Orange juice, lime juice, ancho chile powder and chipotle peppers makes a wonderful Southwestern marinade for grilled chicken. Ancho Chile Lime Marinade adds a fabulous kick of Southwestern flavor combined with the smoky char flavor from grilled chicken.
What Is Ancho Chile Powder
Ancho chile powder is the star of the show to make this Ancho Chile Lime Marinade. Ancho Chile powder is a mild, sweet, smoky seasoning made from ground, ripened (red) dried poblano peppers. Like other chile peppers, it’s a common chile powder used in Mexican and Southwestern cuisine. It’s known for it’s deep, rich flavor profile and medium spice heat.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy Summer recipes are a must for me this year. As I’ve mentioned, I’m attending Culinary School in Downtown Denver. The alarm announces the beginning of the day at 4:30 a.m. and the clanging of the light rail train announces my departure to downtown at 6:12.
Needless to say, I’m on my feet all day, cooking all day so fast easy meals are important for our dinner routine.
Cue this Ancho Chile Lime Marinate recipe for an easy Summer grilled chicken meal.
- Make Ahead: You can prepare the ancho chile lime marinade either the night before, or it only takes minutes to whisk together in the morning. Once home, you can toss the cubed chicken into the marinade, enjoy a glass of wine, then light that grill and dinner is ready in about 10 minutes.
- Flavor: The combination of ancho chile powder, lime juice, orange juice and canned chipotle peppers bring a bright and lively flavor to chicken. Not to mention a little sass in the form of latin spice.
- Medium Heat: Mose single blend chile powders I cook with are from New Mexico. Which can carry some heat. Poblano peppers, which look like green bell peppers, and make this chile powder, are not as spicy hot as other smaller chile pepper varieties.
- Summer Food: These marinated chicken kabobs are a great way to bring a delicious, healthy and easy entree to your Summer dinner table.
Let’s take a look.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- 3 – 4 limes. Two for juicing and one to slice and grill alongside the kebabs
- Canned Chipotles in Adobo Sauce
- Chicken Breast: boneless, skinless
- Orange Juice
- Lime Juice
- Ancho Chile Powder
- Garlic
- Vegetable Oil
Ingredient Swaps or Substitutions
- Chicken: Feel free to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs for this recipe.
- Orange Juice: Pineapple juice is a good substitution for orange juice, plus, it’s a great tenderizer for any meat.
- Chile Powder: Ancho chile powder is popular choice due to its medium head factor. New Mexico Chile Powder, Chimayo Chile Powder for example, is usually higher on the heat index scale and beautiful with earthy chile powder flavor. Don’t confuse chili seasoning (with an i) which is a blend of spices readily sold in grocery stores. The kind you buy to season your chili soup.
- Garlic: This recipe calls for three cloves of garlic, chopped. You can substitute ½ – 1 teaspoon garlic powder, depending on how garlicky you want the flavor. The garlic powder I buy is pretty strong, so I’d stick with the ½ teaspoon.
How To Make Ancho Chile Lime Marinade for Chicken
- Step 1: Cut the chicken breast meat in about 1 ½ inch chunks. Place them in a shallow bowl or pan.
- Step 2: Whisk together the marinade ingredients
- Step 3: Pour the ancho chile lime marinade over the cubed chicken breast. Marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Step 4: Thread the marinated chicken breast onto skewers. Use metal skewers or wooden skewers. If using wooden skewers make sure to soak them in water for at least an hour so they don’t burn on the grill.
Step 5: You’re ready to grill. Place the chicken kebab skewers on an oiled preheated grill. Cook for about 4 – 5 minutes per side.
How To Serve It
- Side Dishes: Keep things Summer fresh with this Southwestern Salad, or this Mexican Corn Salad with Citrus Aioli, or Purple Roasted Potatoes with Thyme and Green Chile.
- Salsas: So many options here. Top ancho marinated chicken with fruity salsa is a great flavor combination. Try this Jalapeno Pineapple Salsa, or Chipotle Peach Salsa. A scoop of Homemade Mexican Restaurant Salsa is always welcome.
- Sauces: If you're looking for a real treat, try drizzling with Authentic New Mexico sauces like this Red Chile Sauce, or Green Chile Sauce.
- Pico de Gallo: Pico de Gallo: I always have a couple of jars of Homemade Pickled Jalapeno Peppers in the refrigerator and use them to make a quick pico de gallo. Just chop them, add some chopped onion and fresh tomato. Pour in some of the pickling juice and stir. You can also make a more traditional Homemade Pico de Gallo using my recipe.
Tips and FAQ’s
Yes, by adding moisture, like this marinade recipe, will break down fibers for tenderness, and create a protective barrier. Marinades with oil and acid help retain juices, particularly for lean cuts like chicken breast.
A marinade containing a high oil content will not only flavor the chicken, it will also help keep the chicken from drying out on the grill.
I like to use separate skewers for meats and vegetables. For meat I keep the pieces very close to each other with a only a small space between for a bit of circulation. For vegetable skewers, I simply make sure the chunks are of equal size. For me, separating the meats from the veggies insures easier control of cooking times. Then the meat and vegetables can be removed from the skewers and combined on a large plate for serving.
You can cut up the chicken and mix the ancho chile marinade ingredients, but don’t marinate the chicken for any longer than an hour. The acid in both the lime juice and orange juice will compromise the texture of the chicken by “cooking” it. It will become tough.
Yes, however, a whole boneless skinless chicken breast will not take on as much of the ancho lime chile marinade flavor as smaller pieces. And yes, cut up boneless chicken thighs are a great option. Whole grilled boneless skinless chicken thighs are a better option than trying to marinate bone in skin on. The grease from the skin accompanied with the oil in the marinade may cause pesky flare-ups.
Ancho Chile Lime Marinade for Grilled Chicken
These are a great way to bring a delicious and easy entree to your Summer dinner table.
Explore More Southwestern Chicken Recipes
And if you’re looking for even more Southwestern recipes, don’t miss my Mexican Southwestern Category. You’ll find lots of great recipes to spice up your dinner plans, including one of the most popular on my site for Southwest Ground Chicken Burgers.
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Ancho Chile Lime Marinade For Grilled Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts skinless and boneless, cut into 1 ½ inch cubes
- ½ cup orange juice Fresh squeezed
- ¼ cup lime juice Fresh squeezed
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 teaspoon ancho chile powder or New Mexico Chile Powder, or Chili Powder
- 3 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
- 2 tablespoons chipotle in adobo sauce seeds removed, fine diced
- 1 teaspoon adobo sauce from the can of chipotle peppers
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Grilled lime halves for garnish and to squeeze over meal for additional flavor
Instructions
- Place the chicken pieces in a large shallow bowl or baking dish.
- Whisk together the orange juice, lime juice, oil, chile powder, chopped chipotle peppers in Adobo, adobo sauce and garlic. Pour over the chicken and marinate in the refrigerator 1 hour.
- Heat a grill to 500 degrees.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade and skewer. Sprinkle with Kosher salt and pepper. Turn the grill temperature down to 350 degrees and place the chicken on the hot grates.
- Cook until each side is golden brown and slightly charred. About 4 – 5 minutes per side. Close the grill lid and let cook through. About 1 – 2 minutes.
- Remove from the grill and let rest 5 minutes. While the chicken is resting, place limes cut side down onto grill. Cook until grill marks appear on the flesh. About 1 – 2 minutes. Remove the chicken from the skewers and serve garnished with grilled lime wedges.
Notes
Nutrition
Easy Chicken Kebab Recipe .. It’s what’s for Dinner.
Why Trust My Recipes? I am a Culinary School Graduate and a lifelong student of home cooking. I hope to inspire you try to cook as often as you can. I’ve been cooking for 50 years, and my recipes are tried and true tested and tested and then tested again before published. To read more take a look at my About Page.
Glad you are enjoying the cooking school. The chix looks and sounds very good.