Healthy Recipe: Sheet Pan Tajin Chicken

If a bottle of Tajin seasoning isn’t in your pantry now, here’s an easy recipe to ensure you’ll never want to be without it. This popular Mexican seasoning powder consists of dried chili peppers, dehydrated lime, and salt, and adds zing to everything from tropical fruit slices to guacamole to grilled corn. It’s also used to rim glasses for margaritas and bloody marys. And it adds another dimension to a simple marinade for seafood, meat, or chicken as demonstrated here. The heat level is tingly but not scorching — just enough to wake up the tastebuds when plain old salt just doesn’t do the trick. Serves 2-4. – Susan Puckett

Ingredients

• 2 limes

• 2 tablespoons Tajin seasoning

• 2 tablespoons agave or honey

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 4 meaty bone-in skin-on chicken thighs

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Zest and juice one of the limes and place the zest and juice in a large bowl. Cut the other lime into 4 wedges and set aside.

2. Whisk in the Tajin seasoning, agave or honey, and olive oil. Add the chicken thighs and coat with the mixture, rubbing over and under the skin. Allow the chicken to marinate for 15 to 20 minutes.

3. Arrange the thighs on a parchment-lined sheet pan and roast for about 30 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part registers 165 degrees.

4. Serve the thighs with lime wedges for squeezing over the top.

Susan Puckett is an Atlanta-based food writer and cookbook author.