Bobby Flay Gives Grilled Chicken 10x More Flavor With A Spicy Sauce

If you're looking to give your chicken a rich flavor and a beautiful char, look no further than the grill. With a good marinade, plenty of heat, and avoiding the one thing you should never do when grilling chicken (keep the lid open), it's already hard to beat. But if you want to take things a step further, borrow a tip from Food Network royalty Bobby Flay, who revealed in a Today cooking demo how to amp up the flavor of grilled chicken with a homemade red curry sauce.

Red curry paste is a pantry essential in Thai cooking, bringing a deeper, warmer flavor than its green counterpart. Despite what the name may suggest, red curry is the — relatively – milder of the two. You'll have no trouble finding it at your local grocery store in the international or Asian section. On its own, however, red curry paste is far too thick and concentrated to work as a sauce. To loosen it up, Flay essentially makes a curry base by pairing it with coconut milk, which has a rich fat that gives the sauce a smooth, creamy texture while mellowing the spiciness of the paste. If you need to make your curry without coconut milk, you could also use other fat-rich liquids, like heavy whipping cream or cashew cream, although the flavor will naturally differ.

To cut through the richness of the sauce, Flay adds a little acidity. He uses Persian lime, but for a distinctly Thai flavor, see if you can find makrut (also called Thai or kaffir) lime. Soy sauce is also included, bringing color and umami to the sauce. For an unmistakable Thai flavor, reach for fish sauce too. A little goes a long way, adding plenty of savory, umami depth that'll complement the brightness of the lime juice. 

Bobby Flay uses a premade paste, but you can also easily create your own blend at home. Stick to the foundational ingredients of dried red chilis for color and heat, lemongrass, galangal, fermented shrimp paste, and garlic, then smash them all together using a mortar and pestle or whiz them in a food processor until a thick paste has formed. This can also work wonders as a marinade. It's an easy shortcut; the paste already contains several key ingredients you'd want in a rub that'll perfectly pair with the sauce. All you really need to do is add an acidic ingredient, such as lime juice, to help tenderize the surface of the chicken. Just be mindful that too much acid could ruin your marinade.

When pan-grilling chicken, we, like Flay, recommend going with thighs. They're a common choice in Thai cooking, and their higher fat content makes them super forgiving over high heat. Although Flay uses boneless thighs, for the best (and an easier) cook, you can absolutely opt for bone-in, skin-on thighs. The bone can help slow down cooking around the center of the meat, while the skin crisps up beautifully as the fat renders, providing a wonderful textural contrast with the sauce. Chicken breast can certainly work on the grill, but its lower fat content means it dries out more easily if overcooked.

Grilled chicken with red curry sauce is already delicious, but it isn't complete without a side. Here, sticky rice is a classic Thai pairing and works particularly well here since its chewy texture is perfect for scooping up that fragrant sauce, making the dish feel more balanced. To bring some freshness to the sauce, finish the chicken with a handful of fresh herbs such as cilantro, Thai basil, or mint.