Ingredients
- 5 pieces dark meat chicken
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 4 potatoes
- 1 1/2 small onion
- Vegetable oil
Sauce
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 cup diced tomatoes with a bit of juice
- 2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 3 small cloves garlic, minced
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
Set the oven to 375 degrees. Heat wok on high. Season chicken with salt, pepper, and paprika. You can use the gallon bag method here to speed things up. Wash the potatoes and cut into small pieces. Cut into more pieces if the potatoes are big, to make sure they cook through. Slice the onion into strips.
Heat oil in the wok, and fry the chicken until the outsides are browned. This is exactly the same method as in the Arroz con Pollo from last week. They won't be cooked through at this stage. Do the same for the potatoes, and set these aside. Lastly, brown the onions.
To assemble the sauce, combine coconut milk, stock, tomatoes, turmeric, coriander, ginger, garlic, salt, and pepper in a casserole dish. Whisk together and add the chicken, potatoes, and onions. Bake until chicken and potatoes are cooked through, at least 35-40 minutes. Serve with rice. The rice tastes great once the sauce runs all over it. You can round off your Portuguese-inspired evening with a glass of port after dinner. Come to think of it, most evenings can be improved that way.
Sebastian, this is one dish that I have never made for you at home and we have never talked about it. I also didn't hear that you ran into in the summer you lived in Shanghai. I am surprised that you even knew about this dish. Here is what I know about it. When I grew up in Hong Kong, this dish was well-known enough but far from being ubiquitous. My parents have made it a couple of times. I also had it in restaurants a couple of times. That was it. It was always called Portuguese chickenas you said. The way I have been served was always with the chicken cut into medium-size pieces. The pieces may be the size of half a chicken thigh or leg. A half breast may be cut into three pieces. The sauce had a creamy yellow color, a little paler than a creamy curry. There was always coconut cream in the sauce. The potato pieces were always small-ish, about 1 inch in cubes. It was always served with white rice. This dish does not seem to show up in Portuguese cookbooks or any cookbook that I know of. It may be one of those southern Chinese or colonial Macanese dishes. Overall, it resembled a creamy coconut/curry chicken dish with a lot of sauce and very mild. I see that your potato is with the skin. That was not the way I knew it. The rice also always came on the side when served in a restaurant. Hope this is useful to you.
ReplyDeleteI told grandma about this meal today at coffee. I don't know if you knew she went to Macau for a year to boarding school(with Mrs. Ng). They served Portuguese chicken as a Sunday special but charged extra although she felt it was well worth the extra money. You are certainly bringing fond memories back for her.
ReplyDeleteOur friends have come together to purchase a bottle of 1996 Chateau d'Yquem. It is the most famous Sauternes estate of all time and very pricy. Mom and I have had about half a dozen vintages but our friends have not ever and it is regarded like a bucket list item. We are hosting an all Sauternes dinner with sweet wine for every course. I have roughed out a menu and thinking about serving Portuguese chicken as the main course. Spicy, curry and coconut all go with sweetness. I am actually surprised that you had it in Shanghai which is a long way from Macau or Hong Kong where this would be seen more often. It is a very old dish and supposedly not eaten in Portugal but only in colonial Portugal which would be Macau. I have never made it. Any advice?.
ReplyDeleteI made this a few months ago, and basically followed my own recipe. I believe I used deboned thighs. I also did the whole thing in a dutch oven rather than browning in a pan and transferring to a casserole dish. I think at the time of writing, I did not have a dutch oven. My advice would be to cut the potatoes into fairly small pieces, as this method does not cook them quickly.
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