Exploring an underknown cuisine: Burmese Mango Chicken

A curry sauce made of onions, garlic, ginger, mango and coconut milk is the base for the delicious Burmese chicken dish. Recipe below.

BURMESE RESTAURANTS ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN in the United States. So when boredom-inspired antiquing sent us out to the western suburbs last weekend, we knew we would be visiting Pa Lian.

This Burmese restaurant in a shopping center in Wheaton, Illinois, opened in 2018. It’s just far enough from the city for us that we couldn’t justify making the trek. After our first meal there—takeout, the only option now because of the pandemic—we will definitely be going back to Pa Lian.

The reason for the scarcity of Burmese restaurants in America is the scarcity of Burmese and Burmese-descended people here. The 2010 census put the number at slightly more than 100,000 people. In 2019, the number had climbed to just under 200,000, according to the Pew Research Center. Impressive growth, but still low numbers overall.

Burmese cuisine is shaped by many influences, beginning with the mix of more than 100 cultures within Myanmar, formerly Burma. Other influences relate to Myanmar’s neighbors—India, China and Thailand as well as other countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. Ingredients, techniques and traditions get shared freely and adapted.

All that said, Burmese cuisine is very much its own thing. In our admittedly limited experience—we first encountered it in San Francisco and have since had it in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Washington, D.C., and now, Wheaton—we have never tasted anything like it. Flavors are subtle and layered, not overly spicy. A Burmese phrase defining the cuisine translates to sour, salty and spicy. The dishes we have sampled have been far more nuanced.

Among other dishes, Pa Lian’s menu offers a range of meats and seafood, most served in a variety of curry bases. Our Burmese Mango Chicken was inspired by one of the dishes we had there, featuring a mango curry base (mango is perhaps the most popular fruit in Burmese cuisine). In researching this dish, none of the recipes we found included chunks of potatoes, which Pa Lian’s did. We loved that and included them in ours. Our dish by no means replicates their delicious version, but is pretty good in its own right.

Print Pin

Burmese Mango Chicken

A curry sauce made of onions, garlic, ginger, mango and coconut milk is the base for the delicious Burmese chicken dish.

Course Main Course, Poultry

Cuisine Burmese

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into bite-sized chunks
• grapeseed oil (or vegetable oil of your choice)
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 1-1/2 cups)
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 4 tablespoons peeled, minced fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons curry powder (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 14-ounce can coconut milk
• 3 cups frozen mango chunks, thawed (or three fresh mangos, peeled and chopped)
• 1 teaspoon salt plus more as needed
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper plus more
• 1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks (about 3 medium—we used Yukon gold)
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce (see Kitchen Notes)
• cooked white rice for serving

Instructions

• Lightly season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large sauté pan or skillet over medium-high flame. Briefly sauté the chicken, stirring frequently. You don’t want to brown it, just cook off the pinkness (and honestly, flavor the pan with chicken). Chicken won’t be cooked through and that’s okay. Transfer to a bowl and reserve.
• Reduce heat to medium and add onion, drizzling in more oil as needed. Cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, 3 minutes or so.
• Add garlic, ginger, curry powder and cumin, stirring to combine with onion. Cook for about 1 minute, stirring frequently and, again, drizzling in more oil if needed.
• Transfer to a blender. Add coconut milk, 2 cups of the mango and 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Blend until smooth, creating the mango curry sauce.
• Return sauce to skillet. Add potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, covered for about 15 minutes. If sauce gets too thick (which it may do on the bottom), stir in 1/2 cup water.
• Stir in fish sauce and return chicken to pan. Cook for another 5 minute or so, until chicken is cooked through, adding a little more water if sauce gets too thick.
• Stir in remaining cup of mango and remove from heat. Spoon alongside rice and serve.

Kitchen Notes

Curry powder? No, it’s not an authentic Asian spice blend, but it’s a shortcut way to get a good blend of spices. Use your favorite variety or create your own spice mix.

Yes, you need the fish sauce. Despite its name, this condiment used in numerous Asian cuisines doesn’t taste fishy. It just imparts a wonderful, savory umami to food. We cooked this dish both without and with the fish sauce; adding it turned a good recipe into something much more complex and delicious. If you don’t have it, or won’t use it, use soy sauce instead. Or Worcestershire sauce (which, by the way, has anchovies in it—just saying).