The Nigerian Chicken stew is a thick, hearty stew made with bell pepper, tomatoes onions, aromatics, and seasonings .This chicken stew recipe is quite simple, but the balance of flavors is truly incredible .I love serving this soup with white rice and pasta. You can use this freshly baked bread for mopping up that last bit of stew in your bowl! 



A couple things to note when making this dish:

  1. Tomatoes– You can use fresh or tinned tomatoes. In this recipe I used both. A lot of people don’t like the way tinned tomatoes taste so they only use fresh. If you use fresh tomatoes you’re going to need to use tomato paste so that you can really get that tomato flavor and red color. I include tomato paste anyway .
  2. Chicken, Beef, etc.– For this recipe I am only using chicken, and I cook the chicken before it goes into the stew. I never put raw meat or chicken to cook into the stew. I like to season my chicken pieces, fry it in oil until it turns golden brown, and then finish cooking it in the oven. I also won’t add the chicken until about 10-15 minutes before the stew finishes cooking that way the chicken doesn’t melt, or fall a part in the stew. You want intact pieces of meat or chicken.
  3. It is super important to cook or fry the tomato mixture until it’s reduced in more than half of it’s size and is a deep red color because you want to make sure you get rid of the bitterness of the tomatoes. If you don’t fry the mixture long enough you’ll get a sour taste. A good way to know it;s ready is when the color is a deep red and the oil rises back up over the mixture.

You can use this stew to eat with parboiled white rice, beans, yam… or any thing u feel like

Ingredient

  • 8 cups boiled Nigerian pepper mix
  • 18 pieces hard Chicken (use any desired parts)
  • 2 medium onion chopped, to be used in boiling the chicken and later in the stew
  • 1 tsp ginger powder substitute with fresh ones.
  • 1 tsp garlic powder substitute with fresh ones.
  • ½ tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp curry
  • 2 cups of vegetable oil
  • salt and seasoning cubes to taste
Method of cooking chicken stew
In a large pot, add the cleaned cut chicken , add chopped onions, garlic powder, ginger powder or thyme,curry powder, seasoning powder , salt to taste and a cup of water.
Cook the chicken until tender and fry/grill at 180ºC, then set aside and reserve the liquid(Chicken stock).

2. Blend the tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and ginger ; pour into a pot, put on heat to reduce excess water. Set aside for later use.
3. In another large pot, heat up the vegetable oil, add some chopped onions,and the tin tomato paste and stir.

4. Pour in the boiled down tomato-pepper mix and fry for about 25 minutes or until the tomato loses it’s sour taste.
Stir constantly to prevent burning at the bottom.

5. Add the chicken stock, a teaspoon thyme, a teaspoon of curry powder,and seasoning powder to taste.
Mix and boil for 8 minutes .

6. Then add the  fried chicken and simmer for 10 minutes.
And your Nigerian chicken stew is ready. Enjoy.