Easy Spicy Thai Peanut Butter Chicken Thighs

Why you’re going to love it

Peanut chicken recipes – love them or hate them? If you’re like me and meals with peanuts in them are your food heaven, also try this massaman chicken curry with sweet potato and peanuts. Or this easy satay chicken with rice.

You won’t go wrong with either of these peanut chicken recipes. If however you’re looking for more of a show-stopper, then I can’t recommend these spicy Thai peanut butter chicken thigh recipe enough!

Here’s why:

• It’s a one pan recipe. Perfect for midweek, but also for really easy entertaining. You can prepare it ahead, then pop the dish into the fridge until ready to cook.
• It’s full of punchy, umami flavours. When I’m eating this, I don’t want my meal to end. There aren’t many meals I say that about (well OK, maybe this Greek chicken and potatoes).
• It’s incredibly easy recipe. It almost makes itself. All you do is whisk together a few ingredients to make the spicy peanut sauce, then pour it over chicken thighs and bake.
• No pre-cooking necessary. The icing on the cake is the toppings which add some freshness, colour, texture and extra flavour.

About the ingredients

Chicken thighs: Use boneless skinless chicken thighs. You don’t need to pre-cook them. Just lay them in a baking dish raw, pour over the sauce and bake. The number of thighs I use depends on the size, but it’s usually around 7 to 11 thighs.

For the spicy peanut sauce and toppings

Peanut butter: I use crunchy for texture, but either smooth or crunchy is fine.

Soy sauce and rice wine vinegar: It doesn’t really matter whether you use dark or light soy sauce – I just use what I happen to have. For the rice wine vinegar I prefer Japanese Mirin, but any rice wine vinegar is fine.

Coconut milk: You need just a quarter cup. This adds a bit of creaminess to the final dish.

Chicken stock: Mix this with a little cornflour to thicken the sauce as it bakes. I find the sauce is sometimes a little thicker, sometimes a little thinner depending on the amount of chicken juices.

Garlic and ginger: I crush the garlic to add to the sauce. I finely slice a big piece of peeled ginger and add that too. No pre-cooking required!

Fresh chili: This is as much about the colour as it is the spice. So I like to use red chilis. I chop the chilis finely and scatter 2 to 3 in the sauce, and another 1 to 2 on the top, depending on how spicy you want the dish to be. Actually what I usually do is serve extra chopped chilis on the side so that those who like it spicy can add more!

Honey: For just a hint of sweetness!

Toppings: Spring onions/Scallions, crushed peanuts, extra chopped chilis and lime segments. Don’t skip these – they really make the dish!

How to make it

There are really only 2 main steps before baking – whisk all the sauce ingredients together, then pour it over the chicken thighs.

But let’s break it down a little more!

Step 1: I usually start by blending the soy sauce and rice wine vinegar into the peanut butter.

Step 2: Then add all of the other sauce ingredients – coconut milk, chicken stock blended with cornflour/cornstarch, then the garlic, ginger, chilis and honey.

Step 3: Arrange the chicken thighs in a baking dish. The baking dish in the photo above is 9 inches, but a 9×12 inch baking dish is fine, too.

Step 4: Pour the sauce all over the chicken thighs.

Step 5: Cover the dish with aluminium foil for the first part of cooking.

Step 6: Ten minutes before the end of the cooking time, remove the foil, spoon the sauce over the chicken again, then return to the oven to finish cooking.

Steps 7 and 8: Take the dish out of the oven. Just before serving, sprinkle over the toppings. You can either sprinkle them all over the whole dish, or over each person’s serving.

How to serve Thai peanut butter chicken thighs

If I’m serving this to my family, I tend to serve the chicken and sauce over rice. Then I sprinkle toppings over everyone’s dish.

If I’m serving it to guests (did I mention it’s great for easy entertaining?), I sometimes sprinkle the toppings all over the chicken in the baking dish, then take the dish to the table. Because it’s pretty!

If you feel like the baking dish is a little messy, you can even spoon the chicken and sauce into a big serving dish and then sprinkle over the toppings before you take it to the table. I’ve done both ways.

You might like to have extra chopped chilis on the table for those who want a bit more heat.

Rice, lime wedges and a simple green salad or vegetables such as this 10-minute frozen sautéed broccoli are perfect on the side if you have guests. Naan bread or poppadoms are optional for mopping up the amazing sauce!

Feeling more of a curry vibe?

This dish is supposed to be tasty but super simple, which is why the ingredients are kept to a minimum. But there’s one little variation you can try if you like. You can add a teaspoon or two of red curry paste to the sauce for a bit of extra Thai flavour and kick.

The result will be more like a Thai peanut curry if you do this, but it’ll certainly be no less delicious! Also if you do this you might like to go easy on the added chilis until you see how spicy it is.

And if you’re now craving a proper Thai curry, you just have to try this Thai chicken and butternut squash satay curry. It’s legendary!