Table Trotter

Dinner night · Papua New Guinea

Mumu-inspired Chicken, Sweet Potato and Greens

A Papua New Guinea earth-oven feast reimagined for a home oven: chicken thighs, sweet potato and leafy greens steamed together in coconut milk, ginger and scallion in a covered pot.

Papua New Guinea · back to the map
On our list — not yet cooked
Mumu-inspired Chicken, Sweet Potato and Greens: A Papua New Guinea earth-oven feast reimagined for a home oven: chicken thighs, sweet potato and leafy greens steamed together in coconut milk, ginger and scallion in a covered pot
AI-generated illustration
Prep
20 min
Cook
50 min
Total
70 min
Serves
2 adults + 1 child, with leftovers for lunch
Budget
$16–$26

A mumu is not a recipe so much as a method: in Papua New Guinea, food is layered over fire-heated stones in a pit, wrapped in banana leaves, covered with earth and left to steam for hours. The ingredients are the country's everyday staples, sweet potato (kaukau), taro, cooking bananas, leafy greens like aibika and, on the coast, coconut cream; pork or chicken joins for celebrations. This version keeps the idea of everything steaming together but moves it to a heavy, covered pot in a home oven: chicken thighs on a bed of sweet potato, greens on top, coconut milk with ginger and scallion over everything, lid shut for the better part of an hour.

Why it's on our list

I like dishes where the technique is the lesson, and here the lesson is patience: nothing is browned, nothing is stirred, and the flavor comes from steam and time. It is weeknight-feasible only in the hands-off sense, so I will plan it for an evening when I can get it into the oven by 5:30 and leave it alone during homework. It is also one of the few dinners here where protein, starch and vegetable all come out of one pot. I expect my son to go straight for the sweet potato, which is the point of a mumu.

Field notes · Origin & culture

The mumu is often called Papua New Guinea's national dish and is central to celebrations across the country: harvests, weddings, births, the arrival of guests. A pit is dug and lined with stones heated in a fire; food wrapped in banana leaves is layered in, covered with more leaves and earth, and steamed for several hours. What goes in depends on region. In the Highlands, kaukau (sweet potato), taro and yam dominate and coconut is largely absent; along the coast and on the islands, coconut cream is poured over fish, chicken and greens. Aibika, a leafy hibiscus relative, is the common green. Mumu is communal cooking for many mouths; a three-person pot in a city oven is a respectful imitation, not the real thing.

Noteworthy ingredients

  • Sweet potato (kaukau): Any orange or white sweet potato works. In PNG there are dozens of varieties; white- and purple-fleshed ones from Asian markets are closer to local kinds, but ordinary supermarket sweet potatoes are fine.
  • Aibika stand-in: Aibika has a mild, slightly slippery leaf. Swiss chard, spinach or collard greens are the practical substitutes; chard is closest in texture. Asian markets sometimes carry a related green labeled "slippery cabbage" or "bele."
  • Full-fat canned coconut milk: The cooking liquid. One can is enough because the vegetables and chicken release plenty of their own.
  • Banana leaves (optional): Frozen, from a Latin or Asian market, thawed and used to line the pot; the traditional wrapping. Parchment is a fine stand-in.
  • Fresh ginger and scallions: The main seasonings. PNG home cooking is not heavily spiced.

Prep — 20 min

  1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Season the chicken thighs all over with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and black pepper and set aside while you prep the vegetables.
  2. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks. If using cabbage, cut it into 2-inch wedges. Peel and slice the plantain or bananas into thick coins, if using.
  3. Strip the chard leaves from their stems; slice the stems into 1-inch pieces and tear the leaves roughly. If using spinach, leave the leaves whole.
  4. Grate the ginger and mince the garlic. Thinly slice the scallions, keeping the dark green tops separate for serving.
  5. In a bowl, stir the coconut milk with the ginger, garlic, white and light-green scallion slices, 1 teaspoon salt and the juice of 1 lime.
  6. If using banana leaves, thaw them, rinse, and pass them briefly over a gas flame or run under hot water until pliable and glossy. Line a Dutch oven with overlapping leaves so they hang over the rim.

Cook — 50 min

  1. Film the bottom of the Dutch oven (or the banana-leaf lining) with oil. Lay in the sweet potato chunks and chard stems in one layer, with the cabbage wedges and plantain around them. Season lightly with salt.
  2. Arrange the chicken thighs skin-side up on top of the vegetables in a single layer.
  3. Pour the coconut milk mixture evenly over the chicken and vegetables.
  4. Pile the chard or spinach leaves on top; they look like too much but steam down to almost nothing. Fold overhanging banana leaves over to enclose everything, or lay a sheet of parchment directly on the greens.
  5. Cover tightly with the lid and bake for 45 minutes without opening.
  6. Check: the chicken should read 175°F at the bone and the sweet potato should be fork-tender; if not, cover and return for 10 minutes. For browner skin, run under the broiler 3–4 minutes, though a true mumu would never see one.
  7. Rest 5 minutes with the lid off. Taste the pot juices and add salt or a squeeze of lime.

Serving

Bring the pot to the table and serve from it: a thigh each, a share of sweet potato and greens, and a ladle of the coconut broth from the bottom. Scatter the dark scallion tops over and put lime wedges out. There is no heat anywhere in this dish, so a mild plate is simply the plate; a child wary of greens can have chicken, sweet potato and broth. Leftovers keep 3 days and reheat gently, covered, with a splash of water; the pot juices are excellent over rice.

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