serving everything separately for people to build their own tacos, you could put out a mild and a hotter salsa and let everyone choose.

Making these tacos spicier

The recipe itself isn’t particularly spicy, which makes it useful as a family meal, but it’s very easy to add heat afterwards.

Jalapeños, chilli flakes, fresh chilli or a hot salsa can all be added to individual tacos. This is much easier than making the entire pan of chicken hot and discovering someone at the table won’t eat it.

If everyone likes spicy food, you can experiment with adding chilli to the chicken mixture itself.

Can I use different tortillas?

Absolutely. I’ve used small six-inch flour tortillas because they’re a good size for tacos and this recipe makes ten of them.

You can use another tortilla that suits you better, although obviously the size will change how many tacos you get from the filling.

Corn tortillas would give you a different texture and flavour, while larger wraps would turn this into something much closer to a chicken wrap or burrito.

You can even skip the tortilla altogether and serve the lime chicken with lettuce, tomato, salsa and your favourite toppings in a bowl.

Are chicken tacos healthy?

I don’t think it’s particularly useful to decide whether an entire meal is simply “healthy” or “unhealthy”. These tacos contain chicken, lettuce, tomatoes and other fresh ingredients, but they also contain tortillas and cheese – and there’s nothing wrong with that.

If you’re trying to lose weight or following a particular eating plan, the ingredients that make the biggest difference to the nutritional values are likely to be your choice of tortilla, cheese and salsa, along with how many tacos you eat.

I’d rather adjust those to suit what I’m doing than turn a perfectly nice taco into something disappointing just to make it fit a particular label.

If you’re following Slimming World, Weight Watchers, Noom or another plan, check the current values for the exact tortillas, cheese and salsa you’re using rather than relying on old values from a blog post. Products and plans change over time.

What can I serve with chicken lime tacos?

These are quite filling on their own, particularly if you’re having two or three tacos, but they’re easy to turn into a bigger meal.

My healthier refried beans would work really well on the side, or you could make some rice, sweetcorn or a big salad.

For a completely different meat-free taco night option, my sweet potato and spinach quesadillas are worth a look too.

Can I make the chicken ahead?

You can cook the chicken ahead if that makes dinner easier, but keep the chicken and the salad ingredients separate. Nobody wants lettuce that’s been sitting underneath warm chicken for hours!

Cool cooked chicken promptly and refrigerate it rather than leaving it sitting at room temperature. The Food Standards Agency advises eating refrigerated leftovers within two days or freezing them.

When you’re ready to eat, reheat the chicken thoroughly and assemble the tacos with fresh lettuce, tomato, salsa and cheese.

Can I use frozen chicken?

I’d defrost the chicken before making this recipe because you’re cutting it into small cubes and cooking it quickly in a frying pan.

Follow the instructions on the packaging when defrosting chicken and keep raw poultry away from foods such as the lettuce and tomatoes that will be eaten without further cooking.

The Food Standards Agency also advises against washing raw chicken because splashing water can spread bacteria onto nearby surfaces, utensils and food.

My guide to defrosting chicken safely has more information if you regularly cook chicken straight from the freezer.

More easy chicken dinners

If these chicken lime tacos have gone down well, my chicken burrito bowl uses some similar flavours but turns them into a rice bowl with beans, sweetcorn, avocado and salad.

For something completely different, try my chicken and bacon dirty rice, or have a look through all my healthy chicken recipes when you need another family dinner idea.

Tacos are one of those meals that are particularly good for adapting to whoever you’re feeding. Put the fillings and toppings on the table, let everyone build their own and there is considerably less chance of someone announcing that you’ve put the wrong thing on theirs!

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