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One Pot Coconut Chicken and Rice is the best weeknight meal because it is tasty, simple and it’s a cinch to clean up!
Anytime I can make dinner in ONE pan, I am sold. Sometimes you just need a recipe that is easy and delicious. For this recipe, you simply add all of the ingredients and bake. Can it get easier than that? Makes busy nights so much more manageable.
I love Thai food (Green Thai Coconut Curry and Thai Chopped Salad, for example) and this recipe reminds me why. Coconut is one of my favorite ingredients and it is often used in Thai dishes. It has a subtle sweet flavor that I just crave. Coconut milk and shredded coconut is the real MVP of this one pot meal but when you add ginger and cilantro the flavors really come alive.
For this recipe I like to use chicken thighs. They are usually cheaper than chicken breast and so tender when you cook them. You could use chicken breast but this recipe just goes next level when you use chicken thighs.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Quick and easy: This recipe uses just one pot so it is easy to clean up and gets you back out of the kitchen quickly.
- Flavorful: The combination of the coconut milk, spices, lime, and cilantro is amazing.
- Affordable: The ingredients are simple and inexpensive so you get a great meal without sacrificing taste or your budget.
Ingredients
- Chicken: using boneless skinless chicken thighs here is amazing, they cook up like a dream and are full of flavor.
- Rice: you can use any white rice you’d like for this recipe, I like jasmine rice and any long grain rice will work great.
- Coconut milk and shredded coconut
- Onion and fresh ginger
- Green onion, cilantro, and lime juice
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
How to Make Coconut Chicken and Rice
Step 1: Brown the chicken on both sides in a hot Dutch oven or other oven-safe pot. Remove from the pot and set aside.
Step 2: Add the onion and ginger to the pan, cooking until tender and translucent.
Step 3: Pour coconut milk and broth into the pan. Stir in the rice. Nestle the chicken thighs into the mixture and sprinkle with coconut.
Step 4: Cover the pan with a tight fitting lid. Bake at 400°F for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is done and rice is tender.
Recipe FAQs
I really like using Jasmine rice when I cook. It is slightly sweet and accompanies many dishes well. Any white rice will work for this recipe, long grain is preferred.
A one pot meal means that everything is cooked in 1 pot or pan. It makes it easy to cook and clean up. We need more one pot meals in our life.
Yes and I love it because the cooking chicken releases some moisture and those juices get absorbed by the rice. It’s part of what makes the dish so delicious.
Expert Tips
- If cooking with coconut milk is new to you, make sure you are buying a can of coconut milk and not coconut cream. Coconut cream will give you the same flavor but it is thicker so it won’t have the right amount of liquid to cook the rice.
- If you are sodium sensitive, feel free to use low-sodium chicken broth.
- Because this recipe comes together so quickly, consider doing all the chopping before you start browning the chicken.
What do I serve with Coconut Chicken and Rice?
This meal can completely stand alone if you want, but I like to add a side of vegetables too. Either a green salad, broccoli or green beans would compliment this dish perfectly. And everything is good with some fresh baguettes, highly recommend that.
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One Pot Coconut Chicken and Rice
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, patted dry
- 1 medium onion, diced or grated
- 1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
- 1 15oz can coconut milk
- 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1 1/2 cups rice, uncooked
- 1/2 cup unsweetened, finely shredded coconut
- 2 green onions, diced
- 2 limes
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- salt and pepper to taste
- olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Heat a drizzle of oil in the Dutch oven to medium to medium-high heat.
- Sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken.
- When the oil in the pan is hot brown the chicken in the oil for 3-4 minutes per side. Remove from the pan and set on a plate.
- Add the onion and ginger to the pan. Heat until tender and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Pour coconut milk and broth into the pan and stir to scrape up any browned bits.
- Add rice and stir to coat.
- Nestle the chicken into the rice mixture and sprinkle with coconut.
- Add a tight fitting lit to the pan.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or till rice is tender and chicken is cooked through.
- Sprinkle green onions and cilantro over all the rice and chicken, and then squeeze lime juice over everything. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve right away.
Notes
- Delicious served with broccoli or green beans.
- This recipe has minimal prep time, even with chopping the onions and browning the chicken. Perfect for busy nights!
- One Pot Coconut Chicken and Rice makes for great leftovers! Store it in an air tight container in the refrigerator to eat the next day.
- If you want to make it a little fancier when you serve it, garnish with chopped peanuts, extra sliced green onions, or even toasted coconut flakes.
Could this be made in a crockpot?
Hmmm, I don’t have great luck cooking rice in the slow cooker, I think it’s the temperature variations (mine is pretty hot in the back) but I feel like if you stirred it occasionally it would. Feel free to try it! I’d love to know if you do Vicki!