Peanut butter chicken. Super flavorful, slightly spicy and ready in about 30 minutes. Imagine juicy chicken fillets coated in a creamy coconut peanut butter sauce jazzed up with Thai red curry paste. It’s next level delicious, especially when topped with cilantro and toasted cashews. Serve with rice or warm flatbread and a crispy cucumber salad.
Why you’ll love this peanut butter chicken recipe
This recipe holds some of the best flavors: a rich peanut sauce, enlivened with scallions, ginger, lots of garlic, coconut milk and of course red curry paste. It’s creamy, a little spicy and very hearty and savory. You can dig into these flavors after about 30 minutes of cooking.
First we whisk the peanut sauce together and marinade the chicken in this flavor bomb before being cooked. Then we sauté the garlic with ginger, simmer the sauce and add the chicken to hang out in all those flavors and continue to cook for a couple minutes. The result is a deeply flavorful dish with super-juicy chicken breasts.
Let me guide you through the recipe with this step-by-step VIDEO.
Helpful tips
You can mix the recipe up a little if you want to.
- For example, you can use chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts.
- Or chopped peanuts instead of cashews.
- Serve with a cucumber salad, roasted broccoli or green beans.
- Swap out the rice for flatbread.
- Whatever you do, just make sure to garnish with plenty of scallions, toasted nuts, cilantro and some extra chili flakes. Enjoy!
How to store leftover peanut butter chicken
- Fridge: Store the leftovers refrigerated in airtight containers for up to 3 days.
- Freezer: You can freeze peanut butter chicken. Transfer the leftovers to airtight containers and freeze for up to 3 months.
More easy chicken recipes:
Cooking Video: How to make peanut butter chicken
Easy Peanut Butter Chicken
Ingredients
Peanut butter sauce and chicken
- 250 ml/1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
- 100 g 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp natural peanut butter
- 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp honey
- juice from ½ lime
- 2 small chicken fillets
Additional
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 3 tbsp peanut oil or vegetable oil
- 1 tsp each: ground cumin ground coriander, crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ cup/120 ml low sodium chicken broth
- toasted cashew nuts or peanuts, for serving
- fresh cilantro for serving
- chopped scallions for serving
Instructions
- Make the peanut butter sauce. In a large bowl, combine coconut milk, peanut butter, soy sauce, fish sauce, red curry paste, turmeric, sesame oil, honey and lime juice.
Add chicken breasts to the mixture, coating both sides. Set aside. - In the meantime, mince the garlic and grate the ginger.
Cook the rice, if making. - Heat the oil in a skillet, remove chicken breasts from the peanut butter sauce and add to skillet. Cook the chicken over medium heat, for 5 minutes per side or until fully cooked and browned on both sides. Remove from skillet and place on a clean plate. Cover with foil.
- Add garlic, ginger, cumin, chili fakes and coriander to the same skillet. Sauté over low heat, for 2 minutes or until soft. Add peanut sauce and bring to a simmer. Add chicken broth, simmer for 5 minutes or until slightly thickened. Add more chicken broth if the sauce is too thick.
- Place the chicken back into the skillet. Allow to simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 3 minutes.
- Top with cashews, scallions, fresh cilantro and some extra crushed red pepper flakes. Serve with rice or naan. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Made this & loved it!! Allergic to peanuts, so used sunbutter and it actually worked great. Thank you!
Love to hear that! Thank you Liana.
This recipe was delicious! My whole family loved it and there were hardly any leftovers! Great, fresh, nutty flavor. Used chicken thighs instead of breast and worked great. Thank you for posting!
Delicious recipe!! Such fresh, nutty, Thai infused flavor! Used chicken thighs instead of breast and it worked great. Thank you for the post!
So happy to hear this Danielle! Thanks for giving the recipe a try!
Made this and loved it – boyfriend said it’s in the top 5 things I’ve ever made! One question – could I freeze with the raw chicken in the marinade? Then defrost and cook later? Or best to cook then freeze? Thanks
Thanks so much! I am so happy to hear this! Yes, you can easily freeze the chicken raw in the marinate. Happy cooking!
why can i no longer see the method?
Thanks for noticing! The recipe is fixed, hope you love it!
It is a lovely recipe with ingredients which are easy to find. The food is very yummy, goes very well with red rice.
So you use the marinade for cooking after the raw chicken was marinated in it!? This that ok? I never reuse marinade that has raw chicken usually.
yes, we’re turning the marinade into sauce here. We do this by bringing it to a boil. This is a complete, rolling boil to ensure that all of the bacteria is gone (you need to reach 165°F/75°C). So the most effective way to kill the germs and make the marinade safe to eat is to boil it. Happy cooking!
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I loved it! The sauce was to die for. Put it on everything! Ty!
Does this make enough sauce for more than 2 servings (if I up the chicken to4) or do I need to double everything?
Hi, I would recommend to add 1 cup chicken broth instead of 1/2 cup broth. Please let me know if you have any more questions. Enjoy the recipe!
YUM! This is a lovely dish to make with pantry friendly ingredients. Quick and easy with an end result that is rich and full. Will make it again for the two of us and will be happy to make it for company. Thanks.
I absolutely loved this. I reduced the ingredients for one person and it was perfect. Made coconut rice to go with it