Hawaiian Chicken Luau

Hawaiian Chicken Luau

This Hawaiian dish is quite famous world wide. I first tasted this dish during my first trip to United States. I was really impressed by the subtle use of Greens along with Coconut Milk, which is not very common. But when it came to the greens, I found that the traditional dish calls for Taro leaves, which are quite commonly known as Arbi leaves or Colocasia leaves in most parts of  India. I tried to find a substitute for Taro and ended up with our good old Spinach. If you are an adventurer in the world of food, then go ahead and prepare this wonderful dish with Taro/Arbi leaves. You can always substitute with Spinach, but it won't taste as good.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes (more if you make fresh coconut milk)
Cooking Time      :  50 minutes
Difficulty              :  Very easy
Serves                  :   4

Ingredients :

1 Whole Chicken, cut into pieces ( 1 Kilo, cut into 10 - 12 pieces) 

1 tablespoon Vegetable or Canola oil

1 teaspoon Hawaiian Sea Salt (I used normal sea salt) 

Water, as needed

1 Kilo of fresh Taro/Arbi/ Colocasia leaves, or you can use Spinach instead.

2 tablespoons Butter or Margarine

Salt to taste 

400 mils of Coconut Milk (you can use canned like I do, or even better extract your fresh coconut milk)

 

Method :

 1) Heat vegetable oil in a large pot over medium - high heat.

 2) Add the chicken pieces and brown lightly, turning frequently. Do this in batches as too many chicken together would broil them, instead of getting properly browned.

 3) Once they are browned, put all the chicken back into the pot Add enough water to cover the chicken.

 4) Simmer for about 30 minutes. Pour out the liquid. Keep the Chicken separately.

 5) In the same pan, heat 2 tablespoons butter or margarine. Add the drained chicken.

 6) Season with salt to taste and simmer.

 7) Add taro/arbi/colocasia leaves (washed, cleaned and finely chopped) or you can use Spinach (washed, cleaned and roughly torn) , stir well to mix.

  8) Add coconut milk to chicken. Simmer for 5-10 minutes till the Chicken is well done and leaves turn into a green mash.

  9) Serve hot with Coconut Rice.

               Taro/ Arbi / Colocasia Leaves                                       Fresh Spinach