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Roasted Coconut, Lemongrass Chicken and Rice with Smashed Cucumber Salad

An easy oven-to-table dish - a great (and delicious) way to feed a family. We love the balance of this dish, the richness of the curry baked rice paired with the fresh and light smashed cucumber salad.

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Breakdown

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, fan bake.
Blend the coconut cream and lemongrass sauce.
Add the rice, coconut cream, lemongrass sauce, and stock to a baking dish and nestle in the chicken drumsticks.
Cook for 1 hour 10-20 minutes.
Prepare the smashed cucumber salad.
Serve up and enjoy!

Tips

Rinse the rice thoroughly before adding it to the cooking liquid, this helps to remove excess starch on the rice - resulting in fluffier rice.
Lightly smashing the cucumbers isn’t just for fun - it actually helps create a greater and better surface area (though more cracks and crevices) for the dressing to be absorbed, which means overall more flavour for every mouthful.

Shortcuts

Instead of making the coconut cream and lemongrass sauce, blend 1-2 Tbsp of good quality green or red Thai curry paste with the coconut cream.

Swap out the chicken drumsticks for thighs as they will take less time to cook (see variations below).
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This recipe serves four, if you’re cooking for two simply halve the recipe. To prevent food waste we recommend using the full tin of coconut milk and about ¼ cup of water or stock.

INGREDIENTS Ingredients

2 lemongrass stalks (roughly chopped)
4 garlic cloves
1 large thumb-sized piece of ginger
1 red chilli
1 shallot (cut into quarters)
1 tsp turmeric
3 Tbsp fish sauce
1 lime (zest and juice)
1 Tbsp coconut sugar
1 tin (400ml) coconut cream

1 kg chicken drumsticks (approx. 10)
1 ½ cups jasmine rice
2 cups chicken broth or stock
¼ cup cashews (roasted and roughly chopped)
½ cup fresh coriander (roughly chopped)

Smashed cucumber salad

¾ large cucumber
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp coconut sugar
1 Tbsp fish sauce
1 garlic clove (crushed)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, fan bake.
Add the lemongrass, garlic, ginger, chilli, shallot, turmeric, fish sauce, lime juice and zest, coconut sugar and coconut cream into a blender or nutribullet and blend until combined.

Add the rice to a large baking dish ((we used one that was 40cm x 30cm), pour over the coconut cream mixture and the stock and then nestle in the chicken drumsticks.
Pop it into the oven for 1 hour and 10-20 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed and the chicken is golden brown.

While the chicken is in the oven, you can prepare the smashed cucumber salad. Cut the cucumber in half lengthways, place the cut side down on a chopping board and with a rolling pin or heavy object slightly smash the cucumber, then roughly chop into half moons. Add the cucumber to a bowl.

To make the dressing, add all the ingredients into a glass jar and shake well to combine. Pour the dressing over the cucumber and let it macerate for at least 15 minutes.

Once the rice and chicken have cooked, garnish with the cashews and coriander; serve alongside the cucumber salad.

VARIATIONS

Vegetables

For some extra veggies you could add some cherry tomatoes or finely sliced cabbage or roughly chopped cos to the smashed cucumber salad.
Serve with a side of steamed greens.

Protein

Swap out the chicken drumsticks for chicken thighs. Note, you will need to reduce the stock to 350ml and it will only need to cook for 40-50 minutes.
For a vegetarian option swap chicken drumsticks for 300g of tofu, cut into bite-size cubes. Note, you will need to reduce the stock to 350ml and it will only need to cook for 40-50 minutes.

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