I've kind of been on a Thai food kick at home, so since I just posted Shrimp Pad See Ew, now seems as good a time as any to also share the One-Pot Coconut Roasted Chicken I recently made. I probably decided on both these dishes because of a recent trip to a specialty grocer that has all the ingredients needed for these types of dishes. You just won't find them in a regular grocery store.
I got this one-pot coconut roasted chicken recipe from Nagi at RecipeTin Eats , and she adapted it from the Feel Good Food cookbook by Valli Little. It just looked really good to me, my kind of flavors and a really interesting cooking method.
It may be "roasted" but don't look for golden crispy skin here. In fact, when Meathead saw the finished dish and helped me with the photos, he said not to spend too much time on this one, just didn't look very appetizing to him. It looked and smelled fantastic to me, though!
In terms of ingredients, it's the chilies, kaffir lime leaves and coconut sugar that will be a challenge to find, maybe even the lemongrass. The dark green, shiny kaffir lime leaves are especially hard to find. There really is no substitute. They were in the frozen section of the specialty store I frequent, and the owner told me it's not permitted to sell them fresh, he said the "government" says that. I'm guessing he's referring to USDA regulations of some sort regarding kaffir lime leaves. So check the frozen section. (Here in St. Louis, you can find everything you need at Global Foods in Kirkwood).
For the chilies, you want long red chilies, usually referred to as prik chi fa. You don't want super spicy, an Asian grocer will most likely have what you need, just ask. I ended up using red fresno peppers that were pretty mild, so I supplemented with a little spicier red serrano for the mince and used the whole fresno for the pot. I asked about the coconut sugar and there it was on the shelf in the Thai section. I ask all the time when I'm looking for ingredients I'm not familiar with, the store personnel are usually more than happy to help.
One-Pot Coconut Roasted Chicken may not be the most photogenic dish, but it's sure tastes good. After saying blah when he saw this dish, Meathead proceeded to snarf down two helpings, all the while telling me how incredible it was ~ he's just too weird for words. Thank you Nagi from RecipeTin Eats for sharing this wonderfully fragrant coconut chicken dish.
Best, Kelly
One-Pot Coconut Roasted Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 long red chilies, not too hot ~ like prik chi fa
- 1 teaspoon ginger, freshly grated
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- 1 cup finely chopped cilantro
- 1 3½ to 4 lb whole chicken
- 2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
- 1 stalk lemongrass, white part only, bruised
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 14-oz can light coconut milk
- ¾ lb baby potatoes or other small potato ~ halved if necessary
- 1 lime
- 2 teaspoon coconut sugar ~ can substitute with brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce ~ I like Red Boat
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 390º. Finely chop 1 long red chili (about a tbsp) and combine with ginger, garlic, oil, ½ cup cilantro, salt and pepper in a small bowl and set aside.
- Rinse and pat chicken thoroughly dry. With the back of a spoon, or your fingers, start at the neck and loosen the skin from the breast meat, as far down as you can go. Just the breast, not the wings or legs/thighs.
- Spoon chili/cilantro mixture under the loosened skin, and use your hands ON TOP of the skin to evenly spread it around the surface of the breast meat. Into a large dutch oven, add the chicken stock, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and 1 whole red chili.
- Place the chicken in the stock mixture, cover, and roast for 45 minutes. Remove the lid, and add coconut milk, and potatoes. Return to oven, uncovered, and roast another 30 - 45 minutes ~ until the chicken is done, the juices run clear, and potatoes are tender.
- Remove chicken from broth and tent loosely with foil. Skim any excess fat from the broth. To finish the broth, over low heat, add lime juice, coconut sugar and fish sauce, stirring to dissolve sugar. Lastly, add the rest of the chopped cilantro and combine.
- Serve, either on a platter surrounded by potatoes, with the broth on the side ~ or, as I preferred, cut the chicken up into 4 to 8 pieces and return to the warm broth in the pot and then serve out of the pot.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
*Adapted from RecipeTin Eats and Feel Good Food by Valli Little
DGHH
Tuesday 9th of June 2020
Excellent variation on traditional roast chicken. A winner.
Mark Wildenhaus
Wednesday 9th of November 2016
Did you just call me a One-Pot Coconut Roasted Chicken? ~ Meathead