Kenyan Coriander Chicken (Dhania Chicken)
This is one of the most unusual dishes I have ever eaten and an extraordinary feast for coriander lovers. I saw the recipe in The Ultimate Curry Bible by Madhur Jaffrey, but I needn’t have bookmarked it: the dish was instantly engraved in my memory. Its Kenyan origins were obviously intriguing, but what made my eyes sparkle was the huge amount of fresh coriander (aka cilantro) the dish called for. Do you realise how much 50g (about 1,8 oz) fresh coriander represents? It’s actually an extremely big bunch, especially since the author says to use only leaves, discarding the stems. As scary as it may sound to coriander haters, it was one of the best curries in my life.
Apart from its unique taste and fragrance, Dhania Chicken/Cilantro Chicken is filling and warming, especially given the high level of hotness, in my case provided by three mixed green bird’s-eye chilies. At the same time, it’s one of the lightest curries I know: the sauce is composed only of coriander and yogurt.
I have followed the original recipe, roughly adapting it to a meal for two. The cooking time depends on the chicken cuts you use and on the chicken quality: organic chicken legs will require more time since they are tougher.
TIPS: I would advise this dish only if you are fond of coriander. Otherwise, there is a certain risk (but maybe also a challenge?). Its strong aroma is of course subdued during the cooking process, but the typical scent and taste is still recognisable. It’s also quite fiery and the hotness goes so well with the abundance of coriander here, I cannot guarantee if the magic of this dish can survive the absence of chilies.
The yogurt used here cannot be acid, so if you taste yours and feel tanginess, I advise using Greek yogurt or fresh smooth cheese (quark/fromage frais) instead. Otherwise the dish will be tangy and it doesn’t improve the taste (I know what I’m talking about: I prepared it three times and the first time I used slightly tangy yogurt).
Preparation: 1 – 2 hours
Ingredients (serves 2):
Marinade:
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cm (about 1,5 in) fresh ginger
2 big garlic cloves
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 chicken legs or breasts (cut in two pieces ) or a mixture of both, skinned
1 small tomato or 3 tablespoons canned chopped tomatoes+ 1/2 teaspoon tomato purée
50 g (about 1,8 oz) coriander leaves (without bigger stems)
3 bird’s-eye green chilies or the equivalent in other chilies
125 ml (1/2 cup) not tangy yogurt (the best would be Greek yogurt) or fresh smooth cheese (quark/fromage frais)
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix the salt, the garlic and the ginger to a smooth paste with 1 tablespoon water.
Rub the mixture into the chicken pieces and marinate for at least 30 minutes (you can leave it overnight too).
Just before cooking, in a food processor mix well the coriander, the chilies, the tomato, the tomato purée, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 5 tablespoons water.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil.
Fry the chicken pieces until slightly browned.
Add the coriander mixture, cover and simmer until the chicken is soft (check from time to time if it doesn’t burn and add water if necessary).
Add the yogurt, cook at medium heat, uncovered until the sauce thickens and clings to the chicken.
Adjust the taste, adding more salt if necessary, and serve.
Dear Sissi,
I love coriander and I think the flavour and aroma of coriander seeds are quintessential in so many Asian and Indian curry dishes. The fresh leaves are delightful as garnish and my favourite is a coriander salad with fresh crabmeat, cold cooked prawns and sesame oil in summer.
Hi, Chopinand. Here the fresh coriander is used in most unusual way (at least in my opinion), but it proves that whatever the way to cook coriander, the outcome is always good.
We had a Catholic priest from Kenya over for dinner a few times a few years ago and once I asked him if I could cook something authentically Kenyan for him and he said not to bother to look for recipes, I will probably not be able to get the ingredients anyway. Now I see why. That’s a lot of coriander leaves… wow!
It’s strange because I think all the ingredients in this dish are easy to get… Maybe some other recipes have more unusual ingredients? Here it’s enough to buy two bigs bunches of coriander (or grow it).
I do believe he was talking about the vegetables. He said his family ate mostly vegetable dishes, [I asked about his favourite Kenyan food] but he didn’t even know what to call them in English [the vegetables]. He also said we don’t have them in Canada.
Oh, I see! It would be interesting to see what vegetables they eat…
It makes me think that we have here all year round snap peas and green beans imported from Kenya and even though they must have been sprayed a lot, they taste much better than most local equivalents… Especially green beans. They stay crunchy and have no threads…
As you can well guess, Sissi, I adore the flavour of coriander and heat (here we call the leaves cilantro and the seeds coriander) so I’m going to bookmark the recipe to try. Unfortunately JT doesn’t love it as much as I do, so I will likely make it when he is not home for dinner. I just love the presentation you have for the photo, it is simply beautiful. The green of the coriander is nicely set off by the blue bowl, and it does look very ethnic. I also love the fresh chilies you’ve used as garnish.
Thank you so much, Eva, for the compliments. I’m very happy you like the way it looks because I struggled a lot : it didn’t really look very appetising in reality… The khaki sauce reminded me a bit of baby food 😉 My husband doesn’t like coriander either (I never put it on his plate even as a decoration) but strangely he really loved this dish! I was very surprised.
Eva, I don’t care for coriander either so I’ve been researching a green curry, as I mentioned in my post, and found this recipe that seemed a nice version. I haven’t made it yet, but when Indian food is back in rotation, I’m planning on giving this a try. No yogurt is used and I cleaned up the instructions a bit as the original recipe used a pressure cooker.
Pudina / Mint Chicken
1 kg chicken pieces, any combination preferred
2 medium potatoes, small cubes
1 tbsp vegetable oil (start with 1-2 tsp)
1 medium onion, diced
1 tsp each ground ginger and garlic pastes
1 bunch of fresh mint (I’m not sure how much this will be)
4 green chillies, stemmed and seeded
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp meat or garam masala
1 tsp salt
water, as needed
Fry the onions on medium/medium-high heat in 1 tbsp vegetable oil until golden brown then add the ginger and garlic pastes and cook for a couple of minutes longer.
In a blender, puree mint, green chillies, turmeric, chilli powder, masala and salt with 1/4-1/2 cup water. Add to the onion, garlic, ginger mixture which might be sticking by now.
Add chicken and potatoes and stir thoroughly to combine. Bring to boil and then cover with a lid and simmer for 20-30 min until the chicken is cooked and the potates are tender.
If the ‘gravy’ is too thick, remove the potatoes and chicken to a serving bowl and boil off the excess stirring so the mixture doesn’t stick, then pour the gravy over the meat and potatoes.
NOTE: If you can’t find or don’t like/want to put in the garam masala or meat masalas, you can add sambhar masala to the mixture.
It looks so very appetizing. Sadly I would have to eat it on my own and I would like to eat it for sure. There are people in the world who don’t like to eat cilantro/coriander greens, one of them is my husband. Funny, the name of coriander in german is “true bug herb” (Wanzenkraut) because smell and taste remind on a true bug… nasty isn’t it (laugh). Maybe I will prepare on small portion just for myself, splendid.
Thank you so much, Kiki. I know what you mean… Many people cannot stand even the smell of one poor coriander leaf. Strangely, as I have told Eva, my husband doesn’t eat coriander and he really liked this dish (he was surprised too I think!), so if you prepare it, beware! You might have to share it (although the khaki colour is not very inviting…). I suppose that there aren’t many coriander fans in Germany because even the name puts people off tasting it 😉
I’m not a coriander lover but I can only imagine the herbal flavour burst of this curried chicken. Maybe one of the other 2 green curry chicken dishes , spinach (palak) or mint (pudina) would be almost as good. 🙂
This dish was very unusual, so I couldn’t compare it to anything I have ever tasted, even though the sauce looked a bit like mixed spinach…
This is a fascinating recipe totally new to me: have already bookmarked and shall try at the earliest opportunity/ Love and grow coriander in big, big pots!!
Thank you so much, Eha. Even if you don’t like it, it will be an interesting discovery at least. (It’s difficult to say how many people would like it… Strangely my husband who doesn’t like coriander, loved it and I was sure he would hate it.)
My mom has a number of Madhur Jaffrey cookbooks at home that she is no longer using…I think I need to snatch them up and try some wonderful recipes like this!
Thank you, Liz. The book I cite contains not only Indian but also curries from all around the world, hence this recipe from Kenya. I know that M. Jaffrey is a very appreciated Indian cook, so you will certainly find jewels in your mum’s books.
What a unique and intriguing dish. I do love cilantro and expect that the yogurt would mitigate it just beautifully for a recipe like this – create a bit of a sauce while mellowing the flavour just slightly. I’m curious whether you can taste the ginger/garlic at all or whether it’s all about the lovely green herb (not that that would be a bad thing!) just curious. Sissi, you’re really expanding your lovely dishware… wow, wow, wow. (By the by, blue and green is my very favourite colour combination :)).
Thank you so much, Kelly. Yes, the garlic and ginger are still there; there is a kind of balance between the coriander, the chili, the garlic and the ginger. This is why I said that I’m not sure how it would taste without any hotness because I’m afraid coriander could become too overwhelming… Thank you again for the compliments. This is an old bowl (well, I bought it a year ago) but I rarely take photos of it because it’s quite big. (I love it though and regret having bought only two of them… Now they don’t have these bowls any more.).
Dear Sissi, I present to you the Kenya award for the first Kenyan recipe on the internet. Well, not quite but its the first I’ve seen. And an absolutely marvelous one, I love coriander. My parents grow a lot in their backyard, I will prepare this for sure when I visit them next. And also when I come across a truckload of coriander!
“I would advise this dish only if you are fond of coriander.” …’and chicken.???:)
Hope you are having a great weekend.
Hi, Mr. Three-Cookies I’m honoured to receive the award 😉 Thank you so much. Unfortunately, I have checked before posting (there was no photo of this dish in the book and I wanted to check if mine was similar to the real coriander chicken) and yes, there are some Kenyan recipes.
It is however the first time I ate Kenyan food (I hope it’s more or less genuine; one never knows!). Coriander grows very quickly and easily even on my balcony, so I will be making it often this summer. I have noticed that coriander quickly starts having flowers, so sometimes I end up with a big harvest to be used instantly: this is a perfect way.
It seems that everyone loves chicken, but so many people hate coriander… I’m glad to learn you love it too and I hope you will enjoy this dish (do not forget to make it really hot! otherwise I’m afraid it can lose its charm…
FIFTY grams? That’s an insane amount of coriander, but I do love it so much. I don’t think there’s such a thing as too much of it! (Since you mentioned the american name “cilantro” by the way, have you ever tried “culantro”?). I’m curious as too the author’s reasons for ditching the stems… obviously using 100% stem wouldn’t yield the same results in the recipe but then who’d do that? There’s plenty of flavour in the stems so I’m not sure why to be honest.
Do you think one could/should add in some uncooked coriander at the end, before serving? I noticed that very often in coriander dishes it’s either added at the end, or extra is added at the end since the flavour does die down a lot during cooking. Maybe it would be way too much since already 50g is used to make the sauce, haha 😀
In any case – I’m very intrigued… I can definitely say I’d love it… though perhaps a touch less hot, and I adore the rich green colour! Plus I have no idea about Kenyan cuisine. I always say – it seems like there’s a whole continent of delicious food waiting for me to discover so feel free to post more food with Kenyan origins any time.
Thank you so much, Charles. As I said above, one doesn’t even imagine how much coriander it represents. When I don’t have it on my balcony I usually buy mine in a shop for restaurants and this time I bought a big 100 g bag. I know culantro! I buy it sometimes in my Vietnamese shop, but I had no idea it was called culantro. It’s even stronger than coriander.
I think that if you mix the thick stems you could end up with not very appetising threads… But it’s just my idea. When I make pesto, I never use basil thick stems (only the ones close to the leaves) because of this reason and also because the stems would give a more aggressive, less delicate taste.
I can very well imagine it with a huge heap of coriander: never enough green coriander for me! Fresh coriander has a different taste so it wouldn’t be the same.
If you don’t make it hot, I’m afraid it might be too “grassy” and the coriander’s taste would be maybe too overwhelming… This is why I have mentioned above that I don’t guarantee the result. I loved the balance between the strong taste of coriander and the hotness of fresh chilies. Of course you can use less chilies, but don’t skip them.
I am also very glad to discover a Kenyan dish and if I find anything tempting, I will certainly experiment and post about it!
Thank goodness Bobby and I both love coriander (cilantro) leaves, otherwise, my New Mexican recipes wouldn’t be the same. This is like a coriander pesto which I’ve never had but have always wanted to make. I explored African dishes at one point last year and even made one. Quite different food, and so full of flavor! I love this chicken dish and will be pinning it. BTW – I did some research last year on why cilantro has such a love/hate affair with people. Apparently, researchers have found a gene that some people carry that make coriander leaves tastes like soap. My friends that can’t eat it tell me that – yes – it tastes like soap to them. Soap, bugs – no – I wouldn’t eat it either. Thankfully I don’t have that gene. 🙂 Great post Sissi!
Thank you very much, MJ. I also wanted to prepare coriander pesto for a long time! Thank you for reminding me. I totally agree: this dish was quite different and there are so many different cuisines to discover from African continent.
So a “coriander gene” exists? It’s amazing. Thank you for sharing this information. (Kiki, from Germany, has said that coriander is called “true bug herb” so I’m sure the person who named it had the famous gene 😉 ).
It’s interesting – I bought a huge bunch of coriander from the market today for another dish and after chopping off the thickest stems I was curious so I weighed it… Only 40g, haha.
I wish I’d made this now, but will slate it in for next Sunday I think!
That is a LOT of cilantro! But it’s a herb I learned to love over the years! (yeah, I used to hate it when I was a kid!) 🙂 Can’t wait to try this dish, the color is just beautiful.
Thank you so much, Amy. The colour is not very appetising in reality… Greyish, khaki rather than green, but the green chilies made it look greener.
This is truly fascinating! Never cooked anything Kenyan, but I consider coriander the most versatile of herbs and the idea of celebrating it in a vibrant curry is very much appealing. 50 grams does seem to be lot of coriander, but I guess the taste mellows a little while cooking, doesn’t it?
Thank you so much, Gourmantine. I have also found it fascinating; both the process and the tasting experience. The taste does mellow a lot, but it’s still not advised for those who hate coriander 😉
Sissi, this dish sounds wonderful. My husband and I both love cilantro. There is always a large bunch of it in my refrigerator.
Thank you, Karen. I hope you can try it one day and enjoy it.
Haha “coriander haters”. My dad first tried coriander when he came to the US to eat Vietnamese pho. In Japan coriander is getting popular and probably can buy at a supermarket these days but not a herb that we grew up with. He “hated” it! I remember I disliked it when I first tried it too. But now I love so much that I have a feeling I’ll fully enjoy this Coriander Chicken!
Thank you so much, Nami. I know many people who hate coriander, so when I use it, I always call to ask people if they like it (or I simply serve it in a separate bowl, if it’s just to be sprinkled on top).