Mama’s chicken with rice and peas recipe
Nigel Thompson's recipe for his mama's chicken – chicken breasts marinated with warming spices and cooked with onions and tomatoes – is a firm favourite with his family and friends. The recipe uses fresh coconut but if you can't find it, you can use desiccated coconut instead.
See method- Serves 4
- 15 mins to prepare and 50 mins to cook
- 983 calories / serving
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts, cut into 2cm cubes
- 4 tsp ginger paste
- 4 tsp garlic paste
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 4 tbsp curry powder
- 2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
- 80g butter, softened
- 900ml hot chicken stock
- 2 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
For the rice
- 2 x 400g tin red kidney beans
- 350g basmati rice, rinsed
- 80g of fresh coconut, grated
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Shop ingredientsEach serving contains
- Energy
- 4135kJ 983.0kcal
- Fat
- 31g
- Saturates
- 18g
- Salt
- 2.9g
- Sugars
- 18g
of the Reference intake
Carbohydrate 117.2gProtein 58.8gFibre 11.9g
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Method
- In a large bowl, mix together the chicken, ginger paste, garlic paste, cumin, garam masala, curry powder and onion. Stir to combine well. Cover and leave to marinate for 30 mins to 2 hours.
- In a large saucepan, heat the butter. When sizzling, add the marinated chicken. Cook for 5-8 mins over a high heat, the mixture will not brown, but the spices will cook through.
- Stir in the tomatoes and hot stock. Bring the mixture to a simmer, and cook for 45-50 mins, uncovered, until the chicken has cooked through and tender. Stir occasionally to make sure the spices don’t stick on the base of the pan.
- After the chicken has been cooking for 30 mins, prepare the rice. In a medium saucepan, add the rice and kidney beans and half the grated coconut. Top up with 450ml room temperature water. Bring to a gentle simmer, then cover and cook the rice for 10 mins until cooked through and the rice has taken on the colour of the kidney beans. Turn off the heat, leave the lid on and let the rice sit until the chicken has cooked.
- After cooking, the chicken sauce should be a yogurt-like consistency, add a little more water if needed. Serve the rice with the chicken curry and sprinkle over the remaining grated coconut.
- See more Chicken recipes
- For top tips on protecting you and your family when preparing raw meat and poultry, visit Food Safety in the Home.
