Poulet DG
Abuja, Nigeria · View all recipes
Overview
Poulet DG is Cameroonian, fried chicken and ripe plantain in a tomato and vegetable sauce, cooked as one pot and served hot. The name is the good part. Poulet is French for chicken; DG stands for Directeur Général, Managing Director. The dish is named for the kind of person who could afford it. It emerged as a dish for those with money, at a time when chicken and plantain together in that quantity was not an everyday proposition, and the name stuck as a piece of affectionate mockery. It is now widely cooked at every level. The construction is what makes it work. Chicken is fried and set aside; plantain is fried separately until caramelised at the edges; a sauce of tomato, onion, pepper, carrot and green beans is built in the same pan; then everything is combined briefly at the end. That last part matters. The plantain is added late so it keeps its shape and its sweetness against the savoury sauce rather than dissolving into it. It is best eaten immediately, the source is emphatic that it is markedly better hot.
AFN Heritage Note
Poulet DG takes its name from Directeur Général, Managing Director, reflecting its origins as a dish associated with wealth in Cameroon, where the combination of chicken and plantain in quantity was once an expensive proposition.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Brown Chicken Season chicken on both sides with 1 tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Preheat a Dutch oven or other large heavy pot over medium-high heat.
- 2
Add ½ cup oil to pot. Add half the chicken, Fry chicken, turning once, until golden brown on both sides, about 10 minutes total, and transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining chicken or you can just place all the chicken tin the pot like I did and let it brown for about 10 minutes.
- 3
Blend the onions, parsley, and celery, garlic in a food processor or blender into a fine paste. Pour all the mixture into the pot, scraping up any browned bits with a wooden spoon. add Maggie , stirring occasionally, for about 8-10 minutes . Add about ½ a cup of water if need be.
- 4
Mix the carrots and green beans into the pot of chicken; let it simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Finally add the green peppers stir and let it blend, turn off the stove.
- 5
Using a sharp knife cut both ends off the plantain. This will make it easy to grab the skin of the plantains. Slit a shallow line down the long seam of the plantain, peel only as deep as the peel. Remove plantain peel by pulling it back.
- 6
Cut plantains into rounds about an inch thick.
- 7
Heat up a large skillet or cast iron with oil up to ½ inch- medium-high heat until hot but not smoking.
- 8
Fry the plantains until golden brown , then toss plantains with medley of chicken and vegetables . Hold off ,on this part, until you are ready to serve the meal
- 9
Serve immediately.
Africook’s Notes
- Fry the plantain separately and add it at the end. Cooked in the sauce it collapses and turns the whole pot sweet.
- Use ripe but firm plantain, yellow with black speckles. Fully black plantain is too soft to fry into pieces.
- Fry the chicken first and build the sauce in the same pan so the fond goes into it.
- Serve immediately. It is noticeably better hot and does not reheat as well as most stews.
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