If there is one thing I could eat over and over again it’ll be rice and stew with sweet fried plantains. It’s a Nigerian dish, well flavoured often spicy tomato sauce cooked with either chicken, assorted meat or fish.
For this recipe I used chicken legs. Traditionally we use a hen (which is a lot leaner and tougher) than a rooster. It lends a unique flavour but I find this kind to be more accessible hence why I’ve used it for this recipe.
The night before I marinated the chicken drumsticks with salt and black pepper after discovering that the secret to a juicy and well flavoured chicken was in the process of brining but also seasoning your chicken with salt and few hours prior to cooking.
Why is this recipe different?
The method – we use plum peeled tomatoes either fresh or canned in tomato stew. As opposed to blending the tomatoes with pepper which is what we usually do I crush it roughly with a fork to give the stew a bit of texture.
I brown the chicken in butter as it adds a nice depth to the sauce.
Rather than sprinkle stock cubes directly onto chicken or in the stew I dissolved the cubes in starchy water from boiled yams I made earlier. Normal water will do for this however!
Ingriedients:
- 8 chicken drumsticks
- 2 onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 can plum peeled tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- 1 tablespoon butter (not margarine)500ml chicken stock / 2 stock cubes
- 2 Bay leaves
- Vegetable oil for frying
Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon dry pepper (in place of scotch bonnet)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Preparation makes cooking easier…
Start by prepping all the Ingriedients – peel and slice your onions, chop garlic & gather all the herbs and seasonings you need for this recipe. Pour can of plum peeled tomatoes in a bowl and crush with back of fork. A cooking pan / pot, chopping board and dish cloth (to wipe hands) will make things 10 x easier.
Season drumstick with all the dry ingredients – salt, black pepper, white pepper, paprika, chilli powder, coriander and 2 tablespoons of oil to seal the marinade. The onions, garlic, butter and bay leaves as stock cubes will be used later.
Heat oil and butter in pan, add bay leaves then chicken and brown on all sides. Then add sliced onions, garlic & tomato puree then continue to fry on medium to low heat. Once it’s cooked for 10 minutes pour in crushed tomatoes then stock. Cover and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.
Once it’s done serve with rice and sweet fried plantains! 😊
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