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Senegal boasts one of its best in Chicken Yassa. It’s an exquisite and yet, easy to prepare dish which is commonly garnished with a lot of regular ingredients such as onions and lemon sauce.
This popular West African, French-inspired dish with chicken pieces has a flexible preparation method. No wonder the average southern Senegalese regard it as a ‘comfort food‘.
This dish is simple to prepare, smells wonderful, looks lovely, and tastes amazing. If you’re looking for something different to eat, try this!
What is Chicken Yassa?
Chicken Yassa (also known as Poulet Yassa) is one of the most popular traditional Senegalese dishes, cooked with chicken, caramelized onions, lemon, and a blend of African flavors and spices.
Lamb and fish are two other variations of meat used in Yassa.
Chicken Yassa History
This chicken yassa dish originates from Casamance, a historical and natural region of Southwest Senegal, between The Gambia and Guinea Bissau, partially isolated from the rest of the country by the Gambian territory. The Casamance region gets its name from the river Casamance.
How To Make Chicken Yassa
When making this dish, first make sure you have a lot of onions to put to use. This recipe would never be complete without the flavor relevance of onions. Note also that you may decide to grill or fry your chicken but make sure it’s well simmered with seasonings and fresh lemon juice.
The following steps are needed in making your Yassa chicken:
- Make a marinade of your chicken and onions – Marinating the main elements of this dish is an important step that enhances the flavor of your chicken Yassa. It should take at least 6 hours or even overnight. Simply mix with your marinating ingredients and cover the bowl. It’s best to marinate in the refrigerator.
- Brown your Chicken: You can do this in batches by heating oil and immersing your chicken while letting it be deeply brown on all its sides.
- Caramelize your Onions: At this point, you must have your other seasoning elements such as; hot pepper ready on the side. Here, cook your onions and stir occasionally until it’s ready. Regulated the heat so that it doesn’t burn.
- Just before your serve: Place the hot pepper in your pot and pour in your marinated chicken. Allow the mixture to get ready at a simmering level.
- Serve your Chicken Yassa: It is best served with fluffy white rice.
What Kind Of Chicken Should You Use For Chicken Yassa?
Have you ever heard of poulet bicyclette (literally chicken bicycle in English)? Poulet bicyclette is known in Burkina Faso, in Senegal, in Côte d’Ivoire, in Niger, in Ghana and in Cameroon as well as in most of the West African region.
A chicken gets out of the coop early in the morning, runs all day like a bicycle in search of food and at dusk, it returned to his coop. In Senegal, it is very common to see chickens freely running around in small villages.
These chickens are nicknamed poulet bicyclette because of their fast demeanor and the shape of their legs that resemble the legs of a cyclist. It is quite different from the standard chicken, but what makes poulet bicyclette so popular is its tastier and juicier meat.
If you are new to making African dishes, this is a good recipe to start with and you will be glad you did. I absolutely loved this very tangy and spicy chicken yassa dish!
Other Delicious African Soups and stews
- Banga Soup – delicious Palm-nut Soup
- Okra soup – One-pot soup made with okra, spinach, and meat.
- Stewed Spinach – Delicious stew made with spinach.
- Ewedu – Viscous soup made with Jute leaves
- Nigerian Chicken Pepper Soup – Delicious Spicy soup made with Chicken.
Senegalese Chicken Yassa
Ingredients
- 3 chicken leg quarters (leg and thigh)
- 3 chicken breast halves (bone-in)
- 5 balls of onions (about 2 pounds) peeled, halved, and thinly sliced
- 1 habanero or scotch bonnet pepper
- Marinade
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice
- ¼ cup canola oil or olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 4 medium garlic cloves, crushed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp cooking oil (olive, canola, or grape seed)
- 1½ cups low-salt chicken broth (I recommend Swanson’s)
- 1 cup of garnished pitted green olives, sliced
Instructions
- Marinate the Chicken: Put the chicken and onions into a large glass bowl.
- Cut a few slits in the habanero pepper and add it to the bowl.
- Whisk marinade ingredients in a small bowl and pour on top.
- Toss to coat
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and marinate in the fridge for at least 3 hours or, preferably, overnight.
- Brown the Chicken and Caramelize the Onions: Preheat the oven to 176ºC.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade and sprinkle pieces with a few pinches of salt and a few grinds of pepper, to taste.
- Brown chicken on both sides in batches, three pieces at a time, about 5 minutes per batch.
- Transfer to a plate and set aside. Spoon out some of the chicken fat from the pot, leaving about one tablespoon.
- Caramelize the Onions Set the hot pepper aside and scrape the onions and all the marinade into the pot over medium-high heat.
- Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes to get the onions hot and cooking. Cover the pot and turn the heat to medium-low.
- Let the onions cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes more, until they are soft and starting to caramelize.
- Regulate the heat so they don’t burn.
- Use a spatula or wooden spoon to move onions aside, as you lay chicken pieces into the bottom of the pot, and then mound the onions on top of the chicken pieces.
- Place the hot pepper in the middle of the pot. Pour in chicken broth. Turn the heat to medium high and bring the broth to a simmer.
- Cover the pot and put it in the oven and cook for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Serve with fluffy white rice and sliced green olives.
If you make this Chicken Yassa Recipe, I’d love to see pictures of your creations on Instagram or Facebook. #africanfoodnetwork
