This Cuban-inspired Mojo Chicken recipe is packed with garlicky citrus flavor! It’s super delicious and versatile—you can make it in the oven, air fryer, or on the grill using easy to find ingredients. Plus, it’s naturally keto-friendly, Whole30, paleo, and gluten-free!
What is Cuban Mojo?
Cuban mojo is a versatile no-cook sauce that can be used both as a marinade and a dipping sauce. The traditional preparation is made with sour orange juice, loads of garlic, salt, and olive oil or lard. Some versions also include oregano and cumin to impart extra flavor. This tangy and garlic-forward sauce is often drizzled on fried yucca or used to marinate various proteins.
I’ve riffed on the traditional recipe by adding shallots to balance the sharpness of the raw garlic. Also, in place of sour orange juice, I use a combination of freshly squeezed orange juice and lime juice. It still hits the perfect savory, acidic, and garlicky notes expected from a classic mojo!
Do you have to stick with chicken thighs?
Nope! I like to use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for this recipe (in my opinion, it tastes the best, and it’s hard to overcook), but you can substitute chicken breast or skinless and boneless chicken. Just make sure you decrease the cooking time and check that the internal temperature reaches at least 165°F for dark meat and 150°F for white meat. Not a chicken fan? This recipe also works well with pork and shrimp.
Can you make Mojo Chicken in an air fryer or on the grill?
Yes! If you don’t want to heat up your kitchen, you can definitely make Mojo Chicken in an air fryer or on the grill. Instructions are below—or you can just jump to the printer-friendly recipe card at the bottom of this post.
What do you serve with it?
Traditionally, Cuban-style Mojo Chicken is served with black beans and rice and fried sweet plantains. I like to serve this chicken dish with a big green salad, cauliflower rice, roasted vegetables, and/or fried green plantains.
Ingredients
- Garlic: Yep—you’ll need almost a whole head!
- Shallot: It’s not a traditional component in mojo, but it adds subtle sweetness to the marinade and sauce. No shallot? Just use 4 more cloves of garlic or ¼ of a sweet onion.
- Orange zest and juice: Buy 2 oranges to make sure you have enough juice.
- Lime zest and juice: Buy 3 limes to make sure you have enough juice.
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Ground cumin
- Dried oregano
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Chicken thighs: it’s my favorite, but as I mentioned above, you can definitely change up the protein in this recipe!
How to make Mojo Chicken
Blend the mojo sauce
In a high speed blender, combine the garlic cloves, shallot, kosher salt, zest, cumin, oregano, black pepper, juices, and olive oil.
Blitz until smooth.
Reserve some mojo sauce for serving
Pour out about ⅓ cup of the marinade so you can use it as a dipping sauce when the chicken is served. (Just so this step is 100% clear—this reserved 1/3 cup of sauce does not touch raw chicken! You pour 1/3 cup from the blender into a bowl and save it for later to dip the cooked chicken.)
Marinate the chicken
Toss the chicken with some kosher salt…
…and add the remaining marinade.
Cover and marinate the chicken in the fridge for at least an hour and up to a day.
Roast in the oven
Heat the oven to 400°F on convection mode or 425°F on regular mode with the rack in the middle position. Place the chicken skin-side down in a single layer on a stainless steel wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet.
Pop the chicken in the oven and roast for 20 minutes. Then, flip the chicken skin-side up and rotate the tray 180°.
Roast for an additional 15 to 25 minutes or until the skin is brown and crispy and a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part is at least 165°F. (If you’re cooking chicken breasts, aim for an internal temperature of 150°F to 155°F.)
Air Fryer instructions
Cook the chicken thighs in a single layer in the air fryer at 400°F for about 20 to 25 minutes, starting skin-side down and flipping the thighs skin-side up at the halfway mark. Repeat in batches until done.
Grill instructions
Set the grill on high, and once it’s hot, place the chicken pieces on the grates. Then, immediately decrease the heat to low.
Grill the chicken for approximately 25 minutes (or until the internal temperature reaches at least 165°F for thighs or 150°F to 155°F for breasts), turning every 5-7 minutes. Be patient: Don’t go and flip the chicken before they naturally release from the grill surface; otherwise, you’ll leave a lot of tasty, crispy, marinated skin stuck on the grates!
Serve with the mojo chicken with the reserved sauce!
Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 4 months. The sauce can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days in a sealed container. If the sauce separates, just whisk again before serving.
More Nom Nom Paleo chicken thigh recipes
Got a hankering for more nomtastic chicken recipes? Here are some of my faves:
- Asian Chicken Thighs
- Cracklin’ Chicken
- Cantonese Crispy Chicken Thighs
- Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken
- Umami Roast Chicken
Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes on my iPhone and iPad app, and in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013), Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017), and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2021).
PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE CARD
Mojo Chicken (Oven, Air Fryer, or Grill)
Ingredients
Mojo marinade
- 6 garlic cloves peeled
- 1 medium shallot roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
- 2 teaspoons grated lime zest
- 1½ teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- ⅓ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
Chicken
- 3 pounds chicken thighs
- 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Instructions
Make the marinade and marinate the chicken
- In a high powered blender combine all the marinade ingredients. Blitz until smooth.
- Pour out ⅓ cup of marinade and reserve it for the dipping sauce. (Just so this step is 100% clear—this reserved 1/3 cup of sauce does not touch raw chicken! You pour 1/3 cup from the blender into a bowl and save it for later to dip the cooked chicken.)
- Toss the chicken with the remaining 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and add the remaining marinade. Marinate in the fridge for at least an hour and up to a day.
Baking instructions
- Heat the oven to 400°F convection roast or 425°F non-convection with the rack in the middle.
- Place the chicken skin side down on a stainless steel wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. Make sure the chicken is in a single layer.
- Pop the chicken in the oven for 20 minutes. Then, flip the chicken skin side up, and rotate the tray 180°. Roast for 15 to 25 more minutes or until the skin is brown and crispy and a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part is at least 165°F. If you're cooking chicken breast, make sure the internal temperature reaches 150°F to 155°F.
- Serve with the reserved sauce and enjoy!
Air Fryer instructions
- Cook the chicken thighs in a single layer in the air fryer at 400°F for about 20 to 25 minutes, starting skin-side down and flipping the thighs skin-side up at the halfway mark. The chicken is ready when the skin is crispy and a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part is at least 165°F. If you're cooking chicken breast, make sure the internal temperature reaches 150°F to 155°F. Repeat in batches until done.
- Serve with the reserved sauce and enjoy!
Grill instructions
- Set the grill on high, and once it’s hot, place the chicken pieces on the grates. Then, immediately decrease the heat to low.Grill the chicken for approximately 25 minutes (or until the internal temperature reaches at least 165°F for thighs and 150°F to 155°F for breasts), turning every 5-7 minutes. Be patient: Don’t go and flip the chicken before they naturally release from the grill surface; otherwise, you’ll leave a lot of tasty, crispy, marinated skin stuck on the grates!
- Serve with the reserved sauce and enjoy!
Carla says
Recipe doesn’t specify if these are boneless chicken thighs. I’m assuming from image they aren’t. Is this correct? They look amazing and can’t wait to try 😋
Michelle Tam says
I use bone-in, skin-on thighs.
Len says
No mention of cooking the “reserved” marinade before using it as a “sauce”.. Definitely Not going to put “uncoooked” marinade that had raw chicken in it on cooked food and eat it. Unless I missed something in the instructions.
Michelle Tam says
The reserved marinade is not used to marinate the raw chicken. You set it aside before you pour the rest on the raw chicken.
Bethany says
It smells amazing!! (I’m still cooking the chicken thighs). I went with the skin-on, bone-in thighs, so I’m wondering how best to reheat them throughout the week since I’ll really only have access to a microwave.😕 Any thoughts?! 🤔 Thanks as always!!
Michelle Tam says
I eat the leftovers cold and they taste great! The microwave may make the skin kinda rubbery.
Diana Dezso says
This was incredibly tasting. So glad I saved some of the marinade as dipping sauce. Outstanding!
Katherine L Nobles says
I enjoy mojo criollo, but usually just buy a bottle of the sour orange juice to make it. Is there a reason you use the orange/lime juice combo?
Lisa Henry says
Let me just say we made this tonight for dinner. Marinated it yesterday. Cooked it on the bbq, it was fantastic!!! A repeat in our books!! So super simple. Had all the ingredients on hand. Paired with fried plantain and grilled zucchini.
Jennifer says
Fantastic marinade! I used it with boneless, skinless, chicken thigh and the meat absorbed so much flavor in just a few hours. I’d like to try it with shrimp next. Thank you!
Tracey G says
We loved this sauce! We made this as written, in the oven and air fryer, and it turned out great.
Do you think this would be good to use boneless/ skinless thighs, sear, then simmer it stovetop in the sauce? Not all of my family likes bone-in chicken. Thanks!
Michelle Tam says
I think you can just cook the boneless, skinless thighs for less time and serve with the sauce.
Valerie says
What a great recipe. I love the marinade. It was super easy. My roasted chicken looked just like your photo…I’m shocked. And it was a good as it looked. I only marinated it for 2 hours, next time I’ll marinate it longer as see if the orange/lime taste is more prominent. Thank you for such a great recipe… you continue to amaze me.
La says
Any thoughts on substituting calamansi for the citrus mix?
Michelle Tam says
I haven’t tried it!
Nikki says
When you
Say you can substitute pork, is that a pork chop or a butt/sirloin, etc? I have several cuts of pork from my Butcher Box and have so few pork recipes 😁
Lynnette says
Delicious! We are obsessed! We only had boneless chicken breast in the house so we cooked it in a pan! Amazing! Cannot wait to try it again with some cali rice to soak up that sauce!
Sarah Salzman says
This marinade/sauce makes the chicken so delicious! Used boneless/skinless thighs, cooked at 425* in the oven for 12 min flipped then cooked for another 8, PERFECT!
Barbara says
Hi Michelle…Your recipes and approach to serving umami favorites every day have become my “cooking bible.” I don’t find the above recipes in the cookbook I have (Let’s Go!). Where will I find these new chicken favorites? I copy and paste, but would love to have them and others like them in another of your cookbooks. Thank you so much for inspiring me in the kitchen after cooking with Julia and others all these years! Barbara
Jennifer Bigler says
Hi Barbara! I am so happy you love our recipes. The Mojo Chicken is only on the blog and app.