Spicy Thai Chicken with Coconut Lime Quinoa is tender, moist chicken simmered in a spicy Thai sauce and paired with creamy coconut lime quinoa. Sweet, spicy and sticky, this Spicy Thai Chicken with Coconut Lime Quinoa is sure to be your new favorite 30 minute meal!
Show me the spicy love!! As someone who once turned away from spicy food, how it is that I now whole heartedly embrace it is truly a mystery to me. I’m not sure when it happened or how it happened but I sure am glad it did. Now, I am not someone who can actually eat the set your face on fire type of spicy food but my little goes a long way and I feel that I can at least hold my own at a dinner table filled with alpha males and their copius amounts of testosterone, beer and hot wing challenges. Fast forward from THAT and what we have to talk about today is a bit more refined and whole lot more delicious .. Spicy Thai Chicken with Coconut Lime Quinoa.
(happy dance)
This dish just makes me so happy. In the interest of trying to incorporate some healthier food options into our diet, I am trying to add some new ideas into our weekly rut of chicken dinners. We all know that rut, we have all been there. Not that our tried and true chicken recipes are not amazing but sometimes you need to spicy up a Wednesday. This Spicy Thai Chicken with Coconut Lime Quinoa is your mid-week wake up call. Who doesn’t want tender, moist chicken baked and covered in a spicy thai sauce and then served up over creamy coconut lime quinoa? I double dog dare you to say that your mouth didn’t just start watering a bit after reading that. Who am I kidding .. mine did!!
WHAT IS THAI CHICKEN?
The secret to Thai dishes is a balance of five flavors: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. Chicken simmered in a sweet thai sauce brings such flavor to the chicken and cooking the chicken in the sauce keeps it moist and tender.
HOW SPICY IS THAI CHICKEN?
You control your own destiny on this one. There is spicy to thai food, it wouldn’t be thai chicken without a spicy element to it. But how much of that hot spicy flavor you add is up to you. You can tone it down if you like or amp it up if you are a glutton for punishment.
HOW DO YOU MAKE SPICY THAI CHICKEN WITH COCONUT LIME QUINOA?
Easy!! To make this Spicy Thai Chicken with Coconut Lime Quinoa, start by preheating the oven to 400 degreesmaking your sauce. In a medium saucepan combine the chili sauce, soy sauce, minced garlic, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, lime juice and sriracha and bring to a low boil over medium high heat.
While your sauce is cooking, add olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium high heat. You can also use a grill pan if you have one. Add chicken breasts and cook for 3-4 minutes a side before moving the chicken breasts to a 9 x 9 baking dish. Pour 3/4 of the chili sauce over the chicken and then move the baking pan to the oven to cook for 20 minutes. While your chicken is cooking, make your coconut lime quinoa.
Add 2 cups of uncooked quinoa, one can of coconut milk and chicken stock to a medium sized sauce pan, cover and cook per package instruction cooking times. Once cooked, squeeze and stir in juice of two limes. When your chicken has cooked and your quinoa is done, serve up your quinoa on a big family platter, add the chicken and drizzle on the remaining sauce. Garnish with chopped peanuts and cilantro.
um.. yeah …. those chopped peanuts are honestly my favorite part. (gasp!!) What about the tender chicken? This spicy sauce? The creamy coconut quinoa??? Yes, yes… the dish is amazing but trust me.. those peanuts are the bomb diggity!
Looking for more easy chicken dinner ideas? Check a few of my favorites below.
MORE EASY CHICKEN DINNERS
Enjoy!
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Spicy Thai Chicken with Coconut Lime Quinoa
Ingredients
Thai Chili Sauce and Chicken
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 - 4 thin chicken breasts
- 3/4 cup sweet chili sauce
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 4 - 6 garlic cloves minced
- 1 lime juiced
- 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons sriracha or more to taste
Coconut Lime Quinoa
- 2 cups quinoa
- 13 ounce can of coconut milk
- 1 1/4 cup chicken stock
- 2 limes juiced
Extras
- 1/3 cup peanuts chopped
- 3 tablespoons cilantro chopped
Instructions
- To make this Spicy Thai Chicken with Coconut Lime Quinoa, start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees and then start making your sauce. In a medium saucepan combine the chili sauce, soy sauce, minced garlic, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, lime juice and sriracha and bring to a low boil over medium high heat.
- While your sauce is cooking, add olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium high heat. You can also use a grill pan if you have one. Add chicken breasts and cook for 3-4 minutes a side before moving the chicken breasts to a 9 x 9 baking dish.
- Pour 3/4 of the chili sauce over the chicken and then move the baking pan to the oven to cook for 20 minutes. While your chicken is cooking, make your coconut lime quinoa. Add 2 cups of uncooked quinoa, one can of coconut milk and chicken stock to a medium sized sauce pan, cover and cook per package instruction cooking times. Once cooked, squeeze and stir in juice of two limes.
- Once your chicken has cooked and your quinoa is done, serve up your quinoa on a big family platter, add the chicken and drizzle on the remaining sauce. Garnish with chopped peanuts and cilantro.
Yum! Love the combo of all the sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy flavors. Would love this for a weeknight dinner.
Yum! Love the combo of all the sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy flavors. Would love this for a weeknight dinner.
Coconut lime quinoa sounds like a dream come true for me! I’ve been doing a lot of meal prep lately and this seems like a must try.
My husband always complains when I serve a dish with quinoa because it’s so often tasteless. I’ll definitely have to give this a try since I see you’ve spiced it up with coconut and lime.
I love ALL Thai food! This looks right up my alley
The sauce has my tummy rumbling! I can’t get enough thai flavors but I love that you mixed things up with quinoa!
I just started cooking with quinoa more and this is great for variation and trying something new! I’ve always just used it as a rice substitute and flavored it with herbs garlic etc, but that gets boring quick!
Oh my goodness, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to get enough of this delicious chicken. The flavor combos sound amazing!
This looks so tasty and flavorful – Love meals like this!
This looks amazing! Thai food is one of my favorites and I love the addition of coconut milk to the quinoa. i can’t wait to make this!
This looks so hearty and delicious! I love this meal….it sounds amazing!
This is right up my dinner alley-yum! Love the idea of cooking the quinoa in coconut milk~I bet it’s delicious! Just pinned this-can’t wait to make it for dinner soon!
One of my favorite restaurants in New Orleans making the most amazing Thai chicken and since then I’ve been on a journey trying recipes and making them at home. and this one is next on my list I love the added quinoa as a side instead of rice, too!
I have chicken dinner ruts as well. This looks like the best meal to get me out of the rut too!! Yum!
Thai flavors are some of my favorites, and sweet chili sauce is *always* a good idea! I haven’t paired it with quinoa before. This sounds amazing!
If the dish is made in 30 minutes- it my kind of dish! Especially if its made with healthy quinoa and some spicy chicken!
The chai chicken sounds delicious and I love that quinoa,, going to give it a try real soon!