Brazilian chicken and prawn xinxim
This is such a good dish, hot and heady with the flavours of South America. You don’t actually have to have prawns in it, some versions just have chicken. If you want to leave them out, then increase the amount of chicken by 200g (7oz). But chicken and seafood go really well together, so do try it this way.
Ingredients
- 700 g 1lb 9oz skinless boneless chicken thighs
- juice of 3 limes plus lime wedges to serve
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1½ tbsp sunflower or groundnut oil or whichever you prefer
- salt and pepper
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 2 red peppers cut into cubes
- 3 garlic cloves crushed
- 2.5 cm 1in root ginger, peeled and grated
- 3 red chillies halved, deseeded and sliced
- 250 g 9oz tomatoes, chopped (I don’t bother to peel or deseed)
- pinch of soft light brown sugar
- 300 ml ½ pint chicken stock
- 2 x 160ml cans of coconut cream
- 300 g 10½oz MSC-certified shelled prawns (either tiger or king prawns)
- 10 g ¼oz toasted and roughly ground cashew nuts
- 10 g ¼oz toasted, ground peanuts
- 4 tbsp roughly chopped coriander leaves
- shaved coconut to serve
Instructions
- Cut each thigh into two or four pieces (smaller thighs – and they do vary a lot in size – should just be halved).
- Put into a bowl with the juice of two of the limes and the cayenne, cover and marinate in the fridge for about 45 minutes.
- Bring it to room temperature before cooking.
- Heat the oil in a sauté pan, lift the chicken out of the marinade and brown it in batches.
- You want to get a good colour all over, but not cook the chicken through.
- Season as you brown the pieces.
- Remove each batch with a slotted spoon as it is ready and put in a bowl.
- Add the onion and peppers to the oil in the pan and cook until these are softening but not brown.
- It will take about eight minutes.
- Add the garlic, ginger and chillies and cook for another minute, then add the tomatoes, season, stir everything together and cook for another two minutes.
- Reduce the heat and cook until the tomatoes are quite soft and slightly losing their shape, about five minutes.
- Make sure the mixture doesn’t get too dry.
- Add the sugar, pour in 200ml (7fl oz) of the stock and bring to the boil.
- Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for 10 minutes.
- Return the chicken to the pan with any juices that have run out of it, then stir in the remaining stock and the coconut cream.
- Bring to a simmer and cook gently for 20 minutes.
- Stir in the prawns and cook for about three minutes; you will see the prawns turn pink.
- Stir in the remaining lime juice and the nuts and check for seasoning.
- This dish can vary in thickness: it can be quite thick; it can be soupy.
- Add more stock or water if you want it to be more soupy.
- Sprinkle on the coriander and coconut and serve with boiled rice and lime wedges.
