I’ve worked with Tropical Traditions numerous times now, reviewing many of their products. Today, I’m sharing my thoughts on their Organic Shredded Coconut. I love dishes made with coconut – especially curry! – and I was intrigued to learn that you can actually make your own coconut milk with this. Remember the yummy Red Curry Chicken that I made a few months back? That recipe calls for coconut milk, and it’s usually pretty expensive – so I’m really interested in making my own. However, I am currently awaiting the arrival of a new blender, as my old one has been broken for some time – so I was eager to try out another coconut recipe in the meantime! I browsed through Tropical Traditions’ Free Coconut Recipes website, and decided to modify this recipe for Island Rice with Chicken to what I had on hand. First, I greased a pan with some Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil – this is the same jar that I reviewed last July, and I still have about half a jar left. You only need a small amount of coconut oil for cooking, so a little goes a long way.
The original recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but I used chicken thighs instead because that’s what I have on hand – I stocked up on chicken thighs recently because of a great coupon deal! These thighs don’t require defrosting and can be cooked straight from the freezer. I put three thighs in the pan and covered them with garlic seasoning salt, chopped garlic (I really like garlic!), ginger, sea salt, and shredded coconut. I popped this in the oven and cooked it for roughly an hour.
Meanwhile, I got the rice started. Normally I use a rice cooker, but this recipe had pretty specific directions for cooking it on the stovetop, so I decided that it would be safest to follow the recipe. I put about 6 ½ cups of water in the pot – the recipe calls for 7, but I adjusted it since I used a different kind of rice – and added ¼ cup of coconut oil, about 1 cup of frozen, chopped onion (which I prepared during my last freezer cooking weekend), and sea salt. I boiled the water, added the rice, and cooked as per the recipe until done.
I removed the chicken from its roasting pan and spooned in the rice. Instead of shredding the carrots, I chopped them into small pieces and mixed it together with the rice. I then put the three chicken thighs on top of the rice & carrot mixture, and added a can of pineapple with juice, a generous layer of shredded coconut (I added more than called for because I thought it would be yummy!), peanuts, and soy sauce. I then covered it with foil and baked for about 25-30 minutes.
This dish is very rich and yummy, and makes a ton of food! The sweet and savory flavors in this meal work together well. I’m looking forward to trying this shredded coconut in other dishes – it is extremely flavorful, and I was impressed by the taste and quality.
Want to try this recipe for yourself? Click here to enter my Shredded Coconut giveaway!
That sounds really yummy!! I’ve only had shredded coconut in fruit salad and on my MILs lamb cake. I’ll have to try it out!
Oh, lamb cake! My mom used to make those for Easter – yummy! 🙂
That sounds incredibly yummy!
That SOUNDS and LOOKS yummy!! Thank you for the suggestion!
Yum! Thanks for the suggestion – sounds great!
Wow that looks really tasty
CURRY OF BEEF – a great PAKISTAN food recipe…try this hot recipe 1INGREDIENTS1 tbsp. flour1 1/8 tsp. salt1/4 tsp. pepper1 lb. lean round steak, cut into 1/2 inch cubes1/4 c. salad oil2 c. sliced onion1/2 minced clove of garlic1 tsp. curry powder
thanks for that dude! awesome idea and thoroughly interesting read. ive been trying to convince my boys that we should have a proper curry night in instead of going out every week, and actually did it last week. awesome success it was, i tell you! i found a tasty korma and a few others from this curry recipes site, and even made the naan meself too! who said guys cant cook!