Venezuelan Coconut Chicken

Name: Venezuelan Coconut Chicken
Prep time: 12 min
Cook time: 23 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Venezuela
Ingredients: 2 Chicken Breasts; 2 chopped Onion; 1 clove peeled crushed Garlic; 4 Bay Leaves; Pinch Black Pepper; Pinch Turmeric; Pinch Cumin; Pinch Salt; 1 tablespoon Sugar; 3 Tomato; 1 tablespoon Ginger Paste; 1/3 cup Olive Oil; 1 Can Coconut Milk; 1/2 cup Water

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Chicken recipe with Venezuela flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 55 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings · 35 min total

2 Chicken Breasts
2 chopped Onion
1 clove peeled crushed Garlic
4 Bay Leaves
Pinch Black Pepper
Pinch Turmeric
Pinch Cumin
Pinch Salt
1 tablespoon Sugar
3 Tomato
1 tablespoon Ginger Paste
1/3 cup Olive Oil
1 Can Coconut Milk
1/2 cup Water

Step-by-step instructions

Cut the chicken up into bite size pieces. Peel and cut the onions, mince the garlic.
Assemble the rest of the ingredients and you are ready to start cooking.
Make the Dish Heat up a fry pan over medium heat. Add the oil and when hot, sauté the onion until translucent. Remove from pan and transfer to a blender or food processor.
Add tomatoes, garlic, turmeric, cumin, sugar, ginger paste, coconut milk, water and blend smooth.
In the same pan you cooked the onion, add the chicken and brown all sides. This should take about 3 minutes.
Add the blender ingredients and bay leaves to the pan, bring to a simmer and cook until the chicken is white inside and the liquid is creamy. (15 to 20 minutes) Remove the bay leaves and serve with white rice.

Why this works on a weeknight

Venezuelan Coconut Chicken lands at about 35 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Skillet & One-Pan collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Venezuelan Coconut Chicken actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🥘 Skillet & One-Pan Chicken Venezuela