Cajun Chicken Stew with Coconut Rice, Black Beans and Fried Plantains

This was a communal effort, and I was really only responsible for the stew, but I'll detail it all here. Thank you Sasha!

The chicken was based on this recipe.

You'll need:

chicken thighs (2 per person, the quantities below are for 8-12 thighs)-- remove the skin and cut off as much fat as possible with a small sharp knife
1/2c + 1/2c flour
3c chicken broth
2 onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
1 serrano chili, diced
3T + 1/4c veggie oil
1T cayenne pepper


Salt and pepper the thighs and dust them with flour. Heat 3T oil in a heavy large pan (like a dutch oven) and brown the thighs well on both sides. Do it in batches if necessary; don't crowd the pan or the thighs won't brown. Remove them and set aside.

You should have about 1-2T oil left with brown bits floating around. If there are any black bits, remove them. Add more oil to have a total of 1/4c; add flour and scrape to combine with a wooden spatula. Cook over low heat, scraping, about 10 minutes until the roux is the color of milk chocolate.

Add the onions, celery and peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the chicken broth and stir to combine. Let mixture boil (it should be very thick), then lower heat and return chicken to pot. Stir to combine. Cook about 30 minutes, partially covered. Stir in cayenne pepper and serve.


Coconut Rice-- cook rice as you normally would, but with 2/3 coconut milk, 1/3 water. We stirred it a lot and ended up with a creamy, risotto-like texture.

Beans-- Combine canned black beans with chicken broth (1 can to 1/2c broth), 1 bay leaf, and spices (we used a lot of chili-like spices). Cook until broth evaporates. Remove bay leaf and serve.

Plantains-- Slice and saute in hot butter until golden brown and crispy.