sweet potatoes |

coconut ginger maple chicken with sweet potatoes

Today has been a a milestone for me; I created my very first recipe!

It’s exciting because I never really thought that I’d be able to ever create a recipe from scratch; I mean, I’ve been cooking since I was about 14 years old, but mainly recipes handed down to me from my parents, grandparents and really anyone else whose food tasted good!

But today I decided to try it all on my own. I did get inspiration from cookinginsens, a fellow blogger. I really enjoy reading her recipes and viewing her photos and I feel that inspiration for cooking can come from anywhere. This particular recipe was posted back in 2011 and it appealed to me because of the use of mustard and sweet potatoes; it also looked delicious! So I drew from this recipe’s ingredients to create my own dish- Coconut Ginger Maple Chicken. I hope you try it and I hope you find it as delicious as everyone else who has tried it today does!

Recipe

This recipe uses only fresh ingredients and aims to utilize more natural products than processed, artificial ones. I’ve chosen to use maple syrup as my sweetener since it’s very mild and effective at balancing the coconut milk, ginger and other spices and herbs. I’m sure you can just as easily use honey or agave but I haven’t tried those so I can’t say for certain. I used freshly made coconut milk but it’s easily accessible here in Trinidad, if you can’t get hold of one you can use canned or powdered coconut milk, but fresh is always better! Although this recipe calls for many different spices and herbs the flavors are very subtle and not at all overwhelming.

Ingredients

2 whole chicken breasts- you can use halved breasts but I think the whole breasts would remain more moist
4 tsp authentic natural maple syrup
4 tsp stone ground mustard
1/2 whole dry coconut(powdered/canned coconut milk can also be used)
3 cups hot water
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 chadon beni leaves (substitute with cilantro/coriander leaves~about 1 Tbsp finely chopped)
1/2 Tbsp finely grated ginger
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 1/2 cups natural coconut water
2 Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
3 thyme sprigs
1/2 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp good olive oil

Method

Preheat oven at 400F. Make a rub of mustard salt and 2 tsp maple syrup and use it to season the chicken breasts; leave to marinate for at least 1 hour. During this time prepare the other ingredients and make the coconut milk. Remove coconut flesh from hard shell (you would need to open the shell by throwing it on the ground! Then scoop out the flesh by hitting the shell with the back of a metal spoon or knife to loosen the flesh- it should then be easier to remove). Grate the coconut or if you have a good enough blender, blend it until very fine. Carefully add in 3 cups of hot water and blend until ‘milk’ becomes visible. You can blend for sometime to extract most of the flavor. Press into a fine wire sieve reserving the milk for use in the sauce.

At this time put chunks of potatoes and sweet potatoes into a caserole dish and cover with coconut water, cover dish and let cook in oven at high heat. In the meantime as potatoes cook heat olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and add the chicken breasts at high heat. Brown for about 3 minutes on each side lowering heat if necessary so as not to burn the mustard/maple syrup rub. When nice and caramelized remove from heat and leave the remaining ‘rub’; To this add coconut milk, ginger and nutmeg and 2 tsp maple syrup. lower heat so as not to cause the milk to curdle and the sauce to break. Just before completion add in finely chopped chadon beni or cilantro/coriander.

Add chicken and thyme sprigs to potatoes and cover to complete its cooking. When the chicken is tender and cooked and the potatoes are cooked remove from heat and let stand for about 10 minutes covered so as to absorb all of the flavors. Cut each breast into half and over it pour the coconut ginger maple sauce- strain if necessary to make a smooth sauce.

Garnish with freshly chopped parsley and serve hot.

Serving ~ 4 persons

Suggestions~ this would also go really well with mashed potatoes or plain rice. Serve with chilled coconut water or coconut water/rum (Angostura 1919/Single Barrel/Zacapa Rum) for an extra kick!