Thai Chicken Burgers

A tender and juicy chicken burger marinated in Thai herbs and lime with a quick pickled coleslaw and tamarind sweet chilli sauce.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Western

Keyword burgers, chicken breast, thai

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 15

Total Time 40

Servings

Calories 400kcal

Author Lauren

Place the chicken breast pieces into a zip lock bag. Add the diced coriander, lemongrass, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, lime juice and Chinese cooking wine to the bag. Seal the bag and massage the marinade into the chicken breast.
Place the bag in the fridge for at least 3 hours to marinade. The longer you leave the chicken in the lime marinade, the more tender it becomes.

Heat a large frying pan over high heat.
Add the chicken breast to the frying pan and cook for 3 minutes. Flip the chicken breast over and cook for a further 3 minutes.
Remove the chicken breast from the frying pan and set aside to rest for 5 minutes.

Add the shredded red cabbage, carrot and cucumber ribbons to a bowl. Tear the cilantro / coriander and add it to the bowl.
Pour the fish sauce and rice wine vinegar over the vegetables and toss to coat.
Set aside the pickled coleslaw until ready to assemble.

Pour the water and rice wine vinegar into a small pot. Add the garlic, ginger, maple syrup, fish sauce, chilli and tamarind paste. Stir to mix.
Heat the pot over high heat. Once the sauce starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove the sauce from the heat and set aside for 5 minutes. Mix the cornflour with an additional tablespoon of water to make a slurry. Add the slurry to the sweet chilli sauce and stir to mix.
Return the sweet chilli sauce to the heat and cook until the sauce has thickened and turned a deep red.
Remove the sauce from the heat and set it aside to cool before storing it in the fridge.

Cut your burger buns in half (if needed) and toast the insides of the burger buns (optional).
On the base of the bun, add 1 cup of the quick pickled coleslaw, followed by apiece of chicken. Top the chicken the Tamarind Sweet Chilli Sauce (or other sauce) and the other half of the burger bun.
Serve the Thai Chicken Burgers immediately with your favourite sides!

Health benefits - Details regarding the benefits of chicken breast and other ingredients in this recipe are in the post above.
Other cooking methods & instructions with photos - Detailed in the post above.
Fish sauce - Can be EXTREMELY high in sodium. I used a vegan fish sauce from Niulife, which is roughly 30% lower in sodium than regular fish sauce. I picked this up from Woolworths. However, this recipe would also work with regular fish sauce.
Tamarind sweet chilli sauce - I highly recommend using this sauce as the flavour combination is out of this world! However, you can substitute it for other sauces like regular sweet chilli, just choose one that is the lowest in sugar and sodium.
Diabetes friendly – Use sugar free maple syrup. Swap the burger buns for a low carb variety or have your burger in a lettuce wrap.
Gluten free – Swap the burger buns for a gluten free variety.
No onion / garlic – Substitute the garlic in the Thai marinade for 1-2 tsp of grated ginger. Leave out the garlic in the Tamarind Sweet Chilli Sauce.
Vegetarian / vegan – Swap the chicken breast for a thin piece of firm tofu or a meat free chicken substitute (e.g. Quorn). For vegan, use vegan friendly fish sauce and burger buns or have your burger in a lettuce wrap.
Serve with - See post above for suggested sides and other toppings.
Nutrition - Calculated per serve, assuming 4 serves with no sides.