Curried Coconut Chicken Night Out

Curried Coconut Chicken, Couscous with a Carrot Pumpkin Puree and Roasted Vegetables

Today we're gonna make a simple but tasty elevation from our customary curry chicken & rice! Okay, so maybe the ingredient list is a little long, but I guarantee that you will be able to find all of these items somewhere in your kitchen cupboard or in the fridge. Trust!

Full Disclosure: The ingredients listed can come off a little spicy, so if you got heartburn issues you can dial it back a bit!

I really hope you enjoy making this as much as I did, please leave any comments and let me know how it turned out or send me pictures I'd love to see the outcome. Happy Cooking!

xoxo Danzii

 Total Prep Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients

1 ½ lbs. chicken breast tenderloin

2 tsp of ginger

5 tsp of curry powder

2 tsp of garlic powder

2 ½ tsp of cayenne pepper

Salt

4 cloves of garlic

½ tsp of chopped scotch bonnet pepper

1 tsp of thyme leaves

7-8 pimento seeds (grounded)

2 stalks of scallion

2 packs of coconut milk powder

2 ½ cups of water

20ml of extra virgin olive oil

½ of a medium onion

½ of a sweet pepper

1 tsp of chives (optional)

2 carrots

½ crown of broccoli

½ crown of cauliflower

¼ lb. of pumpkin

¼ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

2 tsp. sugar

½ cup of evaporated milk

1 cup of couscous

½ cup of vegetable stock

2 tsp of butter

½ tsp of chopped parsley

Curried Coconut Chicken

• Remove chicken from packaging and wash with water and vinegar or lemon and drain excess water and add to a bowl.
• Chop ginger, garlic, chives, scotch bonnet pepper and scallion very finely and separate in two equal parts.
• In the bowl with the chicken add one half of the chopped seasoning, ground pimento seeds, 2 tsp cayenne pepper, garlic powder and 3 tsp of curry powder and salt (to taste).
• Let this marinate for 2-3 hours or leave overnight.
• Mix 2 packs of coconut milk powder with 2 cups of water and set aside.
• With medium heat, in a hot pan or skillet add 15 ml of extra virgin olive oil. Wait 3 minutes and add 1 tsp of curry powder and mix with a wooden spoon until the powder begins to brown.
• Add seasoned chicken breast to the pot and sear on both sides for 2 mins on each side.
• Add coconut milk and 1 tsp of curry powder and ½ tsp of cayenne pepper to the pot and let this cook down for about 15-20 minutes. (Optional: Add one tablespoon of flour and 20 ml of water and mix well, and add to the pot to help the sauce thicken.)
• Add remaining half of chopped seasoning and salt (if needed to taste) along with chopped onion and sweet pepper. Mix well and simmer for an additional 5 minutes and remove from heat.

  

 

Carrot and Pumpkin Puree

• Chop carrots and pumpkin.
• Add 2 cups of water and salt to a pan and bring to a boil. Once the water starts boiling add pumpkin and carrot.
• Let this boil for about 15-20 minutes and then remove from heat and drain excess water.
• Add carrot and pumpkin, evaporated milk, a pinch of salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar to a blender and puree for 3 minutes until smooth.
• Remove from the blender and set aside.

Roasted Vegetables

• Chop broccoli and cauliflower crowns so that you are left with some of the stems on each one.
• Drizzle vegetables with remaining olive oil and salt (to taste).
• On medium to high heat, add the pan to the stove and let it heat up. Add broccoli stems first and let it sear. Once one side of the broccoli has begun to get a little char flip them. Repeat this process for about 4 minutes, shaking the pan and flipping the broccoli until stems become tender (try to push a fork through it to gauge tenderness). Remove from heat and set aside.
• Add the cauliflower and repeat the process for the broccoli. After you have seared both sides, and about 10 ml of water to the pan for about 3 minutes and let that cook then drain the excess water and set aside. (Tip: Cauliflower heads take a little while longer to cook, you maintain your charred flavor but you get a good crunch but not too raw).

 

Couscous

• Add ½ cup of water and ½ cup of vegetable stock, salt (to taste), a pinch of cayenne pepper, and 1 clove of chopped garlic and let that come to a gradual boil.
• Add couscous once the stock liquid starts boiling, stir until the liquid in the pot has visibly disappeared and remove the pot from the heat.
• Add 1 tbsp of butter and chopped parsley and cover with a tight lid or plate so that the steam does not escape and let that sit for about 10 minutes.
• Remove lid and add additional butter and parsley to couscous and mix well and set aside.

Plating

• Smear the bottom of the plate with the pumpkin puree as a base.
• Add the couscous atop the puree base so that a little puree is left out.
• Add chicken on top of the couscous so that the sauce is absorbed by the couscous which can dry out easily.
• Add broccoli and cauliflower to the side of the plate away from the couscous so they don’t become soggy.
• Garnish with parsley.
• Enjoy!

Well, "that's all she wrote," in the words of Guy Fieri on Triple D. I hope you guys had fun making this! Of course you can tweak ingredients and even let me know if you found something else that I could add to make it tastier. But, until we cook again..."Bone Apple Teeth!"