Nigerian Chicken Stew
Nigeria
Senior Editor
Abuja, Nigeria ·
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Abuja, Nigeria ·
Nigerian stew is the base layer of the country's cooking, and the chicken version is the one made most often. Tomato, tatashe and scotch bonnet are blended and reduced hard in oil until the raw edge is gone and the oil separates and floats, then chicken that has already been simmered and fried goes in to finish. That reduction is the whole technique. A Nigerian stew that has not been cooked past the point where the oil rises tastes sharp and raw, and the difference between a good one and a poor one is almost entirely how long the cook was willing to stand over the pot. Everything else is adjustable: the pepper ratio, the protein, the thyme and curry that most households include. Its versatility is why it matters so much. The same pot of stew goes over white rice, with yam, with plantain, with bread, with beans, and it keeps in the fridge for the week and freezes well beyond that. Nigerian households make it in quantity for exactly that reason. Local chicken, the older hard birds, are preferred for flavour despite being tougher, and boiling before frying is the standard sequence, which also produces the broth that goes back into the stew.
Nigerian stew is built on tomato and pepper reduced in oil, a base shared across West African cooking. Tomatoes and chilli peppers both reached West Africa through Atlantic trade following the Columbian exchange and were absorbed into an older tradition of pepper based sauces.
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.
Wash and clean the chicken and set it aside.
Chop the onions finely.
In a bowl, mix the garlic powder, ginger powder, thyme, curry powder and crumbled seasoning cubes.
Boil the chicken with enough water to cover it, until fully cooked. Remove the chicken and reserve the broth.
Fry the boiled chicken until browned, then set aside.
Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.
Add the chopped onions and fry until translucent and slightly golden.
Add the spice mixture and cook, stirring, until the spices release their aroma.
Stir in the tomato paste, ground scotch bonnet, fresh tomatoes and tatashe.
Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the oil separates from the tomato mixture.
Add the fried chicken and fry for a few minutes until well coated with the sauce.
Add reserved chicken broth gradually to reach the consistency you want.
Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes on low heat.
Serve hot with rice, yam or plantains.
Personal notes from Deborah Olayiwola4 reviews
I couldn't get scotch bonnets at LuLu so I used regular red chillies, but the flavor was still poa. Searing the nyama after boiling made a huge difference in texture so it didn't disintegrate in the tomato base. Next time I will add more garlic powder as 2 tsp felt a bit lost.
2 cups of ground scotch bonnet for just 1 cup of tomatoes? Ah abeg this pepper is way too much o! My mouth was burning. I had to add two more cans of tomato paste to save the stew. The curry and thyme season on the fried chicken was good sha, but check that pepper ratio.
my broer made this for Sunday lunch and we sommer wiped the pot clean! Boiling the chicken with the thyme and curry powder first makes the broth so full of flavour, then frying it gives that nice crispy skin. Reminds me of my auntie's kitchen on a Sunday afternoon.
Finding real tatashe here in Chicago is impossible so I just blended two red bell peppers with habaneros from Pete's. Boiling the chicken with the thyme and curry first gave me that exact wedding stew broth taste. Fried the chicken till brown before adding back to the stew base, e sweet sharp o.