5 Ingredient Coconut Chicken Recipe
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.
If you like this recipe, you have to try these peanut chicken wraps, and these ground chicken tacos and this tequila lime chicken.
Other awesome chicken recipes: Chicken & Vegetable Coconut Curry / Thai Basil Chicken / Chinese Chicken & Broccoli
Ingredients & substitutions
- Chicken – 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 your chicken breasts aren’t 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).
- Coconut milk – Make sure to get unsweetened coconut milk, this is used to marinate the chicken.
Making changes to a recipe can result in recipe failure. Any substitutions listed below are simple changes that I believe will work in this recipe, but results are not guaranteed.
The following is a detailed overview of the recipe steps with added tips and tricks for recipe success. For a simplified and printable version, including ingredient amounts and more formal instructions, see the recipe card below.
How to make easiest coconut chicken recipe ever.
Marinate the chicken. 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.
Bake. You can bake your chicken on a cookie sheet, in a baking dish or even in a Dutch oven. Feel free to line whichever you choose with parchment paper 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 to make sure your chicken has reached a food-safe temperature of 165˚F.
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.
Garnish and serve. 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 great chicken recipes: garlic braised chicken legs / beer brined chicken drumsticks / grilled herb mustard chicken
Ingredients
- 4 pounds 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.
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!
Is this OK to freeze.
I do a lot of Meal prepping you see.
Thank you
Kay
You can freeze it but coconut milk does not always freeze well!
Hi everyone in the cooking world this is a regular for me and best with turmeric I think not necessarily with lime or lemon but great a balance of coconut cream and liquid is the best