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Spicy Coconut Chicken, Lentil and Vegetable Traybake

India’s bold spices take a trip through Thailand’s coconut groves with this blended traybake of fresh flavours. Layered with warming ginger and garlic, add in the heat of fresh chilli, mellowed with creamy coconut, and all brought together and balanced with the earthy notes of lentils.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time55 minutes
Marinating Time2 hours
Total Time3 hours 15 minutes
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Indian, Thai
Keyword: aubergine, Chicken, Coconut, Lentil, One Pot, spinach, Vegetable
Servings: 4
Calories: 700kcal

Equipment

  • 1 ovenproof dish - ideally oven to table

Ingredients

  • 8 chicken thighs bone-in and skin-on
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1/4 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 red chilli deseeded and finely chopped
  • 12 cardamon pods crushed
  • 1 tbsp fresh ginger finely grated
  • 2-3 garlic cloves finely grated
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 red/orange/yellow pepper
  • 1 aubergine
  • 1 can of light/reduced fat coconut milk
  • 1 tin green lentils
  • 100 g baby spinach leaves/spinach roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander to serve
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • In a suitable sealable container, place the chicken thighs together with the cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli powder, chopped chilli, crushed cardamon pods (in a pestle and mortar is easiest to bruise them and release the seeds from the pods), grated ginger, crushed garlic, juice of 1 lemon, and the salt. Toss the chicken thighs in the spicy mix to coat them thoroughly. Leave in the fridge to marinate for at least 2 hours, or preferably overnight.
  • Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
  • Slice the onion finely and place in the bottom of an ovenproof dish (ideally one you can take to the table) and toss in the oil. Remove the chicken pieces from the container and places them on top of the onion, skin side up, and pour over any remaining marinade.
  • Roast in the oven for 25 minutes.
  • Whilst the chicken is roasting, halve and slice the pepper and cut the aubergine into 1 cm cubes. When the chicken has had 25 minutes, remove the dish from the oven, set aside the chicken thighs briefly. Add to the dish the sliced pepper and diced aubergine, pour the can of coconut milk on top of the vegetables and sit the chicken back on top, nestling them into the sauce. Return the oven for another 25 minutes.
  • Remove the dish and sprinkle in the drained can of lentils and add the spinach, pushing them down into the sauce around the chicken, and place the dish back in the oven for a final 5 minutes until the spinach is wilted.
  • Finally, sprinkle over the chopped coriander and serve with your sides of choice. Either some freshly steam brown basmati rice and or some poppadoms, with chutney as options.

Notes

  • Feel free to spice things up further by adding freshly chopped chillis and/or more chilli powder
  • Other green vegetables that would work well instead of spinach would be tenderstem broccoli or green beans.

Nutrition

Calories: 700kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 41g | Fat: 49g | Saturated Fat: 17g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 18g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 221mg | Sodium: 872mg | Potassium: 1149mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 3686IU | Vitamin C: 82mg | Calcium: 107mg | Iron: 5mg