Eleven ingredients and forty minutes in a single skillet.
There is no rice and no starch with this one, which is unusual for a coconut milk dish.
Why This Recipe Works
- Searing the thighs first builds the browned base the sauce is made on.
- Cooking the mushrooms until they darken drives their water off.
- Thirty seconds is enough for garlic, ginger and ground spices to bloom.
- Full-fat coconut milk thickens as it simmers where a light one would stay thin.
- A gentle simmer keeps the coconut milk from splitting.
Ingredient Notes
- Cremini mushrooms
- Eight ounces, sliced. These are the darker soft pieces visible through the sauce, and the title names them nowhere.
- Full-fat coconut milk
- One can. Full-fat rather than light — it is what lets the sauce thicken as it simmers.
- Smoked paprika and turmeric
- Half a teaspoon and a quarter. Together they are the golden-orange tinge; there is no tomato in this recipe.
- Red bell pepper and coriander
- One pepper chopped and a quarter cup of coriander. Both are visible components the title never names.
How to Make It
Chicken seared browned on several sides
Season the chicken with salt and sear in oil until browned on several sides.
Mushrooms and pepper until the mushrooms darken
Add mushrooms and red pepper and cook until the mushrooms soften and darken.
Garlic, ginger and the spices, thirty seconds
Add garlic, ginger, smoked paprika, and turmeric and cook 30 seconds.
Coconut milk simmered gently to 165°F
Pour in coconut milk and simmer gently until the sauce thickens and the chicken reaches 165°F.
Coriander through it
Finish with chopped coriander.
Served without rice or starch
Serve as shown without rice or another starch.
Everything Browns Before the Can Is Opened
Once coconut milk goes into a pan, nothing in it browns again - the sauce is wet from that moment to the table. So the first three rungs of this recipe all happen dry, and each one is putting colour or depth into a dish whose sauce is otherwise pale.
The chicken - thighs, seared on SEVERAL sidesBrowned on several sides
1 1/2 lb of boneless THIGHS in chunks, salted and seared in 1 tbsp oil UNTIL BROWNED ON SEVERAL SIDES. Not one face - several, which takes turning and patience. This is the only browning the chicken will get, and the fond it leaves in the pan is the base of everything after it. Thighs rather than breast because they will spend the last stretch simmering in liquid and stay tender through it.
The mushrooms - cooked until they DARKENUntil they darken
8 oz of sliced CREMINI with 1 chopped red bell pepper, cooked UNTIL THE MUSHROOMS SOFTEN AND DARKEN. The darker soft pieces in the sauce are these mushrooms, not aubergine or charred onion. Darkening is not just colour: mushrooms are mostly water, and any of it left in the pan thins a sauce that is trying to thicken.
The spices - 30 seconds, in fat, before liquid30 seconds, no longer
3 cloves of garlic, 1 tsp grated ginger, 1/2 TSP SMOKED PAPRIKA and 1/4 TSP TURMERIC for THIRTY SECONDS. Ground spices need a moment in hot fat to release properly - stirred into a pan already full of coconut milk they stay dusty and flat. These two are also the whole explanation for the sauce's GOLDEN-ORANGE tinge: there is no tomato anywhere in this recipe, and the colour has to come from somewhere.
FULL-FAT coconut milk, simmered GENTLYGentle simmer, 165F
1 can, simmered until the sauce THICKENS and the chicken reaches 165F. Full-fat is doing structural work: the fat is what lets the sauce reduce into something thick, where a light coconut milk stays watery no matter how long it goes. GENTLY is the other half - coconut milk splits into oil and grainy solids at a hard boil, and a split sauce cannot be brought back.
Coriander, and nothing underneathOff the heat
1/4 cup of chopped coriander through it at the end - a visible component the title never names, alongside the red pepper. Then step 6: SERVED WITHOUT RICE OR ANOTHER STARCH. That is worth noticing, because a coconut milk dish almost always arrives on something; this one is served as the bowl it is.
Success Tips
- Give the mushrooms long enough to darken; pale mushrooms leave water in the sauce.
- Keep the simmer gentle — coconut milk splits at a hard boil.
- Use full-fat coconut milk, or the sauce will not thicken at all.
Serving Ideas
Four servings in white bowls, browned chicken in the thick pale sauce tinged golden-orange with red pepper pieces and mushrooms through it, finished with chopped coriander. No rice.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the darker pieces in the sauce?
Sliced cremini mushrooms — eight ounces of them, cooked until they soften and darken before the coconut milk goes in.
Is there tomato in the sauce?
None. The golden-orange tinge comes from half a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a quarter teaspoon of turmeric.
Should I serve it with rice?
Not with this recipe — no rice and no other starch.
