Easy Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos (with Grilled Pineapple Salsa)

Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos are a Way Better update from your traditional walking tacos. Featuring grilled cilantro lime chicken taco meat and grilled pineapple salsa, these chicken walking tacos taste fresh and light!

Making These Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos

I have so loved living in the neighborhood that I have lived in for the last 4 years and on the street that my house is on. I met my husband here – he lived across the street from me – and lots of great friends.

We’ve spent the last 2 summers and early fall enjoying block parties, slip and slide afternoons, s’mores nights, potlucks, front yard baseball games, and so much more. Looking back, I can’t believe the memories that I’ll take away from this neighborhood.

Since we’ll be moving soon, and school just started, we decided to host one last party at our house – this time a Walking Taco Party.

Walking Tacos with Cilantro Lime Chicken

If you aren’t familiar with Walking Tacos, it really is pretty simple. You prep all the ingredients you’d like for a taco, but rather than putting the ingredients in a taco shell or on a plate, you assemble the taco inside an individual sized chip bag.

Walking Tacos are great for big crowds and parties, especially of the backyard variety. You don’t have to provide paper plates, and the bags all get tossed at the end of the night so you don’t generate as many dishes.

They’re portable, which is great because all the kids end up running around the yard, food in hand, anyway and the taco is much better contained this way!

How to Make these Portable Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos

For our Walking Tacos, we used Way Better Snacks tortilla chips in a variety of flavors. I tried this chips about a year ago at one of our neighbor’s house and loved them. The seeds, beans, or grains in the chips are all sprouted, which removes the natural barrier – this makes the food easier to digest and the nutrients more readily available to the body. Check out Way Better Snacks to learn more about sprouting.

The crowd favorites when it came to the chip flavors were the Sweet Chili and the Spicy Sriracha. I was super excited that everyone enjoyed the chips for both their flavor and the health factor. It can be challenging sometimes to find a healthy chip that also tastes really good, and these definitely fit the bill.

Cilantro Lime Chicken Marinade

I wanted to take the traditional walking taco idea and remake it with a bit of a fresher, healthier twist. First I marinaded a few pounds of chicken in a Cilantro Lime marinade for several hours.

After that, I grilled it, topped it with fresh cilantro and green onions, and let it sit on a platter, covered with foil, in a warm oven until we were ready for our guests to arrive. A few minutes before their arrival, I sliced the chicken and tossed it with any juices left on the platter and set it out.

The chicken was so incredibly tender, and this is usually my go-to grilled chicken recipe when we want to make a chicken taco of any kind. It is super easy and always a crowd pleaser.

Grilled Pineapple Salsa for Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos

These Grilled Lime Cilantro Chicken Walking Tacos had another main component that was a little different from the ordinary, and that was the salsa. Rather than a tomato based salsa, I was inspired by the Brown Sugar Glazed Grilled Pineapple that I recently made to make a Grilled Pineapple Salsa.

The Grilled Pineapple Salsa paired so well with the chicken and the chips, especially the Sweet Chili and the Spicy Sriracha flavors, and it was so light and fresh tasting.

Grilled pineapple salsa might seem like it is complicated to make, but the hardest part is grilling the pineapple. Other than that, you chop up red pepper, jalapeño, cilantro, and onion, squeeze some lime juice and mix it all together.

You don’t have to grill the pineapple. This recipe tastes just as good if the pineapple is freshly diced without grilling, but we love the flavor you get from grilled pineapple.

The above is simply a quick summary of this recipe. Check out the full recipe in the free printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for all the detailed instructions.

How to Serve Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos

Once you prep those two recipes, you can serve the chip bags alongside the chicken, salsa, and any other favorite taco toppings.

Its a good idea to make a batch of ground meat seasoned with Spicy Taco Seasoning for those who prefer a more traditional walking taco; Ground beef taco meat goes really well with the Nacho Cheese flavored Way Better Snacks Tortilla Chips.

This balanced out things really well by having both meats along with a variety of chips and the pineapple salsa.

What to Serve with Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos

Since we were providing the meat, pineapple salsa, and chips, we asked our neighbors to bring something small. People brought a variety of other toppings like guacamole (5 Minute Basic Guacamole is always a favorite in our house), pico de gallo, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, and tomatoes.

We are totally no-fuss when it comes to having backyard parties. Rather than  a picture-perfect stylized party, we prefer to set up all the food on a large table or kitchen island, buffet style. Guests can serve themselves and when the weather is nice we eat outside on the deck. 

For drinks, we take a similar self-serve approach and fill a large bucket or cooler with ice and a variety of drinks. This Strawberry Lime Agua Fresca was really popular!

Fun Memories with this Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos Recipe

I really do think that this is the better way to party. Most people just want to have fun and eat good food while hanging out with the people they enjoy. Setting up the party and all the little details aren’t what is important – it is the relationships that count.

Everyone had tons of fun and loved the food. Party menus like walking tacos are great for when you’re planning a dinner party and might have picky eaters. Everyone can customize their meal according to their personal preferences and there is so much variety that everyone is happy.

It was great to have one last neighbor potluck style party with our neighbors before our move, and before school started. We ended the evening making s’mores in the fire pit.

And something I don’t think we’ll ever forget…we use an extra box spring we were trying to get rid of before our move for the firewood (Kevin and his step-dad removed the fabric and chopped the wood up). Funny and random things like this are what so many of our neighborhood memories are made of.

Even though we’re only going to be moving about 5 minutes away, I’m sure we’ll miss the frequent impromptu evening summer get-togethers that we’ve enjoyed over the last few years.

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Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos

Yield: 8 - 10

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos are a Way Better update from your traditional walking tacos. Featuring grilled cilantro lime chicken taco meat and grilled pineapple salsa, these chicken walking tacos taste fresh and light!

Print

Ingredients

Cilantro Lime Chicken

• 1 Jalapeno, seeds removed and discarded
• Zest of 2 Limes
• 1/4 cup White Wine Vinegar
• 3/4 cup Lime Juice
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Chili Powder
• 1 tablespoon Smoked Paprika
• 1/3 cup packed Cilantro Leaves
• 2/3 cup Canola Oil
• 2 teaspoons Salt
• 1 tablespoon Minced Garlic
• 1 tablespoon Honey
• 3 tablespoons Water
• 3 lbs. Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
• Optional Garnishes: finely chopped Fresh Cilantro and sliced Green Onions

Grilled Pineapple Salsa

• 30 ounces fresh Pineapple, cored and cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds
• 1 finely diced Rd Bell Pepper (core, seeds, and stem removed and discared)
• 1 Jalapeno, deseeded and finely minced
• 1/4 cup minced Red Onion
• 1/4 cup finely chopped Fresh Cilantro Leaves
• Juice of 1 Lime
• Salt and Pepper, to taste

Walking Taco Assembly

• Way Better Chips in individually sized bags
• Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken
• Grilled Pineapple Salsa
• Shredded Romaine Lettuce
• 5 Minute Basic Guacamole
• Black Beans or Refried Black Beans
• Sour Cream
• Shredded Mexican Blend Cheese or Crumbled Cotija Cheese

Instructions

Grilled Chipotle Lime Cilantro Chicken

1. Place all of the ingredients except the chicken and optional garnishes into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth.
2. In a gallon sized zip top plastic bag, place the chicken breasts. Pour the marinade over the chicken, zip to seal, and allow to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, flipping the bag halfway through. Chicken may be marinaded up to overnight.
3. When ready to cook, preheat the grill to medium-high heat. Remove the chicken from the marinade, discard the marinade, and place the chicken on the grill.
4. Cook for 5 - 7 minutes on each side, or until the chicken has cooked through to a temperature of 160 degrees F.
5. Remove chicken from the grill, place on a cutting board and loosely cover it with foil. Allow the chicken to rest 5 - 10 minutes.
6. Slice the chicken into 1/2 inch thick slices, place on a serving platter. Then, sprinkle with optional garnishes if desired.

Grilled Pineapple Salsa

1. Preheat grill to medium heat.
2. Place the pineapple on the preheated grill and grill 2 – 4 minutes each side, or until the pineapple is juicy and tender and there are some nice grill marks. Remove from the heat and transfer to a cutting board.
3. Allow the pineapple to cool to room temperature.
4. Then, dice the pineapple into small chunks. Toss with the remaining ingredients and stir until well mixed.

Walking Taco Assembly

1. Select your preferred flavor of chip.  Open the top of the bag and gently squeeze to slightly crush the chips into smaller, bite-sized pieces.
2. Layer, in whatever order you like, with as much or as little of the ingredients as you like:

• Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken
• Grilled Pineapple Salsa
• Shredded Romaine Lettuce
• Guacamole,
• Beans
• Sour Cream
• Cheese

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• 
  Microplane Zester
• 
  Tongs
• 
  Weber Q1200 Grill
• 
  Cutting Boards
• 
  Knife Block Set
• 
  Food Processor

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 911Total Fat: 28gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 22gCholesterol: 128mgSodium: 707mgCarbohydrates: 121gFiber: 17gSugar: 75gProtein: 55g

GoodLifeEats.com offers recipe nutritional information as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although GoodLifeEats.com makes every effort to provide accurate information, these figures are only estimates.

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This post is sponsored by Way Better Snacks. All opinions are my own – I really do love these chips!