Peanut-Braised Chicken Breasts cook in an Asian-inspired gingery, slightly spicy peanut sauce served with a limey cabbage carrot salad.
Peanut-Braised Chicken Breasts
I am constantly looking for ways to take boneless, skinless chicken breasts and make them less boring. I personally love dark meat, so adding some flavor is a must! Braising them in this gingery, slightly spicy peanut sauce does the trick. The sauce doesn’t use much peanut butter, just enough for flavor. You can see more tasty chicken breast recipes here. For more peanut sauce recipes, try my Chicken Satay with Spicy Peanut Sauce, Spiralized Summer Roll Bowl with Hoisin Peanut Sauce, and Asian Peanut Noodles with Chicken.
How to Cook Peanut-Braised Chicken
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper and then cook for five minutes in a skillet.
- Flip the chicken over and add the peanut sauce ingredients.
- Turn down the heat and let the chicken and sauce simmer for about 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is reduced.
What is peanut sauce made of?
This peanut sauce is so simple to make, made of the following ingredients:
- Natural Peanut butter
- Sriracha
- Ginger
- Garlic
How to Serve Peanut Chicken
Slice the chicken and serve it over fluffy white rice, brown or veggie rice, quinoa with thinly sliced raw cabbage and carrots mixed with a little lime juice. Spoon the sauce over everything and top it with cilantro. The rice soaks up the yummy peanut sauce, and the salad with lime is a nice compliment to the spicy peanut sauce.
Variations:
- You can add sliced cucumber to the salad for another crunchy, cooling veggie.
- Buy a bag of coleslaw, which is just pre-shredded cabbage and carrots, to save time.
- Swap the peanut butter for nut-free butter like Wow Butter.
- Serve over cauliflower rice for a low-carb option.
- You can store the chicken with sauce, rice, and salad in separate containers in the refrigerator for up to three days.
More Braised Chicken Recipes You’ll Love:
- Braised Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms and Leeks
- Braised Chicken with Tomatoes and Rosemary
- Braised Chicken Drumsticks in Tomatillo Sauce
- Turmeric Braised Chicken with Golden Beets and Leeks
Peanut-Braised Chicken Breasts
Ingredients
- 1/2 small red cabbage, shredded (about 4 1/2 cups)
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 2 limes, halved
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 4 small organic boneless skinless chicken breasts, (about 6 oz each)
- Pepper, to taste
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1/4 cup peanut butter, natural no sugar added
- 1 tbsp Sriracha chili sauce, plus more for serving
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 1 large garlic clove, grated
- brown rice or veggie rice, optional for serving
- cilantro, optional for garnish
Instructions
- Mix the cabbage and carrots with the juice of 1 lime, 1 tsp olive oil, and 3/4 tsp salt. Taste and add the juice of up to another half lime if you like. Let marinate while you make the chicken.
- Season the chicken with the remaining 3/4 tsp salt and pepper.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot.
- Add the remaining 1 tsp oil and the chicken and cook until the chicken is golden on one side, about 5 minutes.
- Flip the chicken and add the water, peanut butter, Sriracha, ginger, and garlic.
- Bring to a boil and use your spatula to help dissolve the peanut butter.
- Reduce the heat and simmer, flipping the chicken occasionally to baste it and stir the sauce around, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced, about 20 minutes, depending on the size of your chicken breasts.
- Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes then slice.
- Juice the last lime half into the peanut sauce and stir so the sauce smooths out again.
- Divide the vegetables among four plates, top each with sliced chicken, spoon the peanut sauce over, and serve with rice on the side.
- Garnish with cilantro.
I love this recipe. Quick to make and so tasty.
We love this recipe! So tasty and easy plus it only dirties one pan.
Is it possible to use regular peanut butter?
This was SO GOOD. My husband asked me to add to our rotation – which is rare for him! I have tried many Skinnytaste recipes but this might be my favorite.  Super simple and packed with flavor.Â
This is a delicious recipe!Â
I tweaked it a bit to suit my taste to intensify the layers of flavor. Â I used chicken cutlets instead of chicken breasts for fast and even cooking, I substituted chicken broth in place of water (1 cup instead of 1-1/2 cups because I used cutlets which cook faster) and I added an extra teaspoon of sriracha and a dash of sugar and salt to the sauce to enhance the peanut flavor.Â
I think the recipe is great- I just altered it according to my taste.Â
How much PB2 did folks use? Â
My husband fixed this for dinner tonight. We (and our 21-year old son) loved it! This will definitely be going into the regular meal rotation.
I am a HUGE Skinnytaste fan. I have been using Gina!/ recipes for over a decade, own all the cookbooks, etc. this was the worst recipe I’ve made. I made it exactly as written. Sauce was both flavorless and thin – never got it to thicken up. Chicken cooked way too long as written. I may try this again because I love the idea, and I will try the following to make this more edible – use broth instead of water, and I’d cut it down to 3/4 to 1 cup. Cook the chicken and the sauce separate from each other; add the sauce in the last few minutes. Increase amount of sriracha, garlic, and ginger by 50%.Â
This was amazing! I served it over rice noodles and it was very filling! Definitely in my recipe rotation now 🙂
Are you still putting Weight Watchers points on the recipes? I can’t seem to find them.
The link for personal points is below the print button. 🙂
Does the Nutritional Information include the rice and salad or just the chicken?
Just the chicken and cabbage/carrots.
So good!  After reading comments I also used chicken broth….the jar flavor – perfect!. I reduced the amount of sriracha and mixed sauce in bowl before adding.Â
Definitely will make again. Gina!!! You have the best ideas!
Is there something you can substitute sirachi sauce with? I’m not a fan of spicy foods. Would soy sauce work?
I would leave it out. Soy is salt, and I don’t feel this recipe needs more salt. I’d just wing it and adjust after you taste it