Roasted Coconut Black Chicken Curry w/ Rice

Hello and welcome to my first recipe blog. Today, like all my recipes will be, are inspired by an ingredient and are original dishes created by me Benny for my family. This week I have chosen to use a Silkie (black) chicken. I first saw the use of the black chicken on the television show the Iron Chef, and it was by chance when the family went to our local Asian supermarket that we found a black chicken. I had to buy it (they are usually around $8 - $9 from the research I did for a 2 - 3 pound bird)! Let's begin by viewing the ingredients we will be using:

Ingredients:

1 Whole Silkie (black) Chicken
2 - 4 Red Potatoes
Some unreadable Asian grain add-on for rice
2 cups Shredded Coconut
1 can Coconut Milk (14oz)
1 1/2 tbsps Green Curry Paste
1 Large Garlic Clove
1 Shallot
2 Stocks of Celery
2 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary
Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Unsalted Butter
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
White Wine

The How To:

First things first, we have to prepare the black chicken for cooking. To this we need to wash and rinse the chicken with some cold water thoroughly and then pat it dry. Most black chickens are going to come whole, and by whole this means with the head and feet still attached. However, the black chicken looks very sexy...

The thing with black chickens is the skin is black, the meat is mostly black (the breast meat is grayish in color), the bones are black, basically it's a black chicken throughout. Now we have to chop up this bird to get it ready for the initial braising. Go ahead and chop off the neck/head (I tossed the head out, but you might want to use it in the cooking process) then do the same for the feet, I kept the feet for the cooking process but not to eat. Then we just quarter the chicken like any other chicken.

Once this complete, put all the pieces you are using into a medium deep pot. Drizzle some olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste and throw in the Rosemary sprigs. Let this braise over medium high heat for about 5 minutes. Then add a half cup white wine and continue braising over medium high heat for 5 to 7 minutes. Once that is complete add enough water to cover the chicken ever so slightly and reduce heat to a simmer, letting the chicken cook like this for an hour.

While the chicken is simmering, lets go ahead and prep the veggies. I suggest chopping them all up in to tiny bit size pieces, though just cut them up however you prefer is always a good way in my opinion. Also, dice up the potatoes into about 1/4 inch cubes, peeled or not peeled it's up to you. We can now set aside the prepped veggies and potatoes waiting for the hour to finish. I had a nice IPA beer and watch some College Lacrosse (there really wasn't anything else on that perked my interest at the time).

The hour is up! Remove the chicken from heat, take it out and let it cool on a plate or cutting board. We want to go ahead and strain the stock and save it for use later on. With the chicken cooling go ahead and boil the potatoes until they are soft enough to stab with a fork. While the potatoes are cooking we want to sauté the veggies we chopped up in around a half a stick of unsalted butter (shallots, celery, garlic cloves and mushrooms).

Now as the potatoes and veggies cook we can rip into tearing off the meat from the chicken. It should come off with ease if fully cooked. Now I did cook the feet with the chicken but I will not using them in the final curry mixture, as I just wanted them to add some flavor to the chicken stock that we saved earlier. Remember to keep an eye on the veggies as not to over cook them, stirring them frequently, until they are all a nice golden color. Check the potatoes ever so often too, once they are easily stabbed with a fork remove them from the heat. 

While all that is happening, yes there is a lot of multi-tasking involved in this dish, we want to roast the shredded coconut. To do this, we lightly spray a cooking dish with some cooking spray, spread out a thin layer of coconut on the tray and stick into a pre-heated 300 degree oven. Let the coconut roast for around 5 minutes or until golden brown.

We now have everything ready to make the pot of curry all this will go into. We have the black chicken meat removed from the bone, the roasted coconut, the boiled potatoes (which you should drain), the sautéed veggies and the chicken stock. 

In a medium pot add the coconut milk, the roasted coconut, 1 1/2 tablespoons of green curry paste, and few ladles of the chicken stock we saved. Let this cook on medium high heat for around 5 minutes (it should foam up from the coconut milt, be careful not to burn it). Now add the potatoes and stir in. Then add the sautéed veggies and stir. Then add the black chicken meat and stir. Reduce heat to a simmer stirring every so often.

As the curry mixture/stew simmers we can go ahead and make the rice. Use a slow cook white rice, 1 cup of rice and the magically mystery rice add-on (not necessary, we just bought it and decided to use it, as picture below [apologize for the fuzzy picture]), 14 oz of water because of the rice add-on, bring to boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cooking the rice for around 25 minutes. Now here I suggest just making you own rice, however you normally do, if you want rice with your dish anyways. 

Once the rice is completely cooked the Roasted Coconut Black Chicken Curry mixture should have had enough time to simmer and cook down a little. We can go ahead and spread some rice around the plate in circle leaving a whole in the middle for the curry mixture. Scope up some of the curry mixture into the the middle of the plate inside the rice. Our rice turned purplish in color from the awesomely interesting Asian rice add-on we cooked with our rice. The finished meal is picture below:

Rating and Opinions:

I personally give this recipe I developed a healthy 3 1/2 stars out of 5 stars.

Benny: I found the flavor of the curry mixture delightful, with the black chicken having a very unique taste that one could tell right away. The chicken taste being unique was not a bad unique, though it was strong enough to tell it apart from traditional chicken bought in stores. The potatoes soaked up the flavors of all the curry, coconut, veggies and garlic. The rice was disappointing and I would replace it with either just plain white rice or no rice at all. This isn't a meal I would have every month, as was the conclusion of everyone else too. I was  pleased overall with the meal and it filled me up.

Wife: I really loved the flavor, I am a big fan of coconut and due to my pickiness I don't get to have it in dinner much. This worked well. The rice was too bland though and the sauce was flavorful but the rice stayed bland even taking bites with the sauce mixture. So I'm thinking a more flavorful something to eat it with. Maybe jasmine rice with saffron, I dunno. I really did like this though, I made him save the leftovers so I can try it with something else. Mmm...dumplings might be good.....

Mother-in-Law: Though it tasted good and loved that the flavor, while having a nice spiciness to it, was not a hot spicy. Really didn't care for the black chicken as a specialty and thought she might like it better with some tender pork. Pleased with the meal and ate it all if that holds any bearing, again she agreed it was not any every month meal but was thankful for trying something new and different in the end.

Children: N/A

Special Thanks: 

I would like to thank my beautiful and amazing wife in helping with the prepping of food, cooking the rice and helping tremendously with the clean-up. Xoxo to you!