**PICTURES UPDATED MAY 2021**

I LOOOOOVE Thai food. It is so good; it checks all the boxes: sweet, spicy, and savory. Plus - bonus, it is one of the few Asian cuisines I am not starving after a couple hours after eating. Are we the only ones that happens to?! The first time my hubs met my parents was at one of my birthday dinners at an excellent Thai restaurant. I was a sucker for bubble tea growing up and I always got the Thai tea with boba (I really wish I didn't look up how those little suckers are made. SO. MUCH. SUGAR.). Now I make food with Thai flavors because I am too cheap to buy it and I dread taking my kids to restaurants without playscapes, #momlife.

This recipe caught my eye in the All Recipes magazine and I knew I could make it Whole30 approved. It was fast to get together and totally perfect for prepping the day before and having it ready to rock and roll for an easy dinner. My kids actually ate more than just the rice and they gobbled that chicken up like it was Chick-Fil-A! As I started prepping the sauce, I quickly realized I did not have compliant or non-compliant Sriracha in the house, so I improvised and made a delicious subsitute!

The ingredients in this should be staples and don't think you can only use them in Asian dishes. For example, the Red Boat Fish Sauce, I use to add umami to random things and use a little to replace Worschester Sauce (which is laden with sugar and weird things). Almond Butter or Cashew Butter is where it is at instead of peanut butter - peanuts are actually legumes which is another name for beans, which can cause some tummy discomfort. Oh man, I used mom words - tummy?! That's like telling people the potty is the 2nd door on the right... On that note, here is the recipe. Scroll to the bottom for what updates I made to the original recipe!

Easy Thai Chicken

Inspired by All Recipes

1 1/2 lbs chicken breast, cubed
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 green bell pepper, sliced
4 carrots, peeled and cut thinly, about 1/4"
8 oz sugar snap peas
salt and pepper
1 tablespoon avocado oil
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

Sauce

1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
1/4 cup coconut aminos
1/4 cup creamy almond butter (cashew butter would also be amazing)
1/2 tablespoon Red Boat Fish Sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon compliant ketchup (I love Tessemae's)
1/2 tablespoon compliant BBQ Sauce (Tessemae's again)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Juice of 1 lime
Top with cashews and cilantro if you have it (I was clean out!) and serve with caulirice

- Heat the avocado oil in a large pan on medium-high heat. Add the chicken chunks and season with salt and pepper. Cook until browned.

- While you are cooking the chicken, whisk together the sauce and set aside.

- Drizzle the sesame oil into the pan and add the carrots and bell peppers. Saute for a few minutes, until the carrots slightly soften. Add the sugar snap peas to the mix.

- Pour the sauce into the pan and stir. Lower the heat to medium low. Let it bubble and hang out for a few minutes while the flavors develop. Serve with rice of your choosing and sprinkle with cashews and cilantro.

I love seeing a bunch of colors, sliced carrots and peppers, ready for dinner. I bought a pack of sugar snap peas from my HEB (Texas grocery store) so I didn't have to prep them.

Cook the chicken so it gets some of those brown crispy bits. Make sure you season with a little salt and pepper!

Mix up the sauce. Again, I used my trusty measuring cup for all of it. Because this mama needs more dishes like a dog needs fleas... — Mix up the sauce. Again, I used my trusty measuring cup for all of it. Because this mama needs more dishes like a dog needs fleas...

Add that rainbow of veggies in with the chicken, add a little sesame oil to coat everything. Saute for a few mintes.

Pour that "sweet Thaiiiii a-pie" all over that and toss it together

Yummmmmmm, let it hang out for a few minutes on medium-low heat.

You are going to want some caulirice, cashews, and a little extra sauce to be drizzled over this goodness....

So what changes did I make to the original recipe to make it compliant?

Light coconut milk was updated to full fat
Soy sauce was replaced with coconut aminos
Peanut butter was upgraded to almond butter
Sriracha is made with sugar, has spices, smoke, and some fishiness so I combined the cayenne, fish sauce, ketchup, and BBQ sauce to make something similar. There is one brand that I know of that is compliant, Wild Brine, which I have seen at Whole Foods. If you want to make a more legit Sriracha, Nom Nom Paleo, has a recipe that everyone raves about..