Chicken, sweet potatoes and peanuts are one of those magical flavor
combinations that make me feel all warm and happy, especially because I
never would have thought to do this 20 years ago, when I met some fellow
University of Wisconsin students from Ghana who made this stew at their
apartment. Chicken groundnut stew is, in various forms, common all over
West Africa, and this is my version, inspired by my colleagues at UW.
The best way to make this stew is with two whole stewing
hens—older chickens available at Asian and Latin markets. You start by
simmering the birds to make stock, which then becomes the base of the
stew, and then you use the meat from the hens. This is a bit
labor-intensive for most, so I normally use pre-cut chicken parts: legs,
wings and especially thighs. This stew is just made for chicken thighs.
What is a little unusual about how you make the stew is that you
first brown the chicken and then stew it on the bone. You can certainly
eat it off the bone in the stew, but this is messy, so I prefer to fish
out the meat and shred it. Why bother with the bones and skin at all?
They add a ton of flavor to the stew.
Sweet potatoes or yams are a must in the African version, but if you hate them, use regular potatoes or turnips.
The stew is supposed to be pretty spicy, so I normally use a lot of
hot sauce thrown in at the end of the cooking. I only call for 1
teaspoon of cayenne here, because no matter how chile-adverse you are,
it ought to have at least a faint bite of heat. If you truly can’t take
chiles, skip the cayenne. But someone in Ghana will cry.
Close
Use chicken legs, thighs or wings for this recipe. They have
more flavor and will hold up better with the flavors of the stew than
breast meat.
Ingredients
- 2-3 pounds chicken legs, thighs and/or wings
- 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 large yellow or white onion, sliced
- A 3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced
- 6-8 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
- 2-3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 15-ounce can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 quart chicken stock
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1 cup roasted peanuts
- 1 Tbsp ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
- Salt and black pepper
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro
Method
1 Heat the vegetable oil in a large soup pot set over
medium-high heat. Salt the chicken pieces well, pat them dry and brown
them in the oil. Don't crowd the pot, so do this in batches. Set the
chicken pieces aside as they brown.
2 Sauté the onions in the oil for 3-4 minutes, stirring often
and scraping any browned bits off the bottom of the pot. Add the ginger
and garlic and sauté another 1-2 minutes, then add the sweet potatoes
and stir well to combine.
3 Add the chicken, chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, peanut
butter, peanuts, coriander and cayenne and stir well to combine. Bring
to a simmer and taste for salt, adding more if needed. Cover the pot and
simmer gently for 90 minutes (check after an hour), or until the
chicken meat easily falls off the bone and the sweet potatoes are
tender.
4 Remove the chicken pieces and set them in a bowl to cool,
until cool enough to touch. Remove and discard the skin if you want, or
chop it and put it back into the pot. Shred the meat off the bones and
put the meat back in the pot.
5 Adjust the seasonings for salt and cayenne, then add as much
black pepper as you think you can stand—the stew should be peppery.
Stir in the cilantro and serve by itself, or with simple steamed rice.