Chef Makoa
Faraoa ʻIpo (Tahitian Coconut Dumplings)
Soft Tahitian ʻipo, coconut-milk dough rolled by hand and steamed until tender, born from the atoll table of the Tuamotu and carried now to Society Islands kitchens.
Culinary Explorer
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Poulet Fāfā (Tahitian Chicken in Taro Leaves and Coconut Milk)
Created by
Tahiti's Sunday chicken, poulet fāfā, brings tender bird and young taro leaves together in coconut milk until the leaf turns silky, the sauce turns rich, and the whole table leans in.
Main Dishes
Polynesian, Tahitian
Special Occasion
Comfort Food
Celebration
35 min
Active Time
1 hr 20 min cook•1 hr 55 min total
Yield6 servings
The canoe carried more than people. It carried the root, the leaf, the bird, the memory of how to feed a family when the ocean spreads you far apart. In Tahiti, fāfā, the young taro leaves, meet chicken and coconut milk in poulet fāfā, a dish that carries old plant knowledge inside a name shaped by the French-speaking table of today.
This is Tahiti's hand, not Hawaiʻi's, and I cook it open-handed. Back home we know the same leaf as lūʻau leaf, wrapped into laulau or cooked down with coconut. In Sāmoa the cousins fold palusami, in Tonga they make lū, in the Cook Islands rukau. Same elder brother under many tongues. One ocean, one canoe, one root.
The why is simple and not small: taro leaf has to be cooked all the way down. Raw or rushed, it bites the throat. Given time, it softens to dark silk and takes the coconut into itself until the sauce tastes like land, rain, and somebody's patient hands. No blame the taro. If it bites, you hurried it.
Most of us are cooking this in a pot on a stove, not beside a Tahitian ahimaʻa, the earth oven. That's all right. Eat what you have. Use good chicken, fresh coconut milk if you can press it, canned if tonight is a weeknight, and let the leaf and the bird come tender together.
Poulet fāfā belongs to Tahiti and French Polynesia, where fāfā, young taro leaves, sits inside the older canoe-crop world while the word poulet shows the later French overlay on the table. Taro was carried by Polynesian voyagers across the Triangle long before mission and colonial kitchens changed the language of many dishes, which is why this Tahitian pot has cousins in Sāmoan palusami, Tongan lū, Cook Islands rukau, and Hawaiian laulau. The dish is living food, not a museum piece: Sunday family cooking, coconut milk, a practical stove pot, and the deep leaf knowledge still doing its work.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks
Quantity
3 pounds
or 2 1/2 pounds boneless chicken thighs
young taro leaves (fāfā)
Quantity
24 to 30
thick stems and ribs removed, or 1 1/2 pounds frozen taro leaves, thawed
neutral oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
yellow onion
Quantity
1 large
thinly sliced
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
minced
fresh ginger
Quantity
1 tablespoon
grated
sea salt
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons
plus more to taste
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
chicken stock or water
Quantity
1 1/2 cups
fresh coconut milk
Quantity
2 cups
or 1 can full-fat coconut milk plus 1/2 cup water
thick coconut cream
Quantity
1/2 cup
for finishing
lime
Quantity
1
juiced, plus wedges for serving
cooked rice, boiled taro, or roasted breadfruit
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticksor 2 1/2 pounds boneless chicken thighs | 3 pounds |
| young taro leaves (fāfā)thick stems and ribs removed, or 1 1/2 pounds frozen taro leaves, thawed | 24 to 30 |
| neutral oil | 2 tablespoons |
| yellow onionthinly sliced | 1 large |
| garlic clovesminced | 4 |
| fresh gingergrated | 1 tablespoon |
| sea saltplus more to taste | 1 1/2 teaspoons |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1/2 teaspoon |
| chicken stock or water | 1 1/2 cups |
| fresh coconut milkor 1 can full-fat coconut milk plus 1/2 cup water | 2 cups |
| thick coconut creamfor finishing | 1/2 cup |
| limejuiced, plus wedges for serving | 1 |
| cooked rice, boiled taro, or roasted breadfruit | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 6-quart Dutch oven or deep covered pot
- •Large blanching pot for taro leaves
- •Tongs for turning chicken and handling leaves
Instructions
- 1
Clean the fāfā
Strip the thick stems and heavy ribs from the fāfā, the young taro leaves, and rinse them well. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the leaves, and cook 15 to 20 minutes, until they darken and slump fully. Drain, rinse, squeeze out the extra water, and chop rough. That first cook matters. Raw taro leaf can bite the throat, but time turns it gentle.
Frozen taro leaves are welcome here. Thaw them, squeeze them, and still give them a full simmer in the sauce so they finish soft. - 2
Brown the chicken
Pat the chicken dry and season it with the salt and pepper. Warm the oil in a heavy pot over medium heat, then brown the chicken in batches until the skin or outside takes on a golden edge, 4 to 5 minutes per side. It does not need to cook through yet. You are building the bottom of the pot.
- 3
Soften the aromatics
Pour off all but a spoonful of fat. Add the onion and cook until it softens and turns sweet at the edges, about 6 minutes. Stir in the garlic and ginger for one minute, just until the smell lifts clean and warm from the pot.
- 4
Simmer the bird
Return the chicken and its juices to the pot. Add the stock or water, scrape up the browned bits, cover, and simmer gently for 25 minutes. Keep the heat low enough that the liquid moves easy, not angry. Tough boiling makes tough chicken.
- 5
Add leaf and coconut
Fold in the chopped fāfā and pour in the coconut milk. Cover again and simmer 25 to 35 minutes, stirring now and then, until the leaf is dark, silky, and fully tender, and the chicken pulls clean from the bone. The sauce should look rich and green-gold, with a coconut sheen clinging to the spoon.
- 6
Finish with lime
Stir in the coconut cream and simmer uncovered 5 to 8 minutes, until the sauce thickens lightly. Taste for salt, then turn off the heat and squeeze in the lime. The lime should wake the coconut, not make the pot sharp.
- 7
Serve the table
Rest the pot 10 minutes so the sauce settles back into the chicken and leaf. Serve family-style with rice, boiled taro, or roasted breadfruit. Spoon plenty of the coconut-fāfā sauce over each bowl. Always enough for one more.
Chef Tips
- •Cook taro leaves completely. If your throat tingles when you taste the sauce, the leaf needs more time, not more seasoning.
- •Fresh coconut milk gives the cleanest, sweetest body. A good full-fat can is fine on a weeknight, because living food has to live in real kitchens too.
- •No fāfā where you live? Spinach or chard will make a good chicken in coconut pot, but call it that. It won't be poulet fāfā without the taro leaf.
- •Bone-in chicken gives the sauce more depth. Boneless thighs work when you need speed, just shorten the first simmer by about 10 minutes.
- •Serve it beside rice for the everyday table, or with taro and breadfruit when you want the canoe crops to stand in the center.
Advance Preparation
- •The fāfā can be stripped, blanched, squeezed, and chopped one day ahead. Keep it covered in the fridge.
- •Poulet fāfā is even better after a few hours of rest. Rewarm gently over low heat so the coconut does not split.
- •Press fresh coconut milk the morning of if you can. Fresh coconut sours if it sits too long.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 590g)
Calories
825 calories
Total Fat
43 g
Saturated Fat
25 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
17 g
Cholesterol
180 mg
Sodium
990 mg
Total Carbohydrates
60 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
6 g
Protein
50 g
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