Cilantro Lime Chicken Freezer Meal Recipe
Cilantro Lime Chicken Slow Cooker Recipe
This cilantro lime chicken is a simple but flavorful meal to have on hand in the freezer. Just thaw it and throw it in the slow cooker! I love to serve Cilantro Lime Chicken in tacos or quesadillas with toppings like shredded cheese, sour cream, diced tomato, avocado, and salsa. It is also a great shredded chicken to add to a green salad or serve over rice.
The ingredients are super simple and the prep doesn’t get much easier. Add the seasoned chicken, lime juice, lime zest, corn, garlic, onion, beans, and cumin to a bag and mix until combined. Then freeze it for later or dump it in a slow cooker! A great idea is to double it (or more) and make one for dinner and one for the freezer.
Cilantro lime chicken is pretty healthy too! The ingredients are what are usually considered to be allergy-friendly, gluten-free, and clean eating.
Freezer Meal Tip:
If your chicken is already frozen, no need to thaw it before adding it to the bag of ingredients for a freezer meal. Same goes for the corn. Keep frozen items frozen when adding them to a freezer meal that is just going right back into the freezer.
Chicken Shredding Tip:
I used to dread having to shred chicken for recipes until I found a super easy, fast way to do it. Learn how to shred chicken with a mixer!
Learn More About Freezer Meal Cooking:
- Why you NEED Freezer Meal Cooking in your life!
- How to start doing Freezer Meals (have a party? Start a group? Or do it on your own?
- 24 Lessons I Learned While Making Freezer Meals
- What Foods Don’t Freeze Well
- Freezer Meal eBook
More Freezer Meal Recipes:
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- Cream Cheese Chicken Crescent Roll Recipe
- Honey Teriyaki Chicken Instant Pot or Slow Cooker Recipe
- Freezer Chicken Enchiladas Recipe (So Easy)
- White Chicken Chili Recipe (Slow Cooker or Instant Pot)
Find all our freezer meal recipes here!
Cilantro Lime Chicken Freezer Meal Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast
- salt and pepper to taste
- ½ red onion chopped
- 12 ounces frozen corn
- 1 can black beans drained and rinsed
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- Juice from 2 limes + zest from 1 of the limes
Instructions
- Pat chicken dry with paper towel and season with salt and pepper.
- Place all ingredients in a resealable gallon-sized freezer bag. Seal bag and shake to mix ingredients together. Lay flat to freeze.
To Prepare from Frozen:
- Remove from freezer and thaw in fridge for 24 hours. Season with a little more salt and pepper, if desired. Cook on low for 6 hours (or high for 3 hours). Shred chicken, if desired.
- Serve in tacos, over rice, or over salad and with lime wedges. Top with shredded cheese, fresh cilantro, salsa, sour cream, diced tomato, avocado, or any other favorite taco toppings.
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I’m assuming I need to use uncooked chicken. Correct?
Correct.
So do you put this on salads or tortillas. I’m sure it’s versatile, but how do you prefer to eat it?
I actually hadn’t thought of a salad because I’m not much of a salad person, but that actually sounds pretty good. Either way would work well. I had great success serving it with tortillas.
Doesn’t seem to have very much liquid for cooking in the slow cooker, has it dried out or seemed like it could use more liquid? Need to leave it on low all day and make sure that I won’t ruin it. Love your site, thanks for any suggestions.
I did not need to add any extra liquid and it turned out to be just enough. (You can kinda see some of the liquid I ended up with in the slow cooker pic at the bottom of the post.) Slow cookers may vary though, so I would recommend checking it (on your first time making it) halfway through to see if you may need to add some chicken broth or other liquid.
It was dry, we added green chili salsa and some water. I would suggest at least 1 c chicken broth
Thanks so much for the tip Jean!
Do I use already frozen chicken breasts or thawed out chicken breasts?
If you are planning to freeze this meal before cooking it, use either fresh chicken or already frozen chicken. Don’t thaw the chicken if you plan to just freeze it again before cooking.
I just wanted to let everyone know that this recipe is really good and really easy. I love that I can throw it in the crock pot in the morning and can come home from school and/or work that day to a yummy, healthy meal. I love to put this in tortillas for tacos, or eat it over rice or as a burrito. Thanks so much! This one’s a keeper!
Thanks for sharing!
Everyone absolutely loved this. I did cheat a bit though. I used a frozen corn and black bean fiesta mix with all of the spices already added!
Sounds great and easy!
Mine lacked a little flavor in the crock pot, so I decided to make enchiladas. Put some taco sauce and cheese on top of tortilla stuffed with chicken and it turned out great. We added salsa, sour cream, and avocado cubes as a dipping side. I did not freeze mine but put it together in a bag the night before. I threw it into the crock pot when I left for work. All in all is was great and easy!
Thanks for your feedback. That sounds like a really good way to enhance this meal! I love how easy it is.
If I just wanted to cook this without freezing it, can I use dried black beans?
I’ve actually never used dried beans, so I’m not sure how that would turn out. I know you can use the canned beans in it without freezing though.
You could use dried beans if you soaked them overnight in water, so they would begin to soften. Otherwise, they might not soften enough and would be crunchy. Just keep in mind that beans become larger, like rice does, when cooking from dried form.
I made this recipe for my daughter. But since she is single, I divided it into two freezable bags because it was way too much for just her. The problem is she has too big of a crock pot I think and the small amount may not cook correctly in the crockpot. I was wondering if you have ever cooked this on the stovetop and if so, how?
Hi, Elaine! I have not tried cooking it on the stovetop, but I think it would work great. That is very nice of you to make it for your daughter. 🙂
Does this have to be thawed first? What happens if I put it in frozen?
I personally haven’t thrown it in the Crock-Pot while still frozen before, but I think it would work. You may just have to cook it for longer. Let me know how it goes!
Can I do the prep but leave it in the fridge overnight to cook the next night? Or does it have to be frozen right away? Thank you in advance
That should work out well! It doesn’t have to be frozen. 🙂
If your chicken is already cooked then you won’t need to thaw it before thawing it. The cubed/chopped/shredded chicken cooks on the stovetop in about 5-8 minutes or less. Someone asked if this could be cooked on the stovetop and because I tried doing that out of necessity I can assure you that it does and quite quickly too! I also only had bottled lime, and live out of town and it’s a bigger issue running to the store, and the Real Lime juice was great! When later I bought more of the bottled lime juice I checked it against the store brand. Real Lime brand was the only one that really was just lime juice. I loved this recipe and I really thought I would not. Didn’t have the green chili’s or the jalapeño so didn’t use either one and it was SO good. I do love juice though!
That was supposed to say, if your chicken is already cooked, you won’t need to thaw it before COOKING it not supposed to say say thaw it before thawing it. Also supposed to say I LOVE lime juice and not supposed to say I love juice.
Thanks for the feedback! So glad to hear it worked nicely for you! 🙂