This wonderful chicken and peanut stew, with a thick spicy tomato base is typical of West Africa. Make it as spicy as you like by adding cayenne pepper, and for extra heat, a chopped chilly or two. This recipe is based on one that we teach at Wickedfood cooking School in our West African cooking class.

8 to 12 chicken pieces

±3T oil for cooking

2 onions, peeled and chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2T fresh ginger, finely chopped

1 tin chopped tomatoes

2T tomato paste

1 ½ cups peanut butter

1 stock cube dissolved in 2 cups hot water

2-3t cayenne pepper or to taste

salt and sugar to taste

garnish with chopped chilly or spring onion

1. Trim the chicken pieces of extra fat and skin, and season with cayenne pepper and salt.
2. Heat the oil in a deep pot or casserole dish. Add the chicken in batches, skin side down and fry on both sides until it is browned. Remove and set aside. (Chicken cooks best if the chicken pieces do not touch each other while frying.)
3. Fry the onions until they just start to change colour, then add the garlic and ginger.
4. Stir in chopped tomatoes and paste. Reduce heat and simmer for ±5 minutes.
5. Stir in peanut butter and then the stock and stir well.
6. Return chicken to pot, bring to the boil and simmer on a low heat for 40 minutes. Adjust the spices by adding more cayenne pepper, salt and sugar to taste.
7. Garnish and serve with Fufu, pounded yam, a classic accompaniment to most West African stews, or rice.

Serves 6 to 8

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Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252  sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.