Brazilian Chicken Stew

I don’t know much about Brazilian food.  I’ve never been to Brazil.  In fact the nearest I’ve got to South America is Mexico.   Although I have, once or twice (I think), eaten in South American/Brazilian  restaurants, I would struggle to tell anyone much about Brazilian food.   Anyway, the reason I was so keen to make a Brazilian recipe was that this month’s Regional Recipes, hosted by Joanne at Eats Well With Others is focusing on Brazil.

Well, one of the dishes I remember eating  was a  chicken stew, rather like this, and so I set about researching a Brazilian chicken stew recipe.  Once I found one that looked similar and seemed to contain the flavours I remembered, I stopped, and it was a couple of weeks later before I went back to it and actually managed to recreate it.    I’m glad I did,   it was really delicious and I had enough sauce to freeze for another day.  Perfect!  The recipe I chose was by Joyce Goldstein and the original can be seen here.

Ingredients

300g chicken

Large knob of ginger

3 garlic cloves

3 small green chilli peppers

Juice of half a lemon

1 1/2 tsp paprika

1 large onion, chopped

400g can chopped tomatoes

1/2 can coconut milk

2 tbsp dry roasted peanuts, crushed a little

1 tbsp desicated coconut

1 tsp dried coriander leaf or fresh handful if you have it

1 chicken stock cube

How to make Brazilian Chicken Stew

1. Cook the onion in a saucepan with a little olive oil for about 10 minutes.

2. Put the garlic, chillies, paprika and ginger into the food processero and blitz.  Then add to the  onion and continue to cook for a few more minutes.

3.  Add the tomatoes, coconut milk, peanuts, desicated coconut and coriander.  Simmer for 5 minutes then add to the food processor and blitz again.

4. Put the chicken into the pan and seal on all sides then return the sauce to the pan.  Crumble the stock cube on top and stir to disolve.  Simmer for about 20 minutes as the sauce thickens and reduces.

5. When ready add the lemon juice to taste.   Season with salt and pepper.   Serve with rice and extra lemon wedges.