Hello friends! Let’s get right to it. This dish is my favorite Burmese dish EVER. And, it’s the one that I always, always remember Auntie May making and the one that Little Buddha and I begged Mom to make. We didn’t know what it was- we merely called it the very technical and no doubt correct name of “coconut chicken.” Later I’d learn it was actually called ohn-no khaut swe (pronounced cow-swai), though it’ll always be coconut chicken to me.
There are numerous recipes out there, but I knew I had to get Auntie May’s recipe since that was the one that I know and love. After reading a bunch of them, I realized that Auntie May’s was very different in one major respect: she used yellow lentils as a base rather than the soybean or miso paste I found in so many other recipes. No surprise there, lentils were as common place in my house as milk.
So I asked Mom for the recipe and this is what she handed me:
SO precise.
Anyway, she did her best to create an exact recipe from the “little of this, little of that” method of cooking, and it came out perfectly, just as I remembered. Why have I not been making this before now?
The other thing about this, and probably one of the reasons that Little Buddha and I loved it so much as kids, is that, unlike the Mohinga, is very mild with almost no heat at all. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t add any of those condiments I told you about a few days ago. And, like the Mohinga, you eat this with rice vermicelli.
Khaut Swe
Burmese ohn-no khaut swe is a delicious coconut chicken soup with lentils served over noodles, and topped with a variety of Burma's delicious condiments.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken, cut up
- Paprika and turmeric (to coat the chicken-see below)
- 2-3 TB oil
- 3 onions, thickly sliced
- 3 inches ginger, sliced into small toothpicks
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 cups yellow lentils, cooked until soft with 1 clove garlic and 1 inch ginger
- 1 TB fish sauce
- 1 15-ounce can lite coconut milk
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 4 hard boiled eggs, sliced
- Vermicelli noodles, to serve
- Cilantro, to garnish
- The condiments
- Lime juice, as desired
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Vermicelli, to serve
Directions
- Step 1 Cut up the chicken pieces and sprinkle with turmeric and paprika to coat (sorry this isn’t more exact-just cover the pieces).
- Step 2 Sauté the chicken pieces in a deep stock pot with about 2 TB oil, about 3 minutes on each side. Remove from the pot.
- Step 3 In the same pot, add the garlic, ginger and onions, and cook down about 4-5 minutes.
- Step 4 Add the coconut milk, chicken broth, fish sauce and lentils to the pot.
- Step 5 Add the chicken. Cover and simmer about thirty minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
- Step 6 Add the eggs right before serving.
- Step 7 Serve atop the noodles. Slurp away.
