Globecooking recipe : Chicken Mafe (Cameroon)

Chicken mafe was one of the recipes from my Cameroon-themed Kitchen Trotter box, but it is a dish that is popular in many West African countries.

It used two ingredients from the box - a can of African peanut butter and a pot of White Penja Pepper - but you could easily substitute regular peanut butter and pepper from your kitchen cupboards. Looking around online, other recipes include a can of coconut milk or a tin of chopped tomatoes, but I don't think either are really necessary. The only thing I added to the recipe was a sprinkle of chilli powder to give it a bit of a kick.

Chicken Mafe

ingredients :

4 chicken thighs

drizzle of olive oil

2 onions (I used red but yellow would be fine)

2 ripe tomatoes

1/2 can peanut butter (about 5tbsp)

1tsp white Penja pepper

pinch of salt

1 chicken stock cube

Put the chicken thighs in a roasting tin, sprinkle with salt and, if you like, a few herbs and spices (I used cumin and paprika). Bake at 180° for about an hour until they are cooked through. Reserve.

Half an hour before the chicken is cooked, start on the sauce. Sauté the onions in a drizzle of olive oil for a few minutes until soft.

 Add the tomatoes and cook for a further five minutes until the tomatoes are soft.

Pour in the cooking juices from the chicken. Crumble in the stock cube and stir to dissolve.

Time to add the peanut butter - it's oilier than the stuff you get in a jar but it tastes just the same. 

Stir over a low heat for a few minutes until the peanut butter has blended in with the rest of the sauce.

Add a little water so the sauce is thick but smooth, like a creamy cheese sauce texture. Add the peppercorns. Taste and add salt, if needed.

Put the chicken in the sauce, coat completely and leave on a very low heat (or you could even turn off the heat completely) for the flavours to mingle for 15 minutes.

I added some chilli to give it a kick but otherwise, it's not spicy at all so the whole family can tuck in. Serve with white rice. This would be a great way of using up leftover chicken after the Sunday roast, or even turkey at Christmas time.

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