Coconut Chicken

Hey y'all.

I'm still alive! I fall in and out of blogging, apologies. Today, I have a new recipe that we love in my house!

It's coconut chicken, adapted from this coconut lime chicken recipe found here.

Ingredients shown above:

One yellow onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, miced
Coconut milk
Tumeric
Salt
Pepper
Black beans
Coconut oil
Rice
Chicken thighs

Not shown: chicken broth.

First I warmed the coconut oil in the pan. My stove gets hot really quickly, so I tend to cut everything first. I use about this much. It's probably about a tablespoon and a half. I use a lot at one time for this because I don't end up adding more to the pan. 

Diced garlic and onion.

Once the oil is hot, add the chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Cook on each side for about 3-5 minutes. The chicken won't be fully cooked when you remove it from the pan, but that's fine. 

Here I've added the onion to the pan. Sauteed for about 2 minutes, then added coconut milk. I normally use one can, but this time I just added as much as I liked. I used less since I normally end up with a ton of sauce leftover. I also added chicken both powder to water and added that to the pan- also why I used less milk. 

Turmeric into the pan. This is where I would add chili powder if I was using it. I let this bubble for about 5 minutes to get everything incorporated and get the coconut milk thickening. 

Once the sauce has been bubbling for a few minutes, add the chicken back in. The sauce is done. Let it continue to bubble and cook until the rice and beans are ready. This will also allow the chicken to finish cooking through. You can see here that the edges are slightly brown. It didn't burn, but it did thicken nicely. 

While the chicken and sauce are cooking, I cook the rice. I usually do 2 cups of rice and 4 cups of water for 2 people, but we like to use leftover rice throughout the week. This is a Thai brown rice. 

My stove only has 2 burners now (yay China!), so once the rice was done, I put the black beans on. To them I added the minced garlic, some garlic powder, salt and pepper. I let them come to a boil and cook for about 5-7 minutes. 

Finished product!

All in all, I would say this takes about 30 minutes to an hour. It's super quick and easy. We love this and eat it about once every 2 weeks.

Let me know what you think!






Ingredients
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1tbsp coconut oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced (I sometimes use pre-minced garlic)
Chicken thighs, boneless and skinless (Or whatever you have on hand)
14.5oz can black beans
Coconut milk, amount varies depending on number of people.
Chicken broth, amount varies, but I use less than the amount of coconut milk
Rice
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Turmeric
Chili powder (optional)

Directions:

1. Warm coconut oil in a pan.
2. Once warm, add the chicken. Allow to cook on all sides for about 3 minutes/side. The chicken won't be fully cooked, but that's okay. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Begin boiling water for your rice.
4. Once water is boiling, add rice. Cover and cook on a simmer for 15-20 minutes or until there is no sitting water at the bottom of the pot.
5. In the same pan, sautee onions. Once they are soft, add the coconut milk and chicken broth.
6. Add turmeric, salt, pepper, and chili powder if using.
7. Allow to boil for abut 5 minutes.
8. Add the chicken back into the pan and finish cooking. This usually takes about 10 minutes, maybe 15 depending on the thickness of the chicken.
9. Add black beans to a different pot. Add minced garlic, salt, pepper, garlic powder. Allow to cook for about 10 minutes, or until everything else is done.
10. Enjoy!