Chicken Berbere

André Grisell's Note:

Once, when I was about to make the Ethiopian national dish Zigni, I couldn't find any beef. I used frozen chicken breasts instead, and slightly modified the recipe. I must say that I was stunned at the result! Try to find something better than cooking oil. I used canned duck fat. Don't worry too much about the amount of fat. The other ingredients are virtually fat-free. Recipes for berbere pepper can be found on Recipezaar.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 3 -4 ounces cooking oil (duck fat, ghee, lard etc)
• 2 lbs chicken breasts , in one-inch cubes
• 2 large onions , chopped
• 4 garlic cloves , chopped
• 4 tablespoons berbere , pepper (see above)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 3 tomatoes , chopped
• 1 cup chicken stock (or cubes)
• ½ lemon, zest of , grated
• salt
• pepper
• fresh cilantro stem (coriander)

Directions:

1. Brown the chicken thoroughly on high heat in a skillet in some of the fat. Set aside. Don't put too much meat into the skillet at once, or they won't brown.
2. Fry the onion and garlic in additional fat in a pot on medium heat until it is transparent.
3. Add berbere pepper and tomato paste and more fat if necessary in order not to burn the berbere.
4. Stir for a moment, then add chicken, tomatoes, stock and lemon peel.
5. Let simmer, covered, until the chicken is tender but not over-cooked (15-20 min).
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Garnish with cilantro stems and serve immediately with rice or on flat bread.

Reviews

[Chef #764063]

fabulous. i used niter kibe (spiced butter) instead of duck fat and it was perfect. would make again and again (and have in fact, to rave reviews! Now if I could only get the teff injera to turn out right we'd be really talking.