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This Thai Chicken Marinade is the perfect combination of sweet and spicy! Chicken marinated and grilled to perfection is juicy, tender, and full of flavor. Low carb options included!
This grilled Thai chicken is absolutely amazing! I actually used my favorite Thai Peanut Dressing to marinade the chicken for several hours, then used it to baste the chicken while grilling. The result was this amazingly juicy, flavorful chicken–Perfect meal prep recipe to add to salads, wraps, or lo mein!
If you ever tried Panera’s Spicy Thai Salad (which is sadly discontinued now), you will LOVE this chicken. I’ve created a copycat of the salad, the dressing, and this delicious chicken to complement it. If you never tried it, I highly recommend it… It has the perfect blend of sweet and spicy. This is not your average boring salad!
How to make the BEST Thai Peanut Chicken Marinade
For this marinade, I used my favorite Panera copycat salad dressing. It is pretty mild in taste. It is a little sweet with honey and peanut butter but leaves a tiny kick in your mouth from the chili garlic. If you like your food extra spicy, you can definitely increase the chili garlic as much as you would like.
To make this marinade, just combine all your ingredients and pour your mixture over 1 pound of chicken. Place your bowl of chicken in the fridge for 1-5 hours while it marinates. Once you are ready to cook your chicken, heat your grill on high to 400° Fahrenheit.
Cook each side for about 4-5 minutes or until your meat thermometer reads 165° F. I also like to reserve 1-2 tablespoons of the marinade to baste my chicken with while it cooks.
Ingredients for Thai Peanut Chicken
The ingredient list for this Thai Peanut Chicken Marinade is super simple and if you often make homemade Asian inspired dishes at home you probably already have them all! For specific measurements, keep scrolling to the printable recipe card.
- Peanut butter
- Honey (if you are keto, use brown sugar swerve, golden monkfruit, or a sugar free maple syrup)
- Soy sauce (if you are soy-free, try coconut aminos)
- Water
- Rice vinegar
- Sesame oil
- Lime juice (or lemon juice)
- Chili garlic sauce
- Minced garlic
- Fresh ginger, minced
- Chicken (You could also use this with pork chops, steak, tofu, or vegetables)
Favorite ways to serve Thai Grilled Chicken
This chicken is one of my favorite recipes when I just want to change up a normally boring sandwich or salad. Some of my favorite recipes are:
- Make my favorite Spicy Thai Salad with Chicken
- This Chopped Thai Chicken Salad is one of my favorite lunch recipes! It tastes wonderful on a sandwich, in a lettuce wrap, on crackers, on a bed of green, or even just by itself!
- Pair the chicken with some slaw and this Thai Peanut Dressing for a perfect lunch wrap.
- Make some homemade Veggie Lo Mein and add in your sliced Thai chicken breast.
- Create this Thai Chicken Collard Wrap and use this marinade as your peanut dipping sauce.
How to store unused marinade
Once you have added raw chicken to the marinade, it is not safe to store. You can use it to baste the chicken while it’s grilling, but you should not use it for anything else. If your marinade is unused, you can store it in the fridge up to two weeks (great for meal prepping)!
Use it as a dipping sauce for wraps or vegetables or drizzle it onto salad for a delicious dressing. It’s amazing with these keto chicken nuggets!
More Grilled Recipes
- Easy Jalapeno Lime Marinade (low carb + no sugar)
- Grilled Caesar Chicken
- Grilled Pork Tenderloin
- Shrimp and Vegetable Kabobs
Thai Peanut Chicken Marinade
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp peanut butter
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tsp lime juice, or lemon juice
- 2 tsp chili garlic sauce
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
- 1 lb chicken
Instructions
- Combine peanut butter, honey, soy sauce, water, rice vinegar, sesame oil, lime juice, chili garlic sauce, minced garlic, and minced ginger
- Stir well until all ingredients are incorporated
- Pour sauce over chicken and let it marinate in the refrigerator for 1-5 hours
- Heat grill on high to 400° F
- Cook chicken 4-5 minutes on each side, or until meat thermometer reads 165° F
- Reserve 1-2 tablespoons of sauce for basting your chicken while it cooks
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Do you think this would be good in a lettuce wrap with the peanut sauce you posted? What else would you add to it? I’m trying to cut carbs but I’m new to all of this. It’s hard! lol!
Yes, I think that would be perfect! One wrap I’ve done with this chicken and LOVE is mixing some packaged slaw with the peanut sauce. I add that and the chicken in a lettuce wrap and it is so tasty! A reader also made this low carb chopped chicken salad recipe with the peanut sauce and I am HOOKED! Definitely try it!
Low Carb Chopped Thai Chicken Salad: https://www.maebells.com/easy-chopped-thai-chicken-salad-keto-low-carb/
Hi there! This makes my mouth water and cannot wait to try it. Can I ask you what chili garlic sauce you use and where you get it? I think I have one but I want to make the recipe as close as I can. Again, this looks great – anxiously waiting to make it! Thank you!
Hi Jen!
I can’t wait to hear how you like it 🙂 It is truly delicious!
The chili garlic sauce I used is the Huy Fong Foods one. I found it at Walmart and I’ve left a link below so you can see what it looks like.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Huy-Fong-Foods-Chili-Garlic-Sauce-18-oz/10452866