Description
This Coconut Lime Chicken and Broccoli stir-fry recipe is quick and easy to make and simmered in a tangy, creamy coconut-lime sauce.
Ingredients
Coconut Lime Sauce Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups (14 ounces) full-fat coconut milk*
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 2 to 4 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lime juice*
- 2 tablespoons honey*
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger*
- (optional) 1 stalk lemongrass, peeled and grated (see note below*)
Stir-Fry Ingredients:
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced into bite-sized pieces
- fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced with white and green green parts separated
- 3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 3 cups broccoli florets*
- toppings: lots of chopped fresh cilantro, optional thinly-sliced Thai bird chiles for heat
Instructions
- Make the coconut lime sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, chicken stock, lime juice, sugar, cornstarch, grated ginger and grated lemongrass until combined. Set aside until ready to use.
- Cook the chicken. Season the chicken with a few generous pinches of salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat in a large sauté pan. Add the chicken and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring and flipping occasionally, until cooked through. Transfer the chicken to a clean plate and set aside.
- Cook the sauce. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to the sauté pan. Add the white parts of the scallions and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Pour in the sauce mixture and whisk to combine. Let the sauce continue cooking until it reaches a simmer.
- Put everything together. Add the broccoli to the sauce and gently toss for 1 minute until it is completely coated. Add in the chicken and toss until combined. Remove from heat.
- Season. Taste and season the dish with extra salt, pepper, lime juice and/or sugar if needed.
- Serve. Serve warm over rice or noodles, garnished with lots of fresh cilantro and the dark parts of the green onions, plus a few sliced chiles if you would like to add some heat. Enjoy!
Notes
Coconut milk: I strongly recommend using a brand of full-fat milk that is extra creamy (basically, one that has the lowest percentage of added water) to ensure that this sauce is thick and creamy. Or alternately, you can use a can of coconut cream instead of coconut milk.
Lime juice: I love this sauce super lime-y, and sometimes will add in even more than 4 tablespoons. But if you prefer your sauce not to be very tart, I would begin with just 2 tablespoons of lime juice, and then you can add more afterwards to taste if you’d like.
Sugar: Or feel free to instead use brown sugar, white (granulated) sugar, coconut sugar, or whatever your preferred sweetener may be. Also, feel free to add more or less sweetener, to taste.
Ginger: Or you can instead add in 1 teaspoon (dried) ground ginger.
Lemongrass: Peel off the reedy outer layers of the lemongrass stalk. Then either grate or finely mince only the bottom few inches of the bottom of the stalk that is white or pale green until you have about 1 tablespoon of grated lemongrass. Alternately, you can use store-bought lemongrass paste. Or if you can’t find lemongrass at all, no worries, the recipe will still taste delicious without it.
Broccoli: I was able to get about 3 to 4 bite-sized broccoli florets from 2 medium heads of broccoli.
Storage instructions: Leftovers can be refrigerated in a sealed container for up to 3-4 days. Unfortunately this coconut sauce does not freeze well, so I do not recommend freezing.
Recipe source: This one was originally inspired by Little Broken’s coconut milk chicken recipe.
