Leek Chicken cooked in Coconut milk

When it comes to Chicken, there are endless possibilities of making it. But if you want to know how to make best tender and flavorful chicken then you can follow the techniques below for one of my best recipes of chicken

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Ingredients

1 pound cut boneless chicken thighs

1 cup washed & chopped leek

1/2 cup homemade coconut milk or canned coconut cream

See imp notes on coconut milk below

1 tbsp yogurt

2 tbsp lime/ lemon juice

Spices

Masala dabba spices ( 1 tbsp Kashmiri chili powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric) and salt

Note: I used Turkish BBQ spice blend with Ardic and their curry powder which i had bought from Dubai Spice market but you can use light spice blend as below:

(Crush together(3-4 bay leaves, 1/4 cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger powder, 1/4 tsp nutmeg) Optional: Juniper berries, Sumac spice or buy a Turkish blend)

Oil: Ghee/ Butter/ Coconut oil

Equipment : Cast iron skillet or stove top grill / open face pan

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Cooking Technique

Marinade

This is probably the first important step in your meat cooking process. Even if you don’t have a great spice blend, marinating your meat right way will do all the work for you to flavor the meat.

How to make Marinade Mix?

Take a bowl with clean cut chicken pieces. Add 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp yogurt, 2 tsp lemon juice, salt, red chili powder, turmeric powder, your choice of spice blend. Mix well and marinade for at least 24 hrs and refrigerate.

Cooking

Wash the leeks thoroughly by cutting a vertical slit and removing each leaf and rinsing it with your fingers under the tap.

The dark green leaves of leek can be little tough so cut the top darker portion and use the remaining part.

Hold together and chop finely in circular rings.

Heat the skillet on medium heat. Add ghee or oil

Add the leeks and let it brown by cooking for 2-3 mts.

Add the marinated chicken pieces over it and let it cook on the leeks for 5 mts. Then turn it over and cook on other side for 5 more mts. Always cook meat on medium low heat until its cooked about 90 percent.

Now add the coconut milk, salt it and cook for another 5-7 mts until its tender and cooked.

Turn off the heat and serve with warm Saffron Rice.

Coconut Milk

Do not use the store bought coconut milk for this recipe. Instead use the canned coconut cream by diluting it or do as below:

I use frozen grated coconut that i buy from Indian grocery . Then i take 1/2 cup of thawed coconut, add little warm water in it and blend in vitamix or high efficiency blender.

Use this milk for your recipes calling for coconut milk.

Saffron Rice recipe

Wash basmati rice and cook as you rice and add 1 tsp ghee, few strands of Saffron and salt. If you cook it on the stove top, then at the end cook on high heat for few mts to get the caramelized crust of rice or Socarrat. Its not a perfect Socarrat but it still is pretty good!