Name: Chicken and Plantain Moqueca (Moqueca de Galinha e Banana-da-Terra)
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: Brazilian
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons tomato purée; 4 tablespoons dendê (palm) oil (see Glossary); 350 ml (12 fl oz) coconut milk; 125 ml (4 fl oz) white wine; 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped; 1 small piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely grated; 1 medium onion, thinly sliced; sea salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal; 4 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander; 450 g (1 lb) ripe plantains (look for yellow and black-speckled skin); 2 bay leaves; 3 plum tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and sliced; ½ green pepper, thinly sliced; 700 ml (1¼ pints) chicken stock; 1 whole chicken, about 1.6 kg (3½ lb), cut into 8 pieces with the skin on

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Brazilian Kitchen

By Leticia Moreinos Schwartz

Published 2012

About

This is a tame version of the traditional seafood moqueca. The plantain brings a soft sweetness and plenty of starch to the stew. Some recipes call for green plantains, which are treated like a potato, but true Brazilians prefer to eat their plantains ripe or semi-ripe, when the fruit has a fuller balance of sweetness and starch, and carries more juice. This is a straightforward braising dish that takes a bit longer than the fish version (about 1½ hours), but when you taste the dynam