Chicken in Coriander / Cilantro Sauce

Chef floWer's Note:

My neighbour was telling me about this dish a while ago and they way she explained it made my mouth water. I asked her a copy of the recipe and here it is now on Zaar. I've only tried it once and next time I make it I may remove the liquid/sauce and puree it so it could be a thicker green sauce. I will also try it with chicken thighs as I used chicken breast and it wasn't tender as I wanted it to be. Overall the flavours were yummy and I served it with cous cous. UPDATE!! After much consideration and experimentation, I've double to sauce as suggested by the reviewers - NOTE!! An "average" sized bunch of coriander is 60 grams (2 oz) = 1 1/2 cups chopped

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 skinless chicken thighs

Sauce

• 2 large onions, peeled & sliced
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 bunches fresh cilantro (** Reminder to use entire coriander, stems and leaf) or 2 bunches fresh coriander, separate stems and leaf then, coarsely chopped (** Reminder to use entire coriander, stems and leaf)
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to your personal taste)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground (or to your personal taste)
• 2 tablespoons lemons, juice of (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large non stick fry pan. When it is hot, add the thighs in one layer and saute them over medium to high heat for 4 minutes on each side or until nicely browned. Remove the chicken to a platter.
2. Add the onions to the dripping in the pan. Sauté for 1 minute. Stir in the garlic, wine and coriander stems only (not leafs at this stage) and sauté for 1 minute longer.
3. Return the chicken to the pan, add lemon (if your using it) salt and pepper. Bring the surrounding liquid to the boil.
4. Cover the pan, reduce the heat and boil gently for 15 minutes.
5. Stir in the coriander leaves and serve 2 thighs per person.
6. Serve with rice or cous cous.

Reviews

[paul schliesser]

One potential problem with this recipe is that a 'bunch' of coriander/cilantro is an extremely imprecise measure. From some of the comments, I think some people are not using enough cilantro. I made the recipe as written and thought it was delicious. Two things that are not clear in the instructions:

Separate the leaves and stems (notice that they are added at different times), and finely mince the stems so that they will cook into the sauce.

The process of separating the leaves and stems is the most time-consuming part of making this dish. I was surprised at the huge pile of cilantro leaves; I thought it must be much too much, but it came out fine.

I removed the chicken and added the leaves at the very end of the cooking process, and stirred the leaves into the sauce and let them cook for about 1-2 minutes so that they wilted. What I ended up with was a green sauce that was almost a cilantro paste; I believe that this is what the recipe author intended, because it certainly worked for me. With less cilantro, I can see that the acidity of the wine and lemon might be too much. I found everything nicely balanced.

I cooked the chicken and sauce slightly longer than the recipe calls for; probably about 20 minutes - I used a meat thermometer and used temperature instead of time to determine when it was done. Perhaps the extra cooking time also benefitted the sauce.

[Chef Buggsy Mate]

Made this for dinner tonight, because of the cilantro. We found this recipe very tasty. I had to alter it slightly because I no longer own a frying pan large enough for my family. So, I baked my chicken in the oven and cooked the sauce on my stove top. I then added the sauce to my chicken during the last 10 minutes of baking. I also made two changes to the recipe ingredients...I subbed chicken broth for the white wine (personal choice) and I used lime juice instead of lemon as I feel it pairs with cilantro better. I will definitely make this recipe again. Thanks for posting. Made and reviewed for the June 2010 AUS/NZ Recipe Swap.

[Andrew Mollmann]

Followed the directions for the most part. I ended up using 1 large bunch of cilantro instead of 2. 1 was plenty. Might be a bit too much onion for my taste, but was good nonetheless.