Macau-Style Baked Portuguese Chicken Rice. Delicious comforting chicken baked under melting cheese over rice with a coconut curry sauce. Great for dinner or leftovers for lunch.
The sauce has a mild curry taste and a lovely coconut scent. When that sauce is baked over the tender chicken thighs with cheese and rice it is pure heaven in your mouth. This Portuguese chicken and rice recipe is one of my husband’s favourite dishes to order at any Hong Kong style café. A popular east meets west fusion dish.
If you love curry, coconut, chicken, rice and cheese then you are going to love this Asian-style baked Portuguese chicken. It’s pretty simple to make at home and just requires some mild prep work. I’m going to show you how to make baked Portuguese chicken rice at home. I tried to reduce the number of ingredients without compromising the taste and folks I did it. So, you can thank me later. My husband said the dish was spot on and we may never have to spend $15 on takeout again.
Easy to make!
This Hong Kong style baked chicken rice with coconut curry sauce is easy to make. First you’ll marinate your halved chicken thighs with a very simple marinade. Then cook your rice and fry it with soy sauce and eggs. Next layer that fried rice into a baking dish and spread it out evenly.
Secondly, in a pan set over medium high heat add some oil into your pan, followed by onions and chicken thighs. Brown the thighs on each side for 5 minutes and cooked through. Pour coconut milk over top, followed by curry powder, turmeric and salt. Give it a mix and pour the sauce with chicken over the fried rice. Sprinkle some shredded cheese over top.
Broil it for 10 minutes at 500 degrees F. Serve and enjoy!
Watch how I made it!
Don't forget to like, subscribe and comment if you enjoyed my video! It contains some cooking asmr so sit back and relax as you watch it!
Tips for Macau-style Portuguese chicken rice
Below I share tips on how to make the best tray bake Portuguese chicken and rice:
- If possible, use day old rice. I didn’t in this recipe video, and it worked out fine but day-old rice tends to be better for fried rice.
- Use fresh chicken thighs that are skinless boneless. This will make your life easier so you’re not skinning the meat off.
- Once the eggs, rice and soy sauce have come together, transfer the rice immediately to the pan. Remember you’re cooking this in the oven too.
- Brown the chicken on both sides – browning the chicken gives this dish more flavour
- Par-boil or pre-cook your diced potatoes in a pot of water or microwave before adding to sauce.
- Use whole fat canned coconut milk. This offers a delicious luscious creamy flavour
- Do not add to much curry powder. You may think this isn’t enough curry, but this dish isn’t just about the curry. It’s about the coconut milk and the chicken so don’t overwhelm it with curry unless you’re a MEGA curry lover.
- Use shredded cheese to make broiling time faster for this Hong Kong style Portuguese chicken rice.
FAQ
Below are frequently asked questions about this HK style Portuguese chicken recipe:
Can I use light coconut milk?
No, you will need canned whole fat coconut milk.
A lot of other recipes sprinkle desiccated coconut on top, why doesn’t yours?
I wanted to keep this recipe very simple by reducing the long list of ingredients. You can add it to yours, but I found I was still able to achieve the same results without it.
Can I use any rice?
Jasmine rice works best for this recipe but hey if you like short grain rice, use it.
Can I omit the eggs while frying the rice?
I wouldn’t suggest it, the eggs give the rice that flavour it needs otherwise it’ll be bland.
Other Chicken recipes you may like!
If you enjoyed this Macau Portuguese chicken curry check out my other chicken recipes:
ONE-POT HAINAN CHICKEN RICE
CHINESE CHICKEN FRIED RICE
CHICKEN PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE
SWEET SPICY GOCHUJANG CHICKEN
CHINESE FIVE SPICE HONEY CHICKEN
MONGOLIAN CHICKEN
For this recipe
You will need the following ingredients for this HK Portuguese chicken recipe:
- 6 chicken thighs, sliced into half, skinless boneless recommended
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheddar Cheese
Fried rice:
- 6 cups cooked jasmine rice
- 4 Eggs
- 3 tbsp Soy sauce
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
Chicken marinade:
- 1 tsp cooking wine
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Garlic powder
- ½ tsp Curry powder
Coconut Curry Sauce:
- ¾ cup Onion, diced
- 2 cups Potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 400 ml canned Coconut milk
- 1 tsp Turmeric
- 1 tsp salt
How to make baked Portuguese chicken rice
- Slice chicken thighs into half. Marinate chicken in cooking wine, salt, garlic powder, curry powder.
- Peel and dice potatoes. Then boil in hot water for 5 minutes until fork tender. Strain and set aside.
- In a large pan over medium high heat, add 2 tbsp cooking oil and cooked rice. Break rice apart. Then add soy sauce and eggs. Mix everything together until eggs are cooked. Transfer rice into a 9x13 baking dish and spread out evenly.
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
- In the same cooking pan over high heat, add 1 tbsp cooking oil and diced onions. Followed by marinated chicken thighs. Brown chicken on each side for 5 minutes. Next add cooked potatoes, coconut milk, turmeric, curry powder and salt. Mix well.
- Spoon chicken and sauce over fried rice and spread out evenly. Sprinkle cheese over top. Broil for 5-10 minutes until cheese has melted and browns slightly. Enjoy!
Give it a try!
Well, I hope you give my Macau-Style Baked Portuguese Chicken Rice a try! It always excites me when you guys make my recipes and I hope this is one you try.
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Christie
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Macau-Style Baked Portuguese Chicken Rice
Ingredients
- 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs sliced into half, skinless boneless recommended
- 1 cup shredded cheese
Fried rice:
- 6 cups cooked jasmine rice
- 4 Eggs
- 3 tbsp regular soy sauce
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
Chicken marinade:
- 1 tsp Shaoxing Cooking Wine
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Garlic powder
- ½ tsp Curry powder
Coconut Curry Sauce:
- ¾ cup yellow onion diced
- 2 cups potatoes, yellow russet peeled and diced
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 400 ml Coconut milk canned
- 1 tsp Curry powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Slice chicken thighs into half. Marinate chicken in cooking wine, salt, garlic powder, curry powder.
- Peel and dice potatoes. Then boil in hot water for 5 minutes until fork tender. Strain and set aside.
- In a large pan over medium high heat, add 2 tbsp cooking oil and cooked rice. Break rice apart. Then add soy sauce and eggs. Mix everything together until eggs are cooked. Transfer rice into a 9x13 baking dish and spread out evenly.
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
- In the same cooking pan over high heat, add 1 tbsp cooking oil and diced onions. Followed by marinated chicken thighs. Brown chicken on each side for 5 minutes. Next add cooked potatoes, coconut milk, turmeric, curry powder and salt. Mix well.
- Spoon chicken and sauce over fried rice and spread out evenly. Sprinkle cheese over top. Broil in the oven for 5-10 minutes until cheese has melted and browns slightly. Enjoy!
I have had quite a few different chicken and rice casseroles, but your coconut curry sauce really brings something fun and fresh to this dish. YUM!
The video was enticing, so I thought I'd give it a try. I had to tweak a couple of minor things but it tuned out REALLY good! We're definitely having this as a regular dinner dish from now on.
Thanks so much for the kind words and for making my recipe Kevin! I'm so glad you enjoyed it with the tweaks and happy it'll be a regular dish on rotation.
Some in my family don't care for dark meat chicken. Do you forsee any negative results in using chicken breasts or tenders instead of thighs?
Chicken breast can be used but it can easily dry out so I would reduce the cooking time as you brown it on the stove top (until you reach an internal temperature of 160 F). Then when you pop it in the oven to bake, it should reach 165 F.
This was delicious, tasted just like my local HK cafe’s dish! Thanks for the recipe!
So thrilled to read this Ada! Thanks for making my recipe and glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Great recipe! I’ve tried making this dish from a few other recipes and this one was the best. I really miss ordering this at Hong Kong cafes but I can’t find it where I live now. Will be keeping this for sure!
Thanks so much for making my recipe Belinda! So glad I could share this recipe with you so you can make it at home 🙂