Chicken maffé

🍗 Tender chicken in a family-style peanut and tomato sauce with carrot and sweet potato.

Ingredients

• 🍗 1 chicken weighing 1.2 kg, cut into 8 pieces, or 1.1 kg chicken thighs
• 🥜 160 g plain peanut paste, with no added sugar
• 🍅 3 ripe tomatoes, grated, and 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 🧅 2 medium onions, chopped, and 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 🥕 2 carrots cut into chunks and 350 g sweet potato cut into 3 cm cubes
• 🫗 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 💧 900 ml hot water or low-salt stock
• 🌿 1 teaspoon sweet paprika, ½ teaspoon cumin and black pepper
• 🧂 1 teaspoon salt, adjusted after reduction
• 🌶️ Fresh chili, optional; rice or fonio to serve

Preparation

Keep the chicken refrigerated until preparation. Pat the pieces dry with clean paper. Loosen the peanut paste in 250 ml lukewarm water; prepare the vegetables and separate utensils that touched raw chicken.

Heat the oil in a pot. Cook the onions for 5–6 min until soft, add garlic for 30 seconds, then brown the chicken for 6–8 min, turning the pieces.

Add tomatoes, tomato paste, paprika, cumin and pepper. Cook for 8 min over medium heat, stirring to evaporate some liquid and cook the tomato before adding peanuts.

Pour in the remaining hot water and peanut mixture. Stir until smooth, bring to a simmer and cook half-covered for 25 min over low heat; stir the bottom every 8–10 min.

Add carrots and sweet potato. Cook for another 20–25 min without crushing the vegetables. Check chicken with a clean thermometer: reach 74 °C in the thickest part, without touching bone.

Remove cooked chicken pieces if the vegetables need a few more minutes. Return the chicken to the sauce, adjust salt and simmer for 2 min. Serve with rice or fonio and offer chili separately.