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Mama’s chicken with rice and peas recipe

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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

If you don't have chopped tomatoes, chop up a tin of plum tomatoes instead

Each serving contains

Energy
4135kj
983kcal 49%
Fat
31g 44%
Saturates
18g 88%
Sugars
18g 20%
Salt
2.9g 49%

of the reference intake
Carbohydrate 117.2g Protein 58.8g Fibre 11.9g

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.

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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.