Roasted sweet potato, golden chicken, and a pile of crunchy salad, all tied together by a peanut sauce with coconut milk, lime, and ginger. It looks like effort. It's mostly the oven working while you chop.Serves 2 · about 40 minutes (25 of them hands-off)
Ingredients
The bowl
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 cm cubes
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
Salt and pepper
The salad
A few handfuls of lettuce, roughly torn
A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
½ cucumber, cut into chunky pieces
½ yellow bell pepper, sliced
A squeeze of lime and a drizzle of olive oil
The peanut sauce
3 tbsp peanut butter
100 ml coconut milk
1 tbsp soy sauce
Juice of ½ lime
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
Method
Oven on, potatoes in. Heat the oven to 200°C. Toss the sweet potato cubes with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, and pepper on a baking tray. Roast 25–30 minutes, turning once, until the edges brown and crisp. They're done when a fork slides in easily.
Make the sauce. While the oven works, whisk the peanut butter, coconut milk, soy sauce, lime juice, and ginger in a small pan over low heat until smooth and pourable — about 2 minutes. Too thick? A splash of water fixes it. Taste: it should be creamy first, salty second, with the lime and ginger showing up at the end.
Cook the chicken. Pat the chicken pieces dry, season with salt and pepper. Heat the remaining oil in a pan over medium-high heat and cook the chicken in a single layer, undisturbed for 2–3 minutes, then turn and finish — about 6–8 minutes total, until golden outside and no longer pink inside. (Breast dries out fast: pull it as soon as it's done, not a courtesy minute later.)
Assemble the salad. Pile lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, and pepper on one side of each bowl. Dress with a squeeze of lime, a drizzle of olive oil, and a small pinch of salt.
Build the bowl. Sweet potato in one corner, chicken next to it, salad on the other side. Spoon the peanut sauce generously over the chicken and potatoes — a few drops landing on the salad is not a mistake.
Notes
Swap freely. Tofu or chicken thighs work in place of breast; the sauce doesn't care.
Meal-prep friendly. Sauce and roasted potatoes keep 3–4 days in the fridge. Keep the salad separate and it packs into two lunches.
The sauce is a keeper. Double it — it makes noodles, rice bowls, and raw vegetables noticeably more interesting for the rest of the week.
