Thai Peanut Chicken Rice Bowl with Lime Mango and Veggies

I adapted this recipe from Half Baked Harvest. It is a bowl of warm rice topped with savory red curry marinated chicken breast, with a curry coconut peanut sauce, with veggies and mango. I am a big fan of Thai peanut sauce and red curry, and the addition of the mango mixed with jalapeno and lime to this bowl sounded delicious. I love these kind of meals for weeknight dinners, when I don’t have as much kitchen time, but still want something flavorful and satisfying for dinner.

I served this as a rice bowl as she did in the recipe, but I think you could easily adapt it to a tasty salad too if you made the sauce into a dressing, added more veggies, and served on lettuce instead of rice.

I also added some extra vegetables, because I’m always trying to cram them into my family wherever I can 🙂 The recipe calls for cucumbers, but I also added some sliced quick pickled carrots, and some sliced red bell pepper. I didn’t have Thai basil, so I used some basil from my garden. I also marinated my chicken overnight first, because if you have a chance to do that, it makes it some much more flavorful. Everyone really loved the spring rolls in the Bun Chay I made, so I decided to add those here too.

This recipe uses Thai red curry paste. The grocery store usually has 1-2 options for this. I usually use this brand:

Curry Peanut Chicken Bowl:

• 1 package boneless skinless chicken breast (or thighs if you prefer), halved horizontally so you have thinner pieces
• 3-4 tbsp red curry paste
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger (or you could use ground powder if you don’t have fresh, but it doesn’t give quite the same taste in my opinion)
• 3 tbsp canola oil
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped (Thai if you have it)
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp fish sauce (I talked about my favorite brand in this post)
• 1/2 cup creamy pb (not natural pb)
• juice of 1-2 limes
• steamed rice (see my post here on cooking Asian rice on the stove if you don’t have a rice cooker – this method works great)
• chopped roasted peanuts
• sliced Persian cucumbers
• sliced raw carrots (pickled if you like)
• sliced red bell pepper
• 1 mango diced
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
• juice of 1 lime
• frozen spring rolls cooked according to package (optional)

Toss the chicken with 2 tbsp of red curry paste, the chopped ginger, 2 tbsp soy sauce, and 1/2 tsp of salt and allow to marinate overnight or at least 15 minutes. Heat oil in a frying pan and add the chicken and sear on both sides. Reduce the heat so it doesn’t burn and allow the chicken to cook through. Remove to a cutting board. After it rests, slice the chicken.

To frying pan add the coconut milk, soy sauce, fish sauce and lime juice. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes to reduce slightly. Taste the sauce and add some of the remaining red curry paste if you feel it needs it. Add the peanut butter and taste and adjust as needed.

Combine the mango, jalapeno, lime and a little salt in a bowl.

Dish your rice up into a bowl, place your sliced chicken, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, mango and spring rolls into the bowl and drizzle some sauce over them. Top with chopped herbs and peanuts.