CREAMY ALMOND BUTTER COCONUT SAUCE WITH GRILLED CHICKEN

This creamy almond butter coconut sauce is is bursting with flavors! Combined with the juicy chicken thighs…it’s oh! so good.

This almond butter sauce is the perfect sauce for chicken, vegetables and pasta’s. The possibilties to pair this coconut almomd sauce are endless.

Have you ever been ”hangry”? How often do you get hangry? Yea! It is not a typo. You know, hungry plus angry equals hangry. You still don’t believe it’s a word? Are you on google now? See, I told you, there is such word. You wouldn’t believe the ”cool words” (mainly ridiculous) that have been added to the Oxford dictionary lately. Words like mansplaining, selfy, snowflake, dickish, aunt flo, and a host of others. In fact, according to the Oxford dictionary, hangry is a blend of hungry and angry used colloquially to mean ‘bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger.’

I know that feeling too well. Ever seen the snicker ad with Joe Pesci where he is handed a snicker bar because he gets a little angry when he is hungry? I am exactly that. Leave it to my Pod to remind me about stacking up on snicker bars when I begin to transform into god knows what…

Lately, I tend to forget eating especially after making a meal. This happens mostly in my meal prep and shoot days. I get sidetracked trying to tidy up my pile of mess in the kitchen because my partial OCD won’t let me focus until my surrounding is well organized. Fortunately, today wasn’t one of those days for me. My pod came back from work so hangry, opening the refrigerator, pantry, cabinets…Eek! He was obviously famished. I had to make something with what I had in the refrigerator. Good enough for me, I already marinated some chicken thighs the day before. I had some coconut milk, and my taste bud was leaning towards something savory. In less than 40 minutes, I was able to cook up this creamy almond butter coconut sauce packed with flavors.

My personal preference for a chicken part is the thigh. Mostly skin on and bone-in unless the recipe calls for something different. Every once in a while, I use boneless skinless leg for salads or kebab. I love how juicy the thighs are, compared to the breast that tends to be very dry no matter the seasoning. If you are worried about the fat content in the legs, which in my opinion isn’t that much, you can always discard the skin after cooking. I used tomato paste for my marinade to give it an extra kick. Feel free to modify the marinade as you wish, but I suggest leaving the sauce as is. I often place an “optional” wording in round brackets beside an ingredient that won’t alter the taste of the food if you leave it out, so keep an eye out.

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Usually, I allow the internal temperature of my chicken to register 172 to 175 degree F. I do this because I don’t like seeing a pink hue on my chicken. It’s the thigh, don’t you worry, it will still be juicy. For the sauce, I used sweet pepper and green bell peppers because that was all I had on hand. You can alternate your vegetable of choice. Depending on the herb you use, it’s important to know when to add it if you don’t want your greens all wilted in the sauce. Also, I used coconut cream and almond butter to thicken the sauce. Feel free to alternate almond butter for peanut butter; the taste is similar. See one of my favorites here. By the way, you can pair the sauce with rice, couscous, boiled potato, squash, quinoa and a host of others. Okay, let me stop yapping and allow you get to it. Please leave your feedback below or use the hashtag #worldlytreat on Instagram to show me what you made. I would love to see what you did differently or not.

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CREAMY ALMOND BUTTER COCONUT SAUCE WITH GRILLED CHICKEN

This sauce is bursting with flavors! Combined with the juicy thighs...Oh! so good.

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time38 mins

Total Time58 mins

Course: Dinner

Calories:

Author: MAUREEN CELESTINE

Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN MARINATE

• 8 chicken thighs
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ teaspoon cayenne
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• salt to taste
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice;
• zest of a lemon
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon herb de Provence
• mixed herb, Optional

FOR THE SAUCE

• 4 medium sweet peppers, sliced thinly
• 1 large green pepper, sliced thinly
• 2 cups coconut milk
• ¼ cup chicken broth or water (optional)
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger;
• 2-3 tablespoons almond butter, packed;
• 2 teaspoons coconut oil (any oil will do);
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon cayenne
• salt and black pepper to taste;

Instructions

• Rinse and completely pat dry the chicken thighs with paper towel. Add salt and rub all over chicken
• In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients for the marinade until well combined. Pour the marinade over chicken, using your hands, rub the mix all over the chicken until well covered. Place in a zip-lock bag or cover in a bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. ;• Preheat oven 425°F
• Drizzle little olive oil or 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy bottom oven-safe skillet or cast iron and place on the burner on high heat. Once it gets hot, gently add the thighs skin side down one after the other. Reduce heat to medium-high after a minute. Let cook untouched for 6 minutes or until skin is golden brown.
• Flip the thigh, so the skin side is up, place in the oven. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until a thermometer registers 165-170 degree F. Meanwhile, place a saucepan on the burner on medium heat, add the onion and fry for about a minute or until translucent. Add the garlic, ginger and tomato paste, stir to combine. Allow cooking for 2-3 minutes while scraping the bottom of pan frequently to avoid burning. Add the peppers, let cook for 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk, reduce heat to low setting. Add the remaining ingredients (except water/broth) for the sauce and stir. Place the chicken in the pan one after the other to avoid splatter. Cover loosely and allow to cook for 7 minutes or until sauce thickens. If the sauce is too thick for your liken, try to thin it out with chicken stock or water.
• Adjust taste and remove from heat. Serve with rice, potato, zoodles e.t.c
• ** PS: If you don't have an oven-safe pan, use a regular pan, then transfer to a baking pan. Secondly, you can use chicken chunks or any other protein of choice.