African (inspired) Chicken Peanut Stew

I have been searching for this recipe/ these flavors since 2014 when I visited Berlin (oddly, enough). We went on a bar crawl through the city (as you do when you are studying abroad), and our “guide” took us to a Sudanese café for our late night food. There, I had the most incredible peanut stewed chicken in a pita-like bread. It was so delicious and honestly, i haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 - 2 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs

• 1 large sweet potato; peeled and cubed into 1 inch pieces

• 1 large yellow onion; sliced

• 6-8 cloves of garlic; minced

• 1 tbsp of ginger; minced

• 3 tbsp of vegetable oil

• 1 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes

• 1 quart of chicken stock

• 1 cup of peanut butter

• 1.5 cups of roasted peanuts

• 1 tbsp of ground coriander

• 1 tsp of cayenne pepper (or more, if you like it spicy)

• Salt & pepper to taste

• 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro - optional

In a heavy bottomed pot or a Dutch oven, heat your oil on a medium heat. Coat your chicken thighs in a generous helping of salt and pepper. Sear your chicken on both sides until brown and remove from the pan.

Add in your onions, garlic and ginger and cook until glossy. Add in your sweet potatoes. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add in your crush tomatoes, chicken stock, peanut butter, peanuts, cayenne and coriander power. Add back in the chicken thighs. Mix well to fully dissolve the peanut butter and let simmer for about 60 - 90 minutes. You will want the chicken to be fully falling apart. (I actually pulled out the larger chunks of chicken, shredded it and added it back to the pot.)

Taste and adjust the seasonings as needed- this is a great time to add more spiciness if you like that (hot sauce, chili flakes, etc).

Serve warm and add chopped cilantro. I served it with fresh pita bread but it would be great with some rice.