Just a few simple ingredients turn a whole cut up chicken into a exciting and flavorful dish. Add a big, green salad and some jasmine rice, and this coconut chicken recipe is a great weeknight meal. Makes 6 servings.
You only need 5 ingredients for this coconut chicken recipe
5 ingredients – coconut milk, lime juice, garlic, ginger, and chicken. That’s all you need for this recipe. I even used minced garlic and grated ginger from jars, so it’s literally just about dumping everything into a zip-top bag.
This might just be the easiest dinner I’ve ever made. Since I prepped my marinade early in the morning, dinner felt like it only took a few minutes.
This recipe uses a whole cut up chicken. If you don’t have one or can’t find one at the store, that’s okay. You can swap any combination of bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces.
If you’re doing that, I’d recommend a combination of dark and white meat. Make sure you chicken breasts are super large, or they’ll take longer than the rest of your chicken to cook (this applies when you’re choosing your package of whole cut up chicken, too).
Other awesome chicken recipes: Chicken & Vegetable Coconut Curry / Thai Basil Chicken / Chinese Chicken & Broccoli
The easiest coconut chicken recipe ever.
Once your chicken has soaked up the marinade, preheat your oven and pat your chicken dry. Do not rinse it. Just use some paper towels and dry off the skin so it will get nice and brown in the oven.
You can bake your chicken on a cookie sheet, in a baking dish or even in a Dutch oven *affiliate link. Feel free to line whichever you choose with parchment paper *affiliate link or non-stick aluminum foil to make your clean up easier.
Then bake your chicken for about 1 hour, and be sure to use a meat thermometer *affiliate link to make sure your chicken has reached a food-safe temperature of 165˚F.
More great chicken recipes: garlic braised chicken legs / honey balsamic chicken legs / beer brined chicken drumsticks / grilled herb mustard chicken
How to make coconut milk chicken
When the chicken is fully cooked, remove it from the oven and let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving. This makes sure the chicken will be perfectly juicy, and it also allows the chicken to come to a more reasonable temperature for eating.
Just before serving, sprinkle your chicken with fresh chopped cilantro. If you don’t care for cilantro, try fresh chives or basil, or skip the garnish entirely.
More chicken recipes you’ll love:
- Ground chicken tacos
- Buffalo chicken meatballs
- Asian chicken wraps
- Tequila lime chicken
- Kung pao chicken
- Baked chicken parmesan
More ways to use coconut milk:
- How to make coconut rice
- Fish curry
- Butternut squash pasta sauce
- Coconut cupcakes
- Hot fudge sauce
- Microwave fudge
5 Ingredient Coconut Chicken
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hours
- Total Time: 1 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Ingredients
- 1 whole cut-up chicken
- 1 15-ounce can coconut milk
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 2 tablespoons fresh ground ginger
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 – 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- Fresh chopped cilantro (optional, for garnish)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together coconut milk, lime juice, garlic, ginger, salt & pepper. In a large zip top bag, combine chicken and marinade. Allow chicken to sit in marinade for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350˚F (180˚C). Place chicken in a large baking dish and bake for 1 hour – or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165˚F.
- Top with cilantro before serving.
Nutrition
- Calories: 0
- Sugar: 0 g
- Sodium: 0 mg
- Fat: 0 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 0 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 0 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Last Updated on December 29, 2020 by Melissa Belanger
Mmm this chicken looks so amazingly delicious, and you can’t beat 5 ingredients! This is totally getting made for dinner soon!
omg… this looks AMAZING!!! seriously looks so good
Oh my goodness I’m marinating it right now. I used a lot more than just 5 ingredients though. I also put in some tumeric brown sugar basil cilantro I did put in the ginger but it was you know Ginger from that you would use in cookies LOL it’s all the ginger I had. And I use key lime juice about O say 14 shakes of the bottle. I am going to bake the chicken and then I’ma take the marinade and cook it down and then mounted with some butter and maybe some white wine and see how that taste I will fill you in later
Sounds like you’re going to have a great meal! I’d love to hear how it turns out!
How did the sauce turn out?
Just a quick question. It says 6 minced garlics in the ingredients but, what do you do with it? Put in marinade as well? Thank you! 😉
Yes. Put it in the marinade! Thanks for bringing that to my attention!
What sauce do you serve with it? I got the marinade part down and I served it with rice. What sauce would be good? Preferably something I could make gluten free. Thank you!
My husband and I have been on keto for over 1.5 years. This recipe is keto friendly. I am making it tonight. Super excited to try this recipe. However, I don’t have lime juice so hopefully lemon juice will be sufficient enough.
The chicken tasted great. It was a little dry. Luckily I saved the marinade and boiled it down to have a sauce. I also made coconut rice to go with it. Delicious!
★★★★