Coconut Lime Chicken Thighs and Roasted Broccoli

This is a yummy Thai-inspired coconut and lime chicken one-pot recipe, flavoured with Makrut lime leaves, ginger, and chilli. The chicken thighs are cooked in the coconut sauce, keeping them tender, with the spices nestled underneath them to infuse both the sauce and the meat with Thai flavours. The skin part of the chicken thighs lies above the sauce, so the skin roasts in the oven until it is deliciously crispy. The vegetables are given a chance to roast, which both sweetens and deepens their flavours, before the coconut milk and stock are added to make the sauce. If you haven’t tried roasted broccoli, then you are in for a treat.

This Coconut Lime Chicken Thighs recipe is also cheap, filling, and healthy. The extra bonus is that the oven does the cooking for you, so you can go off and do something else while it cooks. The only thing you need to add is some fluffy rice.

Notes on the Ingredients for Coconut Lime Chicken Thighs and Roasted Broccoli

• Red Chilli
  If you like a higher level of spice, keep the seeds in the chilli, or add more chilies, but one is usually enough for me!
• Makrut Lime Leaves
  Make sure to buy the fresh ones, not the dried ones, as they taste awful. You can keep the rest of the packet in the freezer for future use. There isn’t really a substitute for this amazing flavour, but you could put a couple of slices of lime under the chicken thighs before roasting instead. Mackrut Lime leaves are quite pricey, so that’s the main reason I only add one, but if you are feeling flash, and love the flavour, feel free to add more!
• Coconut Milk
  Use full-fat coconut milk for this recipe, one that has a high coconut content for a really decadent and creamy sauce. Always read the coconut extract content on the tin to check if it’s worth buying or not; the higher the coconut content, the better. Otherwise, you are just paying for water and thickeners. Aldi coconut milk is good with 76% coconut extract, and it doesn’t have the overly gloopy texture that many coconut milks have. If you want to use reduced-fat coconut milk, in my opinion, you could save money and use half the quantity of full-fat coconut milk and fill the rest up with extra water.
• Chicken Stock
  Homemade chicken stock is best, of course, but I use Kallo stock cubes when I don’t have any in my freezer. If using homemade chicken stock, add 1 tsp of Sea Salt to the recipe.
• Ginger
  I have made this without ginger (because I ran out!) and it was still delicious

What to serve with Coconut Lime Chicken Thighs and Roasted Broccoli

This dish contains all your vegetables and protein, so you just need to serve with some rice. White Jasmine rice goes very well, but basmati rice is perfectly fine. Go healthy and serve with brown rice or a mix of healthier grains like quinoa and wild rice. The sauce is meant to be quite liquid, more like an aromatic broth, so soaking it up with plenty of Jasmine rice is perfect.

INGREDIENTS  

• 2 tbsp Rapeseed Oil
• 4cm piece of Ginger
• 1 small Red Chilli, seeds removed
• 2-3 Cloves Garlic
• 2 Makrut Lime leaves
• 4-5 Chicken Thighs
• 2 Handfuls of Broccoli, cut into small florets
• 1 Sweet Red Pepper, chunky sliced
• 1/2 Tin Coconut Milk stir well if it has seperated
• 350 ml Chicken Stock
• 1 tsp. Brown Sugar
• Juice of 1 Lime
• 1 tsp. Sea salt (if not using fresh chicken stock)

INSTRUCTIONS 

• Grate the ginger and garlic finely and mix with a tbsp of the oil. Rub two thirds of this mixture on the chicken. Slice the chilli in half and place in the middle of a large oven-proof roasting dish along with the lime leaves. Place the chicken on top, and grind a little salt on the chicken.
• Mix the rest of the ginger and garlic and extra tbsp of oil on the broccoli and pepper. Mix very thoroughly to coat the vegetables well. Arrange the vegetables around the chicken in one layer.
• Roast for about 25 minutes until the brocolli is starting to blacken.
• Take the roasting dish out of the oven and pour the coconut milk and stock around the chicken, but not over it. Stir the sugar in. Put back in the oven for another 10 minutes until the chicken’s juices run clear.
• Stir in the lime juice, and serve with rice.