If you are like most people, chicken in some form makes it way to the weekend dining table. Even when there is another meat prepared, there is always a chicken dish because not everyone eats pork or beef or lamb or fish. And at times one can literally scratch one’s head trying to think of how to prepare the chicken. Well, here’s a chicken dish that I know will quickly become one of your go-to chicken dishes – Chicken in Coconut Milk.
Several years ago, I had made Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in Milk recipe – I was in search of another way to make a weekend chicken dish and was intrigued by the chicken being cooked in milk. A whole chicken is first browned and then cooked in milk along with whole fresh sage leaves, whole garlic cloves, a cinnamon stick and some lime zest. I found the dish bland. It looked better than it tasted. But there was something about the idea of chicken being cooked in milk that was still appealing. And that’s the thread from which I drew inspiration for my Chicken in Coconut Milk dish.
I decided to cut the chicken by the joints rather than leaving it whole and instead of dairy milk, I would use fresh coconut milk. In terms of flavour, I immediately thought of that rich, well-seasoned coconut sauce in which corn is boiled. Remember how we suck on the cob long after the corn kernels have been eaten? Sucking every last drop of sauce and nibbling at the cob? That’s the kind of sauce I wanted for my chicken dish. And so, I set about making the dish. It is easy and really simple. If you have a pot that can go from the stovetop to the oven, your work is made even easier but don’t worry if you don’t have such a pot, a Pyrex or casserole dish will do the job just fine.
Here’s what you will need.
● A whole chicken cut up into legs, thighs, quarter the breast, halve the back and leave the wings whole. If you do not what to use an entire chicken, make the dish with legs, thighs and whole wings.
● 5 cups fresh coconut milk. If you are using canned coconut milk dilute it using a 1 to 1 ratio – for every cup of canned coconut milk, dilute it with 1 cup water.
● Fresh herbs and aromatics – onions, garlic, thyme, celery and hot pepper. If you have, add a knob of ginger. Peel and finely chop everything and set aside.
Here’s what to do.
1. Rinse and pat dry the chicken and season with salt and pepper to taste and let rest for 30 – 45 minutes.
2. Add a little oil to a pot (the same one you will be transferring to the oven), if not use a frying pan. Place the pot/pan over medium heat until the oil is very hot and working in batches, brown the chicken on both sides and set aside.
3. While the chicken is browning, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
4. Using the same pot/pan in which you browned the chicken, add all the herbs/aromatics and generously season with salt to taste and give a good stir scraping up all the stuck-on bits at the bottom of the pot/pan, reduce heat to low and cook until softened.
5. If you are using the same pot for the oven, raise the heat to medium, and pour in the coconut milk, cover the pot and bring to a boil, and cook for 5 minutes before adding the chicken and its drippings to the pan. Give a stir, bring to a boil, cover the pot and transfer to the oven and cook covered for 40 minutes and uncovered for 10 minutes.
6. Remove from the pot from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes before serving.
7. you are using a Pyrex or casserole dish, after browning the chicken and cooking the aromatics, arrange the chicken in the dish, mix the cooked aromatics with the coconut milk and pour over the chicken and transfer to the oven. Cover loosely with foil and cook for 45 minutes, then remove foil and cook for 15 minutes. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.
8. Taste the sauce at the 40/45 minutes mark to check for salt, if necessary, add to taste. However, if, as instructed, you seasoned the aromatics generously with salt, there should be no need to add more salt.
When you are ready to serve the dish, give the sauce a good stir. You will find that the coconut milk has cracked, developing tasty curds along with the sauce. The sauce is fragrant and full of flavour from the meat, aromatics and coconut milk. The meat is succulent having been tenderized surrounded by the coconut milk as it cooked. For me, the sauce is what really makes this dish. You just want to sop it up with some hearty crusty bread.
Serve the dish with boiled, crushed ground provision to really soak up the sauce. I ate mine with Tostones – twice fried green plantains. Plain white rice is good too. I won’t serve this with fried rice, vegetable rice or Spanish (Mexican) rice. I find that the sauce needs a starch that only has its natural flavour because the sauce is rich and needs something plain to compliment it.
Try it. I think you’ll like it.
Cynthia
cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
