Thai Grilled Coconut Chicken Skewers

Grilled chicken skewers garnished with herbs and sauce, served on skewers with a lime, peanuts, rice, and fresh cilantro in the background.

5 from 1 vote

Thai Grilled Coconut Chicken Skewers

🍗🌿🥥🥜 Thai Grilled Chicken with Peanut Sauce is full of Thai inspired flavors. 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.

If you don't want as much chicken, you can halve all aspects of the recipe - marinade, chicken, and peanut sauce. However, it keeps well and you can freeze leftover chicken.

Prep Time15

Cook Time8

Marinating Time2

Course: Chicken, Dinner, Grill

Cuisine: Thai

Keyword: Grilled Thai Chicken, Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce, Thai Coconut Chicken, Thai Grilled Chicken

Servings:

Calories: 603cal

Equipment

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 Stats: Calorie, fat, and sodium stats are listed higher here than they are in reality since you won't consume every drop of marinade and some is discarded, nor is every drop of peanut sauce likely consumed.

Storage: Chicken will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Reheat in gently in microwave as desired, or eat chilled. The peanut sauce will keep airtight in the fridge for at least 10 days.

Nutrition