I love this dish for the flavours and appearance. This is perfect for a dinner party as it looks fancy but is really simple to make. You can add some pineapple chunks to the teriyaki chicken for some added sweetness.

I have always been experimenting on recipes to make the perfect rice- do you boil it? do you steam it? do you microwave it? I finally came up with the perfect recipe for coconut rice, which works every time. It is based on the Indian rule of making rice- to measure out the volumes of rice and liquid. This recipe produces fluffy, warm coconutty rice and is the perfect compliment to the chicken.

Ingredients: (serves 6)

• 3 whole pineapples

For the chicken: 

• 12 chicken thighs (2 chicken thighs for each person), chopped into small pieces
• Sesame seeds (to garnish)
• Lime wedges (to garnish)
• A few slices of red chilli (to garnish)
• A few tsp cornflour

For the chicken marinade:

• 60ml soy sauce
• 45ml mirin sauce
• 40g brown sugar
• 1tsp honey
• 4tsp teriyaki sauce (optional)
• Juice of 1 lime
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, chopped
• Small piece of ginger, grated

Coconut rice:

• 1 mug of rice (I usually just use the basic supermarket rice, I find that this works better than thai sticky rice)
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 2 mugs of water
• Pinch of salt

Method:

Chicken:

1. For the chicken, combine all the marinade ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Put the cut chicken into the marinade. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for a few hours, if possible. You can do this whilst you make your rice.
3. To cook the chicken, place some oil in a hot wok and add the chicken and all the sauce it is in, to the wok.
4. Cook on a high heat for about 10 minutes, or until cooked and sticky.
5. If the sauce is not thick enough, then take out a bit of the sauce into a cup and mix well with a few tsp of the cornflour. Then return this sauce into the pan, and place on high heat for a few minutes.
6. Season with salt and pepper.

Coconut rice:

1. Put the rice, coconut milk, water and salt into a saucepan.
2. Bring to the boil, whilst stirring.
3. Once on the boil, reduce the heat to very low and put a lid on the saucepan.
4. Leave to cook for about 10-12 minutes.
5. Check if the rice is cooked. If not, then add a bit more water to the pan, and cook for a bit longer.

Pineapple:

1. Cut the pineapple in half lengthways.
2. Get a knife and cut around the edges of the pineapple.
3. Scoop out the flesh and eat!
4. Fill the ‘bowl’ with the teriyaki chicken and coconut rice.
5. Garnish with red chilli, lime wedges and sesame seeds.