Food of the World has taken us this month to Senegal the West African country who’s cuisine has been influenced by the French and Portuguese along with its African neighbors.
My oldest sister actually spent some time here learning native dances so she could teach inner city kids about African dance. Check out my post which tells a little about her trip.
Chicken Yassa is traditionally made by marinating the chicken in lemon juice and then cooking it on a grill. I do not like to marinate chicken that I am keeping the skin on because I think it prevents it from crisping.
It has been too hot outside to cook on the grill so I browned this chicken and it’s vegetables and braised it in a dutch oven which made the meat very tender and really didn’t take long.
The result was a truly multi-ethnic dish. The dijon mustard made it a little French, but it was spicy like African food can be and green olives reminded my family of Spanish and Portuguese cooking. We loved it and plan on making this regularly.
- 1 large sliced onion
- 1 small red chili pepper chopped or 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
- 5 medium carrots chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic chopped
- 2 chicken breasts about 2.5 pounds
- 1 lemon zested then sliced
- 1/2 cup of Manzanilla jarred green olives
- 2 cups of chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup of peanut or canola oil
- rice or couscous to serve