🍗🌿🥥🥜 Thai Grilled Coconut Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce are full of Thai inspired flavors that are sure to impress everyone! The chicken marinates in a mixture of coconut milk, lime juice, ginger, and more to keep it JUICY and it has layers of rich FLAVOR! Lightly sweetened homemade peanut sauce is the finishing touch and really compliments the smokiness from the grill.
Easy Thai Grilled Chicken Skewers Recipe
- This is one of those dishes you didn’t know you need in your life, but you do! The taste of this Thailand-inspired chicken is incredible and layered with rich flavors.
- Coconut milk is a key ingredient in the marinade and not only does it impart coconut flavor, the fat content in coconut milk helps keep the chicken moist and juicy. You can also add a splash of it to your peanut sauce for extra richness.
- Which brings us to peanut sauce, possibly my most favorite condiment of all time! I use my tried-and-true peanut sauce recipe that I use with my recent Chicken Satay Crispy Rice Bowls. And previously with my Chicken Satay, Crunchy Peanut Chicken Salad, Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and more. It’s optional (in theory) and you can use store bought or another favorite sauce for dipping if you prefer.
- If you prefer to keep the chicken whole rather than dicing it into bite-sized pieces, skewering it, and grilling it up kabob-style, that’s fine. The cook time will likely increase since bite-sized pieces of chicken cook very quickly which is both a blessing and a curse – so keep an eye on them!
- Finally, if you’re craving a Thai curry, please run and go make my Thai Chicken Coconut Curry (a viral and fan favorite!), my Green Chicken Coconut Curry, or Yellow Thai Chicken Curry!
Ingredients in Easy Thai Coconut Chicken and Peanut Sauce
Thai Grilled Chicken Marinade: Boneless skinless chicken breasts marinate with full-fat canned coconut milk, soy sauce, brown sugar, oil, lime juice, cloves garlic, yellow curry powder, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, salt, and black pepper. Want to use boneless skinless chicken thighs or salmon instead? Have fish sauce on hand and want to add a bit to the marinade? Go for it!
Peanut Sauce for Dipping: It’s made with a mixture of creamy peanut butter, toasted sesame oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, and more. If you don’t want to make it and want to use another sauce of your choice, that’s completely fine. But I really recommend you whisk it together – it just takes a minute!
Garnishing and Serving: Lime wedges, fresh cilantro or other fresh herbs such as chopped basil leaves, and chopped salted peanuts are what you’ll want to use.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
Instructions To Make Grilled Thai Chicken with Peanut Dipping Sauce
- Chicken Marinade: To a large bowl, add all the ingredients, toss to combine and evenly coat the chicken, cover and refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours, or up to 12 hours. Soak wooden skewers in water during the last 30 minutes of marinating.
- Preheat and Thread: Preheat your outdoor gas grill to medium-high, oil the grates, and begin threading the chicken pieces onto skewers. I am not a charcoal grill person but if you are, you know what to do here.
- Peanut Sauce: Whisk everything together and set it aside until you’re ready for serving it with the chicken.
- Grilling: Place chicken on the grill and cook for about 7-8 minutes total cooking time, flipping every few minutes, as needed, to ensure even cooking and the chicken reaches 165F measured with an instant-read thermometer.
- Garnishing and Serving: Evenly garnish, as desired, with freshly squeezed lime juice, cilantro, peanuts, and peanut sauce for dipping! If you want heat, red pepper flakes or chili flakes are great.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for step-by-step photos and process shots of the cooking process.
what to serve with thai Grilled chicken recipe
Sticky rice, green papaya salad, or another favorite side dish goes well with this street food-inspired grilled chicken recipe.
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Thai Grilled Coconut Chicken Skewers
Ingredients
Chicken and Marinade
- ½ cup coconut milk, (unsweetened, from a can, full fat is recommended but light may be substituted)
- ¼ cup soy sauce, (I use regular, reduced sodium may be substituted)
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 lime, juiced and zested
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, (canola, grape seed, or vegetable oil may be substituted)
- 2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 tablespoon yellow curry powder, or to taste (red curry powder may be substituted)
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- ¾ teaspoon ground ginger, or to taste (fresh ginger may be substituted, use 1 rounded heaping teaspoon)
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste (use more salt if using reduced sodium soy sauce)
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom, or to taste (if you don’t have this in your pantry, it’s fine to omit)
- 3 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced into 1- 1 ½ inch pieces (boneless skinless chicken thighs may be substituted)
Peanut Sauce
- ⅓ cup cup creamy peanut butter, (use a heaping 1/3 cup, I use Skippy or Jif, natural style peanut butter is fine; almond butter, cashew butter, seed butters, etc. are also fine)
- ¼ cup honey, or to taste
- ¼ cup toasted sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 to 2 teaspoons ground ginger, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced or pressed, optional
- optional 2 to 4 tablespoons coconut milk, or as desired for a thinner consistency
Serving and Garnishing (optional)
- Lime wedges
- Fresh cilantro , finely minced (fresh basil or other fresh herbs may be used)
- Salted peanuts, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Chicken and Marinade – To a large bowl, add all the marinade ingredients, whisk to combine, add the chicken, toss and flip to evenly coat, cover, and place in the refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours to marinate, or up to 12 hours.
- Skewers – In the final 30 minutes or so of marinating, make sure to soak wooden skewers (if using rather than metal skewers) in water.
- Peanut Sauce – To a medium bowl, add all ingredients, whisk aggressively until smooth. Taste, check for seasoning and flavor balance, and make any necessary adjustments (i.e. more honey, more peanut butter, more salt, more sesame oil, etc.). If you like your sauce on the thicker side you may want to omit the coconut milk. Set aside until ready to serve with the chicken. Extra peanut sauce will keep airtight for up to 10 days in the fridge.
- Preheating + Threading – Preheat your grill to medium-high heat and lightly oil the grill grates. Place the pieces of chicken on the skewers, making sure not to overly compact or smooth the pieces too tightly together. I make about 8 skewers but it will depend on the length of your skewers and exact size of the pieces of chicken. Discard excess marinade.
- Grilling – Place the skewers on the grill and grill them for about 7-8 minutes total, flipping after about 3 minutes, or as necessary, to ensure even cooking. Continue flipping and rotating until done which is about 162F measured with a digital thermometer, and allow the chicken to rest for about 5 minutes on a platter before serving and the temp will come up to 165F, which is the safe temp to consume chicken. Cooking Tips – When chicken is cut into small pieces, it cooks very quickly, so make sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn't overcook and dry out (or burn). Rotate as needed and keep the flame of your grill at a moderate level. If it's sticking, give it another 1-2 minutes before flipping since proteins flip easier when they're a bit more cooked.
- Serving and Garnishing– Optionally, evenly squeeze lime juice over the skewers, evenly sprinkle with fresh cilantro, and chopped peanuts, as desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Way too much sodium for a renal diet?
My recipes do not specialize in any type of “diet” so you will need to decide what’s appropriate for your own needs and make adjustments if you see fit.