Thai Chicken Buddha Bowls
Healthy, hearty and nutritious bowls filled with whole grains, plenty of veggies, and a simple peanut sauce that is absolutely to die for!
I’m trying to detox here post-Paris.
I started with the green detox smoothie and now, I’m staying strong with these buddha bowls.
Now you might ask, what exactly is a buddha bowl? There seems to be a million definitions but this is what I came across.
Buddha bowls, sometimes referred to as glory or hippie bowls, are hearty, filling dishes made of various greens, raw or roasted veggies, beans and a healthy grain like quinoa or brown rice. It’s essentially a hearty bowl filled with nutrients and vitamins that aid in weight loss and/or overall health.
So that’s exactly what we have here, guys.
- Whole grain: farro
- Protein: chicken
- Vegetables: kale, cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots
- Bonus: best peanut sauce ever
There’s plenty of goodies for you here. Farro is a far superior whole grain with more protein and fiber (than say, brown rice) and we have a rainbow of veggies here, which basically means, the more colors we have, the more nutrients we’re getting.
But really, the point to remember is this.
The peanut sauce here is absolute LIFE. That is all.
Thai Chicken Buddha Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 cup farro
- ¼ cup chicken stock
- 1 ½ tablespoons sambal oelek, ground fresh chile paste
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 cups shredded kale
- 1 ½ cups shredded purple cabbage
- 1 cup bean sprouts
- 2 carrots, peeled and grated
- ½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
- ¼ cup roasted peanuts
For the spicy peanut sauce
- 3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons dark brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons sambal oelek, ground fresh chile paste
Instructions
- To make the spicy peanut sauce, whisk together peanut butter, lime juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, sambal oelek and 2-3 tablespoons water in a small bowl; set aside.
- Cook farro according to package instructions; set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together chicken stock, sambal oelek, brown sugar and lime juice; set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine chicken, cornstarch and fish sauce, tossing to coat and letting the chicken absorb the cornstarch.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and cook until golden, about 3-5 minutes. Add garlic, shallot and ginger, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in the chicken stock mixture until slightly thickened, about 1 minute; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Divide farro into bowls. Top with chicken, kale, cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots, cilantro and peanuts.
- Serve with spicy peanut sauce.
Did you make this recipe?
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WOW!!! Amazingly delicious! Did as is but with shrimps. Thank you so much!!
WOW! This is absolutely amazing! Such great flavors and also a healthy kick with all the fresh veggies. It does have some spick to it but my husband and I love that. Will be adding to our normal rotation. Thank you for the great recipe once again!
Would you be able to provide the nutrition values for this?
Do you know how many calories per serving?
I’ve never cooked with fish sauce or sambal oelek before, but would love to try this recipe. What brands do you recommend using?
We loved this! Made a few adjustments for preferences / pantry / laziness. Used TJ’s 10 minute farro as the base. Subbed chili garlic sauce for sambal oelek because I had it, but will try to get sambal oelek for the next round. Used coleslaw mix to sub for red cabbage / carrots because I am lazy. Don’t like cilantro so added cucumbers and scallions to make up for it. Threw on an avocado because I had it! Thought it was the perfect amount of sauce and loved the fish sauce on the chicken.
Delicious
I love this recipe so much! I used to live in Thailand and now that I’m back in NJ…let’s just sum it up by saying I had to order the sambal oelek on Amazon. I’m keeping all the leftovers separate in the fridge to heat up for 3 more glorious lunches. I used sugar snap peas instead of bean sprouts because I couldn’t find bean sprouts. This recipe is so healthy and so delicious! So glad I tripled the peanut sauce
I’m switching my family over to vegan, and I found this recipe when I was browsing your site. I didn’t know what to expect, but my son and I loved these! I used potatoes instead of chicken and subbed soy sauce for the fish sauce, but the flavors blend so well. My son opts to eat his sans peanut sauce and still loves the salad.
Sounds wonderful! Would you happen to have the calorie, nutritional breakdown?
Looks delicious! I’m excited to try this. Can you please share the nutritional facts? Carb count specifically. I didn’t see them on the page. Thank you!
The peanut sauce did not have the right proportions, but other than that this is a solid recipe. I like it for an easy and fast meal.
Just out of curiosity, what changes would you make to the proportions of the peanut sauce to make it better?
I thought it was just right. Not too much or too little! Again thanks!
Absolutely delicious!! Even picky kids liked it. Only change I made was to sub oyster sauce for the fish sauce simply because I’m not a fan of fish sauce. Also subbed out the kale for Swiss chard for the same reason. Such a healthy alternative to our usual meals. Thanks for another delicious recipe!!
I make these very regularly! So so sooo good and even better leftover. I’ve also shared with many friends who also love it!
Absolutely delicious! You weren’t lieing about how good the peanut sauce is. I had to move it to the other side other table so I couldn’t French my bowl with all of it.
I had never had farro until this and will definitely try to find other places to use it from now on. I did change the veggies slightly as I couldn’t justify buying the beans knowing I wouldn’t use all of them so I added avocado and red onion for some extra flavor.
10/10 recommend
Absolutely delicious! Easily comes together, fabulous peanut sauce and the farro is a great choice of grain. A make again for sure!
Made this with no subs (except sadly left out bean sprouts because I forgot to pick them up at the store) and it was amazing – will definitely make again. I couldn’t quite get the chicken crispy but might have been my pan – nevertheless tasted great and still was a good texture!
I took the leftovers the next day and put them all together in a wrap for lunch (with a bit of mayo and hot sauce) – if you have leftovers I definitely recommend this because it’s so good as a wrap!!
I have made this recipe for my family 3 times now. It is spot-on deeeelicious! The flavor combo is perfect and I love the raw veggies combined with the hot rice and chicken. It’s easily adaptable to the vegetarian in my household as well as the peanut hater.
The recipe was great; it turned out well. I love farro; so good compared to quinoa or rice. I didn’t have bean sprouts or ginger; didn’t end up using any. I also used oyster sauce instead of fish sauce because that is what I had. I don’t think the recipe needed the 1/4 cup roasted peanuts: it was fine without it. I thought the chicken came out great! It felt like there was not enough farro for the amount of chicken. The recipe is light yet filling! Is there a way to reduce the amount of sodium? We used slightly less chili paste; it had enough kick and was just right. I will definitely make it again.
Made this last night and luckily we doubled everything- this is such a delicious recipe!