Sticky Coconut Chicken

I mentioned earlier that I buy my meat in bulk when it's on sale and freeze it. This works out great. Except that it's often unpredictable when meat will go on sale again, so when  my stores get low, I tend to get very protective. Yes, I'm crazy.

So, yesterday, I went to make dinner. I'd found a recipe for sticky coconut chicken (and I LOVE coconut). But when I looked for chicken, all I found was two small bags of chicken pieces and a half breast. Not suitable for grilling (or pan-frying, as I had planned on). And I wondered if this dish would be worth it, using up the rest of my chicken. What if it wasn't as tasty as I imagined it would be? Would I have used up my chicken for no reason? But, there was enough there for just me and Jeff, I didn't know what else to make, so I opted to cut up the breast and make it a stir-fry type dish. It worked great! I mixed the marinade and poured it right in with the frozen chicken and left it for about an hour, and once the chicken had thawed enough, I cut up the breast and threw it back in the marinade.

I don't know why I was worried. The dish was delicious and definitely something I'll be making again. It had a great punchy flavor and the sweet was perfectly balanced. I actually didn't take pictures of this dish before I began eating because I was apathetic about it; I couldn't imagine that it would be good enough to warrant a post. But as soon as I had taken a bite, I frantically turned to the kitchen to see if Jeff had left any so I could assemble a plate to photograph. It really was that good.


And I'm so glad that the coconut milk I had in the refrigerator had gone bad and I had to open a can: if it hadn't, I would not have had extra coconut milk to make coconut rice with, something Mel recommended. And THAT was delicious too. Make this. You'll love it.

Sticky Coconut Chicken
Adapted from melskitchencafe.com
Printable Recipe

2 chicken breasts, cubed
1 can (about 14 oz) coconut milk, divided
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger, divided
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, divided
1 tablespoon canola oil
3/8 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
rice

Combine 1 cup coconut milk, 1 tablespoon ginger, the black pepper, and 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes. Add chicken pieces and marinate, covered, in the refrigerator for 1-4 hours.

When you're ready to cook the chicken, start the rice. Use the remaining coconut milk (probably just over 1 cup) as part of the liquid. I made 1 cup of dry rice, so the coconut milk was about half the liquid. Make sure you add salt.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. While the oil heats, begin making the sauce. Combine the vinegar, sugar, 1 tablespoon ginger, 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, and soy sauce in a small sauce pan. Heat over medium heat and allow to reduce and thicken. This will take about 8-10 minutes. Once it thickens, remove immediately from the heat and set aside. When the oil is hot, add the chicken, draining as much marinade as you can. Discard the marinade. Stir fry the meat to cook thoroughly. When the meat is cooked, remove it from the pan and toss with the sauce. Serve with coconut rice.