Thai Coconut Peanut Chicken

This was one of my favorite recipes from Painter's Tavern in NY state. I tracked down various versions and tested and retested until I found the taste that fit their version. Thai inspired, not truly an authentic dish. This makes a lot of sauce - in fact, you may find that you don't need quite the full amount for this recipe. It really depends on how much you like in your finished dish. I usually make the full amount and the next meal I serve the extra portion as a dip for chicken fingers or satay sticks (it also can be used as a chicken marinade). The nutritional data is assuming you are eating all of the sauce with this meal, so bear that in mind.

• Ready In: 50 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• Peanut Sauce (one whole batch)

• 1  cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 1⁄2 cups light coconut milk
• 2  tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 2  tablespoons brown sugar (brown sugar splenda is fine)
• 2  teaspoons garlic, minced (prebottled, or about 4-6 fresh cloves, minced)
•  salt, to taste
•  cayenne pepper, to taste
• 1⁄4-1⁄2 cup low sodium chicken broth
• 2  teaspoons ground cumin
• 2  teaspoons curry powder (I prefer hot, but mild is fine too)

• For the chicken

• 4 (4 ounce)  boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
• 2  bunches green onions, chopped
• 1  cup carrot, shredded
• 1  limes or 1  lemon, juice of
• 1 (8 -10 ounce) box angel hair pasta, cooked and drained
• 1 -2  tablespoon  sesame oil, to taste (or peanut oil is fine)
•  chopped peanuts, garnish (optional)

Directions

1. For the Sauce: Heat coconut milk, peanut butter, and broth in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until smooth and heated through (do not let boil).
2. Add remaining sauce ingredients, seasoning to taste, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens to the consistency of thin spaghetti sauce.
3. Remove from heat and cover, if will continue to thicken off the heat.
4. To prepare the chicken:
5. Heat some sesame oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and stir fry the chicken chunks until almost cooked through.
6. While the chicken is cooking, squeeze some lime juice into the pan to add moisture, as much as needed.
7. Set aside about 1/2 cup of the diced scallions for a garnish later, and add the rest to the chicken, along with the carrots and stir fry until the veggies are lightly browned and the chicken is fully cooked, adding even more lime juice as needed for moisture.
8. Pour some of the peanut sauce over the chicken in the pan and toss to coat (a ladleful or two).
9. Portion cooked pasta onto serving plates and ladle some more peanut sauce on top of each (or if you prefer, toss pasta with some of the sauce first).
10. Ladle chicken mixture on top of each portion, and drizzle with a bit more peanut sauce if desired.
11. Sprinkle with some cayenne pepper and some reserved scallions (and nuts if desired) as garnish.
12. You may have extra sauce, which keeps about 2 days covered in the fridge, a nice dip for chicken fingers.