Spicy Lime Peanut Chicken

This spicy lime peanut chicken recipe combines zesty lime juice with sweet and salty peanut butter to top boneless chicken breasts for a fabulously delicious main course. 

Spicy lime peanut chicken reminds me of the wonderfully fragrant chicken satay with peanut sauce I love from our many years in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, but with way less trouble. 

Because the boneless skinless chicken breasts are cooked quickly and with such a generous heaping of the sauce, there is little danger of them drying out. My family loved this dish! I suggest serving it with coconut rice and a green bean salad. 

Spicy Lime Peanut Chicken

For the second time this week, I’m sharing a recipe adapted from one by my favorite tv chefs, Jamie Oliver. You can find his original here. My method is a bit different because 1. My non-stick skillet is not ovenproof and 2. I was concerned about cooking the chicken all the way through if I transferred it to a cold pan, raw side down. It was cooked perfectly my way. :) 

Ingredients

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts (about 8 3/4oz or 250g each)

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for serving

4 limes, plus extra for serving

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

8 cloves garlic

4 heaped tablespoons peanut butter

1-2 fresh red chili peppers, plus extra for garnish

Method

Zest the limes and set three-quarters of the zest aside for later. Put one quarter into a small bowl. 

Add in the olive oil, two generous pinches of sea salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Mix well to combine.

Score the thick part of the chicken breasts in a crisscross fashion. The reasons for scoring are two-fold. It helps the chicken cook more quickly and more evenly and also gives more surface area for the flavors to be absorbed. 

Rub the lime zest mixture into the scored side of the chicken breasts. Really get it in all the spaces!

Turn the broiler (BrE: grill) in your oven on to preheat to 350°F or 180°C, if your broiler has that ability. If not, just turn it on to preheat. 

Peel and finely grate the garlic into a bowl. Squeeze the juice from 3 limes into the garlic bowl. 

Stir in the peanut butter and loosen with just enough water to give you a spoon-able consistency.

Finely slice the chili peppers and mix them through the sauce, taste and season with another good pinch of sea salt and a few grinds of black pepper.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Place the breasts flat side down and cook for about 5-7 minutes or until the chicken looks cooked halfway up the side. That is to say, the bottoms will be golden but the tops will still be pink.

If your non-stick pan is ovenproof continue as follows in the next paragraph. If it is not, transfer the chicken breasts to an ovenproof pan, scored still side up. I'm including this photo because it illustrates that the breasts are cooked about halfway up already, which wasn't really obvious in the prior photo. 

Spoon the peanut sauce over the breasts.

Put the pan under the broiler/grill, roughly 4 inches or 10cm from the heat, for about 5 minutes, or until the chicken is charred in spots and cooked through.

Sprinkle the remaining lime zest over the chicken breasts then drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil to serve. Garnish with chopped chili peppers, if desired. Pop some extra lime slices on the plate. 

Enjoy!

This month my Foodie Extravaganza friends are sharing recipes with peanut butter in celebration of National Peanut Butter Lovers Month aka November. Many thanks to our host Rebekah of Making Miracles. Check out the recipe list below:

• Asian Peanut Noodles with Chicken by Making Miracles
• Beef Satay with Peanut Sauce by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Overnight Oats by Tara's Multicultural Table
• Lamb Kofta Curry Bowls by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Cookies by Palatable Pastime
• Peanutty Ginger Pasta by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Spicy Lime Peanut Chicken by Food Lust People Love
• Vegan & Gluten Free Peanut Butter Fried Brown Rice by Sneha's Recipe

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board

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