This recipe is for a simple, tasty, and, satisfying chicken dish that I learnt from my relatives. It probably has its origins in South-East Asia. A word of caution, coconut milk is high in fat, so this probably isn’t something you should eat often. The recipe also contains hot chilies, which may be too spicy for some people, though you can adjust the amount of chilies to make it hotter, or milder.

Ingredients

• Coconut milk
• Chicken
• Stalks of lemon grass
• Small chilies, known as Labuyo Chili/ Chili Padi/ Bird’s Eye Chili/ Thai Pepper
• Potatoes, peeled
• Turmeric, fresh, or ground.
• Enough salt to taste.

In the UK, all of these ingredients are sold by most major supermarket chains, though their availability will depend on the size of the store. Coconut milk and turmeric are more often used in Asian cooking, and lemon grass is often used in Chinese cooking, so look for them in specialty stores if your local supermarket does not have them. Fresh coconut milk is nearly impossible to find in the UK, but if have access to it, use fresh milk, instead of from a can. Ground turmeric can be used instead of fresh, but in my experience it impairs the taste.

Use enough chicken and potatoes to feed the number of people eating the meal. It doesn’t matter which part of the chicken you use, bone or boneless, large or small pieces. The amount of coconut milk should be enough to cover all the ingredients when cooking in a pot. Typically, when cooking for 2-3 people, I use 1.6 liters of coconut milk (4 cans of the type I buy), 2 stalks of lemon grass, 2 small thumb sized turmeric, 2 handfuls of chilies (each handful being around 100g), and 2 teaspoons of salt.

Different types of chilies can be used. The variety I listed happens to be the one commonly used in the region where this dish originated from. The hotness of chilies varies from each species, and the hotness of the dish will vary a little even if you use the exact amount of chilies each time. What I do is taste the coconut milk/chili mixture, and add more chilies if it is not hot enough.

Method

1. In a blender, blend together the coconut milk and chilies. Remember to taste the mixture as you are blending so it doesn’t become too hot.
2. In a pot, put the chicken and potatoes. Pour in the coconut milk and make sure it covers all the ingredients.
3. Slice the turmeric into halves and add them to the pot.
4. Break the lemon grass in half and add them to the pot.
5. Cook using a medium heat, stirring occasionally until the potatoes are soft enough to pierce easily with a knife.
6. Serve with rice. Make sure you ladle out generous portions of the sauce.

Coconut milk sours and spoils very quickly, and the cooked sauce will curdle slightly if left overnight. Turmeric also stains very easily, and care should be taken to avoid staining clothes after you’ve sliced it in half. Extra elbow grease may be required to remove the yellow staining it may cause on pots.

All in all, this dish is tasty and delicious. I do hope you’ll enjoy it.