Pacific Islander Food: Chicken Kilaguen

Posted on Jan 6, 2012 by Chelo in Family Favorites, Featured Articles, Food, Main Dish | 7 comments

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As the day of our departure for the Marianas draw near,  I have been mentally preparing for our trip.  This is a first time traveling for more than 24 hours with  my little babe. Kind of nerve wracking but I’m so excited at the thought of finally reuniting with my beloved.

During my mental preparations, I came across a very tasty memory tucked away in some crevice of my mind labeled, “yummy foods”.  I remembered a very islander, very Cool, and coconut-y grub:

Chicken Kilaguen

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Print CHICKEN KILAGUEN Recipe Here

This is a very common food served when the local islanders get together for parties and what not.  It is life changing!

I’ve seen several variations of this recipe but I decided to stick with the most simple and most authentic.

This recipe serves about 7-12 people

All you need are these:

• Grill
• 7-10 boneless chicken breast
• 2 coconuts (not the green baby ones but the brown ones with the husks removed. don’t know what it’s called) with hard meat; Grated.
• 6 medium lemon (juiced)
• 2 medium lime (juiced)
• 10 stalks green onions
• 1 small ginger (about 2 inches)  grated, very finely
• salt  and pepper (to taste)
• pita bread or taco wrap (optional)

Here are my green onions and the citruses.  I did most of the action outdoors and was loving all the natural light  :)

My dream kitchen/house has massive windows to let abundant natural light in

A little tip that I heard from somewhere  (probably some cooking show. I don’t remember):  First cut the green onion stalks in half.  When dicing, mix the opposite ends together (green & white/ hard & soft) and then do the dicing. It makes the cutting go smoother!

I dice the onions very finely.

I juice the lime and lemons through a strainer.  We don’t want to eat bitter lemon seeds!

Set aside the juice.

And now about the coconuts.

You’d need something strong and heavy (like a hammer, maybe?) to break open this fruit of the tropics.

I just used a knife sharpener that we had in the kitchen.

Then I would suggest two ways to end up with grated coconut:

1. Remove the coconut meat with a knife or a spoon (not so easy!).  Then use a cheese grater or any other hand held grater you have available to grate away the said coconut meat.

OR

2. Get yourself one of these handy dandy little coconut grater a’la stool!

 Photo Source – Tangled Noodles

My Mama just happened to have a make-shift one made especially by my Tata.

It worked like a dream

The last time I remember sitting in one of these coconut grater stool was in Cabanatuan City, Philippines.  My Lola owned one.  But I think this is the first time I actually did the grating!

Be careful not to go all the way to the coconut shell.

We don’t necessarily want woodsy taste in our Chicken kilaguen.

Two coconuts gave me about 8 cups of beautifully grated fresh coconut

By the time I was finished with the cutting and grating, the chicken should be done cooking in the grill.

The chicken had no seasoning or marinade of  any kind. Just plain chicken.

Check out this heart-shaped one:

Dice the chicken.

Dice

and

dice away.

Mix the onions, ginger, coconut, in with the diced chicken.  

Mix these together.

Then add the lemon and lime juice (About 3 cups).

Add about 3 tbs.  (or to taste) of salt and pepper.

OPTIONS:

1. SPICE IT UP! Dice up some Habanero or Thai pepper and mix in with the chicken kilaguen (USE GLOVES PLEASE). I did this on a separate batch. Yum!

2. COCONUT: As I mentioned above, you can use frozen grated coconut instead.

3. CHICKEN: (NO GRILL?) You can bake or broil the unseasoned chicken instead.

4. CHICKEN: (NO GRILL?) You can use the store bought broiled chicken. The down side is that they are usually seasoned and this will change the taste. For better or worse.  I don’t prefer this option.

4. GINGER: Some people use the Japanese red ginger.

5. HOW TO EAT IT: Some people eat Chicken Kilaguen in a soft taco wrap or pita bread.  Some people eat it with rice.   And then some  just eat it by itself.

Yep! It was delicious.

You should try it and experience the taste of the Marianas!

PS.

Here’s my daughter getting a little taste of Filipino Culture!

Her Mama’s showing her the ropes with the classic coconut grater stool!

FOODIE PARTIES

http://www.toysinthedryer.com/

http://www.lovelycraftyhome.com/

http://www.foodtripfriday.net/

http://pictureclusters.blogspot.com/

http://www.serenitynowblog.com

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