Costa Rican Chicken: or at least my attempt to recreate this vacation favorite

Costa Rican Chicken Dish

When we travel in Costa Rica, many of the tours we take serve this delicious fall off the bone chicken dish with a side of rice. Nothing beats being in Costa Rica, surrounded by beautiful pairs of scarlet macaws, but over the years, when we miss our Pura Vida vacations, this is the closest I’ve come to recreating this family favorite dish.

Our magical villa in Tulemar.

The greatest place we’ve ever stayed in Costa Rica is near Manuel Antonia State Park in Quepos. The Tulemar Resort is built on a hill and has a private beach. It houses a sloth rescue center and is filled with naughty monkeys. Tulemar has condos that you can rent or luxury villas. Casa de Frutas was our favorite villa out of our 3 stays at Tulemar.

The view from Tulemar Resort in Quepos, Costa Rica.

We had a chef come to our villa and cook dinner one night. He made a feast of Costa Rican dishes but the highlight of the meal was what he called the Caribbean Chicken, the type of food they prepare on the Eastern side of Costa Rica and Panama, where the cultural ties to the Caribbean are stronger. The chicken was sweet and flavorful and the kids couldn’t get enough.

I asked him for the recipe and he told me with a smile, “just marinade chicken in coconut milk and brown sugar!” That seemed like a great place to start. I’ve been tinkering with the ingredients since we came home, and this is the recipe that will be our way to travel back to that Costa Rican dinner. Such a treat to bring a little Caribbean flavor to our weekly dinners in Chicago.

Achiote Paste and Salsa Lizaro are two other key Costa Rican ingredients to add to this chicken. The Salsa Lizaro is best served with the chicken so that people can choose how much to add. It adds some salty umami but a little goes a long way. The Achiote paste gives a nice red color to your chicken but isn’t very hot. You can find both of these ingredients in the international aisle of many supermarkets or by ordering from Amazon.

If you live in Chicago, you can try Costa Rican food at Irazu.

Yield: 6-8

Author: Vanessa Druckman

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Costa Rican Chicken

This dish is my attempt to recreate the Costa Rican chicken dish we are served at so many roadside stands and adventure tours when we go to Costa Rica. Feel free to tweak to make it your own!

Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 2 HourTotal time: 2 H & 5 M

Ingredients

• 2 to 3 pounds of bone in, skin on chicken thighs
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• juice of one lime
• 1 tablespoon of grated ginger
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon of achiote paste
• 2 tablespoons of Salsa Lizano

Instructions

1. In a large dutch oven, mix the coconut milk, achiote paste, Salsa Lizano, tomato paste, ginger, garlic, brown sugar, salt and lime juice. Stir well to make sure all the flavors and combined. You can also do this in a slow cooker.
2. Add the chicken thighs and mix well to cover the chicken thighs in the sauce.
3. Cover the dutch oven and put in the oven at 325 degrees for 2 hours. Every 30 minutes or so, stir to make sure nothing is sticking or burning.
4. Remove the chicken from the dutch oven. Put on the stove over high heat and boil for 3-5 minutes to thicken the sauce a bit. If you used a slow cooker, pour the sauce in a saucepan to thicken on the stove.
5. Serve the chicken with rice and with the thickened sauce on the side.