I’ve worked with Tropical Traditions numerous times now, reviewing many of their products. Today, I’m sharing my thoughts on their Organic Shredded Coconut. I love dishes made with coconut – especially curry! – and I was intrigued to learn that you can actually make your own coconut milk with this. Remember the yummy Red Curry Chicken that I made a few months back? That recipe calls for coconut milk, and it’s usually pretty expensive – so I’m really interested in making my own. However, I am currently awaiting the arrival of a new blender, as my old one has been broken for some time – so I was eager to try out another coconut recipe in the meantime! I browsed through Tropical Traditions’ Free Coconut Recipes website, and decided to modify this recipe for Island Rice with Chicken to what I had on hand. First, I greased a pan with some Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil – this is the same jar that I reviewed last July, and I still have about half a jar left. You only need a small amount of coconut oil for cooking, so a little goes a long way.

The original recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but I used chicken thighs instead because that’s what I have on hand – I stocked up on chicken thighs recently because of a great coupon deal! These thighs don’t require defrosting and can be cooked straight from the freezer. I put three thighs in the pan and covered them with garlic seasoning salt, chopped garlic (I really like garlic!), ginger, sea salt, and shredded coconut. I popped this in the oven and cooked it for roughly an hour.

Meanwhile, I got the rice started. Normally I use a rice cooker, but this recipe had pretty specific directions for cooking it on the stovetop, so I decided that it would be safest to follow the recipe. I put about 6 ½ cups of water in the pot – the recipe calls for 7, but I adjusted it since I used a different kind of rice – and added ¼ cup of coconut oil, about 1 cup of frozen, chopped onion (which I prepared during my last freezer cooking weekend), and sea salt. I boiled the water, added the rice, and cooked as per the recipe until done.

I removed the chicken from its roasting pan and spooned in the rice. Instead of shredding the carrots, I chopped them into small pieces and mixed it together with the rice. I then put the three chicken thighs on top of the rice & carrot mixture, and added a can of pineapple with juice, a generous layer of shredded coconut (I added more than called for because I thought it would be yummy!), peanuts, and soy sauce. I then covered it with foil and baked for about 25-30 minutes.

This dish is very rich and yummy, and makes a ton of food! The sweet and savory flavors in this meal work together well. I’m looking forward to trying this shredded coconut in other dishes – it is extremely flavorful, and I was impressed by the taste and quality.

Want to try this recipe for yourself? Click here to enter my Shredded Coconut giveaway!