You might have heard me say this before, but chicken thighs are an underestimated cut from the chicken. A lot of people prepare the bigger breast pieces, the drumsticks and of course the wings from Hooters :-), but there are so many delicious dishes with the chicken thighs.
They come in two main variants; with our without bones. I prefer the boneless option, purely because I do not need to worry about cutting away the bones for the kids.
I’m not a chef and do not have the talent like Jaime Oliver, but I love to play in the kitchen and try new recipes found on the internet. I tweak these to suit my dietary restrictions, and also to ensure my lovely family will eat them.
No sodium, limited dairy products, and reduced fats. Pretty simple, right?
My main objective is to make and share recipes that can be made easily, and stored easily, so all the busy families can eat healthily and not spend too many hours in the kitchen.
Nothing worse than rushing home from work to prepare a meal that the family doesn’t even pay attention to, and enough with the pasta and meat sauce.
You can make awesome dishes fairly quick. Freeze or fridge the dishes, so you just need to reheat them for the family, and perhaps boil some rice.
Ready to make some nice tasting and excellent flavored chicken thighs?
Let’s get this shit started and grab the following ingredients:
- 4-5 chicken thighs, with or without bone
- 1 small (8oz) can of tomato puree
- 1 can (13oz) of coconut milk
- 2 good-sized tomatoes
- 1 large red onion, finely diced
- 2 scallion onions finely sliced (the long thin green/white onions)
- 4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 inch of fresh ginger, also roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoons of ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 1 handful of fresh Cilantro (aka coriander)
Let’s spend the next 15 minutes preparing this dish, while you can listen to some cool tracks on your Sonos, YouTube Music or Spotify. Whatever rock your boat!
- You only use a single pan for this dish and make sure to use a deep-sided pan. *Again, I prefer cooking in the Creuset pans. It is a fetish that I’ve developed in the past year, as I’ve started to experiment and cook a lot more foods.
- Drizzle a little oil in a deep pan of your choice, and turn the pan to medium
- When warm place the thighs in the oil and fry them gently for 4-6 minutes on both sides
- While chicken is frying, chop your onion, garlic, ginger and scallion onion and put to one side
- Cut your tomatoes into small cubes
- Chop your cilantro – no beauty contest, so keep it simple and rough
- When the chicken has been fried on both sides, move them to the side of the pan
- Place the onion, scallion, ginger, and garlic in the newly created space, and let them fry for a few minutes until they are translucent
- Add the cubed tomatoes, and stir for a few minutes, letting the tomatoes mingled with the onions and absorb flavors.
- Pour in the tomato puree and add one small can of water (re-use the tomato puree can)
- Sprinkle over the cumin and cinnamon
- GENTLY move the chicken, onions, tomato puree, and spices around. You need it to be evenly covered, and a nice red color.
- Let the dish simmer for another 15-20 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk and mix it well, letting it heat up
- While the dish is simmering, now is a good time to boil your rice.
Just before serving, stir in the cilantro and let it sit for a few minutes just so it can spread the flavors into this already delicious dish.
Voila! The dish is ready and hopefully a happy family after eating this awesome dish.
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Appreciate this is a Norther European take on a staple Indian curry recipe. So in keeping with the theme some alternatives based on some more traditional ways of making this. Appreciate that those with heart complications may reduce some of the suggestions.
1) You could substitute (50g) butter instead of oil
2) Missing step between 8 and 9 as to when you add the tomatoes. Once the onions have wilted you can add the tomatoes and then add the spices. I would also add 2 green chillis slit lengthways also. You can add 1 tsp garam masala and also 1-2 tsp of red chilli powder. You would allow the spices to blend with the onion mix before adding tomatoes and the tomato paste.
3) After adding tomatoes add salt or thai fish sauce.
4) Once you add the puree and water don’t add the coconut milk. Rather cover and let it simmer so that the water reduces. After circa 10 mins you can then add the coconut milk
5) The coconut milk is just to reduce the heat and spice mix. If you don’t have any you can use crème fraiche. But never use the low-fat version of coconut milk. I wouldn’t use the whole can as it would be too bland and watery. A 1/4 to 1/2 a can is more than enough depending on your preference for heat. For an extra creamy taste can add creamed coconut as an optional extra.
Awesome. Many thanks for these great suggestions and I will certainly try them. Appreciated and have a great day.