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African Chicken Recipe
Chicken Yassa

Yassa is an African chicken recipe which our family has liked very much ever since a visit to Senegal. Senegal is an African country located at the west coast. The country envelopes Gambia, and shares borders with Mauritania to the North, Mali East and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the South.

Fabulous is, this dish is very flexible.

It tastes great with grilled chicken drumsticks or lamb cutlets, but it also goes well with cubed or striped chicken, lamb or even beef. For a vegetarian version, replace the meat with dried texture soy cubes.

The key ingredients, mustard and vinegar, give this dish its specific note. At first, we chose white vinegar which we replaced the following times with apple cider vinegar. The apple cider vinegar added as an acid ingredient left a fruity taste. All of the other spices are there to enhance and give specific hints.

Experience taught us, that proper preparation, and marinating the meat beforehand is a big plus on the overall result.

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Ingredients to the African chicken recipe:

brown long grain riceRice
chicken drumsticksChicken drumsticks
mustardMustard
white pepperPepper
Himalayan crystal saltSalt
vegetable stockBouillon cube
paprikaSweet paprika
vinegarApple cider vinegar
onionYellow onion
garlicGarlic
carrotCarrots
olive oilOlive oil

Optional:

olivesOlives
CapsicumCapsicum

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Chicken Yassa Recipe

By , May 13, 2020

Yassa is an African chicken recipe which our family adopted on a visit to Senegal.

whole apple pie on a plate

Prep Time: 10 minutes, 1 hour marinating
Cook time: 40 minutes
Yield: 3 Portions

Category: Main
Cuisine: Senegal
Suitable for: Gluten Free Diet, Low Fat Diet

Ingredient list

  • 2 cups of organic brown rice or white rice, washed and checked for impurities
  • 9 drumsticks chicken (3 drumsticks per serving)
  • 2 tbsp mustard, mild American
  • Spices to taste: pepper, salt, 2 tsp of vegetable stock, 1 tsp of sweet paprika, chilli is optional
  • 1.5 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (white vinegar, for additional flavour apple cider vinegar)
  • 4 roughly diced, medium-sized yellow onions, about 600g
  • 2 squashed cloves of garlic
  • 2 carrots, medium-sized, sliced into 5 mm pieces
  • 12 de-pitted olives
  • optional 1 roughly diced green capsicum
  • Olive oil

Cooking step by step:

  1. Grease a deep tray and spread only the drumsticks Roast at 220C° for about 35 to 40 minutes
  2. Heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil in a big pan and fry the onions until clear
  3. In the meantime peel and slice the carrots and the green capsicum
  4. Add them to the onions and stir!
  5. Let cook at low heat
  6. After about 10 minutes when the carrots are cooked through taste the sauce; If required add more water and adjust your seasoning
  7. Optionally add roughly diced green capsicum
  8. Pit the olives
  9. Once the chicken is through, add them and the olives Mix the sauce and chicken, let the sauce sit for five minutes while the heat is off, before serving.

Serving suggestion for the African chicken recipe 'Yassa' is rice for a gluten-free meal. Alternatively, couscous or fine egg noodles make great side dishes.

Recipe Meat Variations:

Chicken breast in cubes or stripes, lamb cutlets, or diced lamb meat

chicken breast cubesChicken breast
lamb cutletsLamb cutlets
lamb cubesCubed lamb

If you choose lamb cutlets treat them as you would treat the chicken drumsticks.

In case you decided to use meat cubes or stripes marinate them as described, but when you fry the marinade start with the meat. This means pick out all pieces of meat with a fork and place them into the frying pan with hot oil. When the meat is cooked through add the onions. When these are clear add the carrots and later the olives and the optional green capsicum.

  • 300g of chicken breast cut in cubes or stripes
    or
  • 300g diced lamb
    or
  • 9 lamb cutlets

coucousCouscous
penne pastaPasta

Side dishes that go well with Yassa besides rice are noodles or couscous. Finer noodles are often steamed like the couscous to guarantee their fluffiness while having their highest volume possible.

Is there a vegetarian Yassa?

textured dried soyTextured dried soy

As a matter of fact we did experiment quite successfully with creating a vegetarian Yassa.

In doing so, the meat was substituted by textured dried soy cubes. These were soaked in vegetable stock and then added to the mustard onion marinade. The marinade covered the bland taste of the soy cubes completely.


I would love to hear which combination you like best. Leave a comment about the African chicken recipe using the Facebook plug-in at the bottom of the page. For more stew ideas visit us on Pinterest!

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