Coconut milk in Honolulu is a pantry can, not a dessert. This is chicken thighs simmered in unsweetened coconut milk with ginger, garlic, and chili, and a pile of bok choy wilted in at the end. It reads like the savory coconut dishes I grew up around — Chinese-Hawaiian home cooking — not Thai takeout and not haupia. No pineapple. No sweet chili sauce. No “tropical.”
Yield: 4 servings | Prep: 15 minutes | Cook: 35 minutes | Total: about 50 minutes
Hawaii Grocery Notes
- Costco: boneless skinless chicken thighs. Sometimes boxed unsweetened coconut milk; check the label for sugar. Butter, garlic.
- Foodland / Times: canned full-fat unsweetened coconut milk (Aroy-D or similar — ingredients should be coconut and water). Fresh ginger, garlic, Hawaiian chili peppers or a red chili, green onion.
- Don Quijote: bok choy or baby bok choy, ginger, chili, more coconut milk brands. Walk past the sweet coconut drinks and the coconut jelly cups.
- Lite coconut milk is mostly water. Get the regular can and stir the fat back in. If the ingredient list has sugar, put it back.
Ingredients
- 1½ lb boneless skinless chicken thighs, patted dry, cut into large chunks
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil or coconut oil
- 1 (13.5 oz) can full-fat unsweetened coconut milk, well stirred
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2–4 Hawaiian chili peppers, sliced, or 1 small red chili (seeds in if you want it hot)
- 1 tablespoon shoyu
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- Black pepper
- 1 lb bok choy or baby bok choy, halved or chopped, washed well
- 2 green onions, sliced
- Optional: squeeze of lime at the table (not in the pot — lime juice cooked in coconut milk can go bitter)
Instructions
- Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a wide pot or deep skillet over medium-high. Brown the thighs in a single layer, 3–4 minutes a side, until they take color. Do two batches if you have to. They do not need to cook through yet.
- Drop the heat to medium. Add ginger, garlic, and chili to the fat in the pan. Stir 30–45 seconds until it smells like dinner, not until the garlic browns.
- Pour in the coconut milk and shoyu. Scrape the browned bits. Return all the chicken and any juices. The liquid should come most of the way up the pieces; add a splash of water only if the can was skimpy.
- Simmer uncovered 18–22 minutes, turning once, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened to a spoon-coating gravy. If it is still thin, simmer a few minutes more. Do not add flour. Do not add cornstarch.
- Push the chicken to the sides. Add the bok choy. Cover 3–4 minutes until the stems are tender-crisp and the leaves wilt. Taste the sauce. Add salt if it needs it. It should be savory and a little spicy, not sweet.
- Green onions on top. Lime at the table if you want it. Serve in a bowl with plenty of sauce. This is the rice replacement: the sauce and the greens.
Kitchen-Estimate Macros (per serving)
Kitchen estimates only, not lab-tested. Calculated for 1 of 4 servings (chicken, a share of the coconut sauce, and bok choy). Coconut milk brands vary; I used a typical unsweetened full-fat can.
| Calories | Fat | Protein | Net carbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~470 | ~34 g | ~34 g | ~6 g |
Notes
- Hidden sugar: sweet chili sauce, bottled “coconut curry” simmer sauces, and some coconut milks. Fish sauce is fine if the bottle is fish and salt; many blends sneak sugar. I use shoyu here because it is what I already have.
- This is not a Thai curry. No curry paste, no fish-sauce-and-palm-sugar balance, no basil garnish unless that is actually in your fridge. Ginger, chili, coconut, bok choy.
- Bone-in thighs work. Add 10 minutes and brown them well. Skin-on is even better if you like the fat; Costco’s big tray is usually skinless, and that is what I wrote the times for.
- Leftovers keep two days. The sauce sets in the fridge; loosen it with a splash of water when you reheat. Better the next day.
- Same Costco thighs as the pork-rind katsu. Buy the tray, cook both in a week.
