Chicken yassa

Ingredients

• Chicken — in pieces1.4 kg
• Onions — thinly sliced1.5 kg
• Lemons5
• Dijon mustard3 tbsp
• Garlic6 clove
• Scotch bonnet chilli1
• Bay leaves2
• Vegetable oil80 ml
• Chicken stock300 ml
• Rice — to serve400 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Mix the lemon juice, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper, pour it over the chicken and onions and chill for at least four hours.

   20 min

2. 2

   Lift out the chicken, pat it dry and brown it in oil on all sides.

   15 min

3. 3

   In the same pan cook the onion from the marinade over medium heat for twenty-five minutes, until golden and soft.

   27 min

4. 4

   Pour in the remaining marinade and the stock and add the bay leaves and the whole chilli.

   4 min

5. 5

   Return the chicken, cover and stew thirty minutes on a low heat.

   32 min

6. 6

   Uncover and reduce the sauce ten minutes more until thick. Remove the chilli.

   12 min

7. 7

   Serve with boiled rice, the onions piled over the chicken.

   5 min

About the dish

By weight there should be as much onion as chicken, if not more. It is not a garnish but the sauce: an hour of stewing reduces it to a thick mass.

The lemon and mustard marinade serves as both marinade and sauce base. It is not thrown away — once the chicken is out, the onion cooks in it.

The chicken is browned after marinating and before stewing. Without that step the meat stays pale and the sauce lacks depth.

Worth knowing

• — The chilli goes in whole and comes out before serving. Split, a scotch bonnet makes the dish inedibly hot.
• — The marinade should be sharply sour. Over four hours the lemon mellows, leaving an even brightness in the finished dish.
• — The same recipe is made with fish, when it becomes yassa jën, and the marinating is halved to ninety minutes.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

640 kcal

Protein

42 g

Fat

24 g

Carbs

62 g

More from Senegal

• Thieboudienne — Rice cooked in the tomato broth from the fish, with herb-stuffed fish and vegetables. Senegal's national dish.