Air Fried Chicken Breast with Brothy Rice

The current brothy rice hype is one trend I’m happy to follow. My version pairs air fryer chicken breast with a yellow curry coconut broth and shortcut frozen jasmine rice.

The broth is rich and creamy but low calorie thanks to my secret thickening ingredient, powdered peanut butter. If you’re a fan of Thai-inspired flavors, these chicken and rice bowls will be up your alley.

In terms of macros, the recipe makes four bowls with 480 calories, 38g protein, 53g carbs, and 12g fat. That includes an entire cup of steamed rice, so you can definitely customize these to have fewer carbs and calories.

Making Chicken Breast in an Air Fryer

I’m a boneless chicken thighs power user, but I wanted to keep the fat content of these rice bowls in check. Luckily, making juicy chicken breast is super easy with an air fryer.

Just rub a tablespoon of olive oil on two chicken breasts then add a seasoning blend before going in an air fryer basket. This recipe calls for a half teaspoon of black pepper plus a teaspoon each of garlic powder, kosher salt, and paprika. But you can use any spice blend here.

Air fry the seasoned chicken at 375ºF for 15-18 minutes until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the breast reaches 165ºF. Chicken breast is a bit more finicky than thighs, so I recommend checking the internal temperature early to avoid overcooking the chicken.

Be sure to let the chicken rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving. This keeps the chicken juicy and moist instead of your cutting board.

One thing I love about this recipe is how the broth hydrates the sliced chicken in the finished bowls. Sure, there’s a lot of flavor in the extra fat from chicken thighs. But I think this is one of the best use cases for chicken breast!

Now, let’s talk about the broth.

Coconut Curry Broth

If you’ve tried my chicken ramen, this broth will look familiar. It swaps red curry paste for milder yellow curry and adds a bit more powdered peanut butter and honey. Here’s a quick look at everything you need:

• Yellow Curry Paste
• White Miso Paste
• Honey
• Powdered Peanut Butter
• Coconut Aminos
• Light Coconut Milk
• Chicken Bone Broth

This is a flexible ingredient list.

Don’t have curry paste? Use some ground cumin, coriander, turmeric, and ginger (or fresh).

Try adding more coconut aminos or soy sauce if you don’t have miso paste on hand.

Powdered peanut butter acts as a thickener and adds peanut flavor. Peanut butter works in a similar fashion but does add extra calories. A corn starch slurry works as a broth thickener if you’re not concerned about the peanut flavor.

Not a fan of coconut? Just use chicken broth on its own.

There’s no wrong move. Well, I’m sure there are some wrong moves. But you catch my drift.

Garnishes and Tips for Serving

The brothy rice and chicken combo has enough flavor on its own to limit the need for many garnishes, in my opinion. If you just sprinkled over some toasted sesame seeds or a sesame garlic crunch, that’s probably good enough.

But a squeeze of lime juice, sliced green onion, and cucumbers are definitely worthwhile additions. You can also prep them while the chicken rests to remove the temptation of slicing into it too soon.

Check out my Korean bbq chicken bowls for more ideas on pickled carrots, cucumber crunch, and a low calorie cauliflower/jasmine rice blend you might consider using here to add more volume to the bowls.

I hope you have fun making these chicken and rice bowls, and I hope it’s even more fun eating them. If you do enjoy this recipe, I always appreciate reviews!

I’m really excited to continue this series with air fried chicken breast. Be sure to follow along on my Instagram to stay up to date.

Until we bowl again. – Mason