O.M.G. You guys! I’ve found it! The absolute BEST Thai dish EVER! AND IT’S SO SIMPLE!!! No crazy ingredients, no complicated cooking methods, just plain old deliciousness!! In case you can’t tell, I’m a tad bit excited. That’s how good this recipe is! PLUS IT’S GLUTEN FREE, which is a necessity for me! I love Thai food, it’s one of my favorite things to eat, but up until recently I didn’t feel comfortable enough to try my hand at actually making any of the dishes on my own. They all just intimidated me! Like I’ve said before, I’m not by any means, a good chef or recipe maker. I wish I could go to a restaurant, then recreate the meal at home with nothing more than my taste buds, but alas, I don’t have that skill. When I lived in Washington, there were three AMAZING Thai restaurants all within ten minutes of my house, so I could get some whenever I wanted. Unfortunately in South Carolina, I haven’t found a single one! It’s a major bummer. So to satisfy my cravings, I forced myself to at least TRY and make my own versions, which mostly ended up in disaster and my husband running to the store for a frozen pizza. But I didn’t give up, much to the disappointment of my family. I’m pretty sure every time I announced that I was trying Thai noodles again, all three of them physically cringed. Not anymore, though!! I scrounged the internet and finally, FINALLY hit the jack pot on this one!
Chicken, peanut sauce, quinoa, and spicy nappa cabbage slaw. MMmmmmm my mouth is watering all over again!
I happened across a pin on Pinterest last week that led me to this site :http://www.foodfaithfitness.com. On it was a recipe for a Thai chicken dish made in the crock pot. Well, being the amazing time manager that I am….I ran out of time today to actually use the crock pot! That’s just how good I am. 🙂 By the time I remembered I wanted to make this dish tonight, it was 5 o’clock and I needed to make dinner quickly! So, I used the same ingredients and put it on the stove top instead, and you know what? It worked! I had the entire meal done in about twenty minutes from start to finish! If that’s not enough to make you want to try this recipe, I don’t know what is. Give me a 30 minute meal (or less!) any day!
Here are the ingredients for the sauce:
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce (I use the gluten free stuff)
- 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 cup light coconut milk
- 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic, minced
- 1 pound chicken breast, trimmed of fat
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- *Chicken (Note: The original recipe is for the crock pot and calls for chicken breasts. I used two cans of chicken instead, because of my time crunch.)
To make this on the stove top, I simply put the peanut butter, soy sauce, honey, and coconut milk in a small sauce pan over low heat until the peanut butter was melted. Then I added the spices and cornstarch and stirred everything together. I turned the heat off, added the chicken an tossed everything to coat it. While that was going, I made the quinoa as well. Follow the instructions of the box, but I believe it’s generally 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water and should take about 15 minutes.
The Napa Cabbage Slaw that goes on top and really completes the meal:
- 1/2 cup plain Greek non fat yogurt
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha (I used a bit more, but you can do it to taste)
- 1 head napa cabbage, roughly chopped
- Salt and pepper, to taste.
Simply chop the cabbage, set aside. In a large bowl combine the yogurt, sriracha, salt and pepper, then add the cabbage and toss to combine.
To build the bowls, put quinoa in the bottom, chicken and sauce next (my way had TONS of extra sauce) and top with cabbage.
And that’s it! Nothing to it, but trust me, serve this to your family and friends and you’ll get compliments galore! Even my girls, who don’t like quinoa OR cabbage, gobbled this up! I think this is destined to become one of my go to week night meals, and I couldn’t be happier about that!
Let me know if you give it a try and what you think!
Lifes Little Quirks 