Chicken Moambe Recipe

This story was posted under the categories: Food & Drinks

All Belgians share a common link with Africa, all be it a distant one. Our king Leopold the first was the ruler of the african country named Congo from 1885 until 1960. Since, it has been ruled by Mobutu and Kabila, but back in the days many belgians travelled to Congo. Even today there is also a large african community living in Brussels, in a district called Matongue. The perfect place to get a taste of african living.

Today i’m going to make Chicken Moambe, the national dish in Congo. It’s a pretty simple dish and literally, Moambe means 8, refering to the 8 ingredients of the dish: Chicken, Pondu, Dried fish, Palm Oil, Peanuts, Banana’s, Rice and Pili Pili.

Of course, it wouldn’t be interesting to follow the recipe just as it is, so i’m going to make some changes. The recipe for two persons is:

Ingredients

1. 2 chicken filets
2. Maniok: this is a long, brown root also called cassave. The only place i’ve found to buy it is in an african or exotic food store. Be careful, maniok contains small amounts of poison and should be cooked thoroughly!
3. Peanut Butter: just your regular peanut butter.
4. Palm Oil: red and very fat oil
5. One onion: cut into large chunks
6. Spices: salt, pepper, pili pili and laurier

Instructions

Peal the maniok by removing the hard outside. The inside should be spotless white. If you see dark stripes, it means the root is rotting and you should get another one. Cut it into potato sized pieces and boil it in water, like you would do with a potato. About half an hour should do it.

Pour the palm oil into a deep pot, together with the chicken and the roughly cut onion. Add your spices and let it take up the oil for a couple of minutes until the chicken has become brown (or rather red).

In the meantime, mix some palm oil and peanut butter to make a slick mass. Watch out with the peanut butter, it can easily make your dish too salty if you use too much of it.

When your chicken has a nice brown color, add water to the pot and bring it to boil and add te sauce. Leave all of this on the stove for at least half an hour (if you can leave it longer, it’ll only become better).

Dress up a plate with the chicken, mashed maniok and the moambe sauce and have a nice meal!