Cold Guinea Fowl
Ivory Coast
Senior Editor
Cookies on African Food Network
We use essential cookies to make the site work. We would also like to set analytics cookies and advertising cookies, but only if you agree. You can choose each one separately. Read our cookie policy
Whole guinea fowl cooked slowly in orange and apple juice with garlic and pepper, then browned in a hot oven, cooled, carved and served cold. The source places it in Ivory Coast. Guinea fowl is West African, and that is the useful thing to know here. The bird is native to the region, its English name comes from the Guinea coast, and it was carried to Europe by Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century, where French and Italian producers have since become among the largest in the world. So a guinea fowl recipe from Ivory Coast is the bird in its home rather than an import. It cooks differently from chicken and the difference is fat. Guinea fowl carries roughly half as much, and it is a slightly smaller bird, so it dries out easily. This recipe answers that directly: it is poached slowly in a large quantity of liquid for an hour and a half or more before it ever meets dry heat, and the browning at the end is brief. That order is the whole design, and reversing it would produce something tough. Serving it cold is a genuine choice rather than a leftovers strategy. Cold poultry with fruit and salad is a summer and celebration format, and the source suggests Sunday lunch or a small Christmas dinner.
Guinea fowl is native to West Africa and takes its English name from the Guinea coast. Portuguese traders carried it to Europe in the sixteenth century, and France and Italy are now among the largest producers. The bird carries about half the fat of a chicken and is smaller.
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.
Season the guinea fowl inside and out with salt and the garlic cloves, leaving some inside the cavity and tucking others under the skin. Put the bird in a large pan.
Combine the apple, orange and lemon or lime juices with the black pepper and pour the mixture over the bird.
Cover and cook gently for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, turning the bird from time to time.
Top up with more apple juice or a little chicken stock as needed, so there is always enough liquid to keep the bird from catching and to cook it through.
Set the oven to 450°F / 240°C.
Once the bird is cooked, lift it out of the cooking liquid and brush it all over with the vegetable oil mixed with the orange extract and oil.
Put it in a roasting pan and brown it quickly in the hot oven, this is for colour only and should take minutes rather than longer.
Take it out, let it cool completely, then carve.
Garnish with orange and pineapple slices and serve cold with a green salad.
Be the first to rate this recipe
Cooked it? Your rating helps the next person decide whether to try it.
No reviews on this one yet. If you have cooked it, yours would be the first.
