Perfectly cooked prawns, tossed in a sticky chilli jam with coconut and aromatic flavours from garlic, ginger, lemongrass, and more. These sticky coconut chilli prawns are ready in 20 minutes, and are the perfect combination of sweet, spicy, and tangy. They’re great for a quick family dinner or weeknight meal, or even as an impressive dish for entertaining!
Why You’ll Love these Sticky Coconut Chilli Prawns
Bursting with Flavour
And I don’t just mean chilli. Yes, it’s a spicy dish, but there are so many aromatic ingredients that go into the sauce. You end up with a sauce that is sticky, sweet, sour, salty, chilli, coconutty– simply delicious!
It’s Quick
The whole dish comes together in 20 minutes. But people will think you’ve spent way more time on it than you actually did! Perfect for stress-free entertaining. Win!
It’s Easy
The process is so easy and simple – roughly chop your aromatics, and blend. (Plus, to make it even easier, just skip the chopping part and blend them whole). Then fry them off, add the other ingredients, and toss in your seared prawns. That’s it! Minimum effort for maximum flavour!
It’s Healthy
Prawns are a fantastic source of protein, and iodine (something many of us are deficient in). They’re also packed with omega-3 fatty acids, selenium, iron, zinc and more! And coconut cream is full of healthy, stable saturated fat, potassium, and MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides) – which have a wide variety of health benefits.
Perfect for Batch Cooking!
You can make the sticky coconut chilli sauce in bulk and freeze! Perfect to whip out of the freezer, ready for a quick, delicious meal. You can even heat it in a pan or wok straight from frozen! Just throw in your prawns (or other meat, or even vegetables), and you’re ready to eat!
Ingredients in Sticky Coconut Chilli Prawns
Sticky Chilli Jam
The sticky chilli jam/sauce is where the real magic happens in this dish. Picture a sticky, honey and chilli jam with an aromatic base. For the base, you’ll need garlic, ginger, shallot, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, bird’s eye chillies, long red chillies, and dried chillies. Yes, three kinds of chilli – it’s a chilli jam after all! You can of course adjust the amount based on your spice tolerance.
You’ll also need fish sauce, honey, and tamarind purée. Honey is what makes the sauce sticky and sweet. You can use palm sugar or brown sugar too. But I love the flavour of the honey in this! Plus, our honeybees give us so much honey it’d be a shame to not use it! Tamarind purée is the main source of the sour, tart flavour in this recipe. You can find it easily at Coles and Woolies! Tamarind is a fruit pod that comes from the tamarind tree. The pulp inside the fruit is a sour, sticky, sweet paste, and it’s a key ingredient in many Asian and Indian dishes. It’s absolutely delicious!
Prawns, Coconut Cream, and Garnish
Of course, you will need prawns for this recipe. I use banana prawns here, but use any you like. I like cooking them in coconut oil for that extra layer of coconut flavour. For the sauce, you’ll also need coconut cream, not milk – the sauce is meant to be thick! I think the best brand is Ayam, since they use 100% coconut. It’s available in Coles and Woolies!
Many brands use artificial thickeners to make their coconut cream thick, which I personally try to avoid. Plus, nothing beats the delicious, pure coconut flavour! For the garnish, you’ll need coconut flakes, some coriander, and lime wedges for a final hit of freshness and flavour!
How to Make Sticky Coconut Chilli Prawns
Roughly chop the garlic, shallots, chillies, and ginger. Blitz them in a food processor, and fry until fragrant and somewhat dry.
Throw in your shredded kaffir lime leaves and finely chopped lemongrass, along with the fish sauce, honey, and tamarind purée. Once the honey is melted, pour in the coconut cream, and simmer the sauce for around 8 minutes, or until it’s thickened to your liking.
While that’s happening, sear your prawns quickly in coconut oil until they’re almost cooked. This is also a great time to toast off your coconut flakes for garnish!
Then, throw the prawns in the thick, sticky coconut and chilli sauce. The residual heat from the sauce will cook the prawns a bit further. So taking the prawns off when they are almost done is key!
Top your sticky coconut chilli prawns with the toasted coconut flakes, fresh coriander leaves, and lime wedges. They are perfect on their own, or served with some coconut rice or plain steamed rice!
Variations on these Sticky Coconut Chilli Prawns
The coconut chilli jam/sauce is so versatile that you can stir through anything you like with it! Some thinly sliced seared chicken would be perfect, for a sticky coconut chilli chicken dish! Other kinds of seafood would also work well. Pipis, some seared salmon, or ling (or any other fish that holds its shape well) would make for a delicious option.
You can also just add some tofu, or vegetables instead of meat for a vegetarian option. For a vegan option, swap out the fish sauce for soy sauce or coconut aminos, and the honey for brown sugar or palm sugar. Some meatier vegetables that would work excellently are eggplant, green beans, broccoli, mushrooms, cauliflower, or even chunks of sweet potato.
But I must admit, the sweetness and ‘pop’ from perfectly cooked prawns with the coconut chilli sauce easily takes the cake for me!
I truly hope you enjoy this recipe xxx
Sticky Coconut Chilli Prawns Recipe (20 Minutes!)
Ingredients
Method
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Peel the garlic and ginger. Roughly chop the ginger, shallots, bird's eye chillies, long red chillies, and dried chillies. Place them in a food processor along with the peeled garlic, and blitz until you have a chunky paste (see Note 2).
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Heat a large wok or pan on medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, and fry the chunky paste for 4-5 minutes, until some of the moisture has evaporated and it has become quite dry.
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Meanwhile, finely chop the lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves, making sure to remove the vein from the kaffir lime leaves. Add these into your wok or pan, and stir (see Note 3).
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Turn down the heat to medium, and add the fish sauce, tamarind purée, and honey, and mix. Once the honey is melted, pour in all the coconut cream and stir. Simmer for around 8 minutes, until the sauce has thickened to your liking.
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While it's simmering, toast your coconut flakes on a dry pan on low heat for 2-3 minutes until golden, if using. Heat another pan on high heat, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, and sear the prawns for 1-2 minutes each side, depending on how large they are. You don't want them to be fully cooked through - they will continue to cook in the sauce. When they are just starting to curl, take them off! (see Note 4).
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Turn the heat off the coconut chilli sauce, and toss the prawns through for a minute or two.
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Serve immediately with toasted coconut flakes, fresh coriander, lime wedges, and a steaming bowl of coconut rice!
Note
- Use coconut cream, not coconut milk! It tastes more coconutty than coconut milk. It also helps thicken the sauce, and the heaviness and fattiness of the coconut cream complements the spiciness of the chilli perfectly. It also gives a more luxurious, decadent mouth-feel to the sauce, which means extra deliciousness!
- Using a blender will give you a smooth paste, which is fine if that’s what you like! I prefer the food processor because it gives you a chunky base to work with, and I love a textural, rustic sauce!
- If you add the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves with the other aromatics in the food processor, I find that they are harder to break down. This is because they are quite fibrous, and I think it’s better to just finely chop them by hand.
- It is absolutely key that you take off your prawns before they are fully cooked through. When you toss them in the coconut chilli sauce, they will continue to cook slightly in the residual heat. So if you take them off the pan when they are fully cooked, they will probably be overcooked by the time you serve up!
User Reviews
So much flavour. This is a perfect dish, sweet, savoury, tangy and spicy. Will definitely make this a regular dinner at our place!
I’m so happy to hear this!! Glad you enjoyed this one xx