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West African Groundnut Stew
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West African Groundnut Stew

From the cookbook Jubilee: Recipes from Two Hundred Years of African American Cooking, this comforting stew features chicken, aromatics, tomatoes, spices and peanut butter.
Course Main Course, Stew
Cuisine Southern
Servings 4 (can be doubled—see Kitchen Notes)

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, about 4
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 large garlic clove, minced
  • 1/2 cup diced carrots
  • 1 teaspoon salt plus more as needed
  • 4 whole black peppercorns
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 2 cups undrained chopped canned tomatoes (a 15-1/2-ounce can will do)
  • 1/4 teaspoon fresh minced ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 tablespoons dry white wine (optional)
  • freshly cooked rice, for serving

Instructions

  • Trim the excess fat from the chicken thighs. Combine chicken, water, onion, garlic, carrots, salt, peppercorns and bay leaf in a soup pot or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil over medium-high flame, then reduce to medium-low and simmer, covered, for about 45 minutes.
  • Remove chicken to a plate and let cool slightly. Discard bay leaf.
  • In a small bowl, stir about 1/2 cup of broth into the peanut butter and mix until smooth. Add peanut butter mixture to pot, along with the tomatoes, ginger, curry powder, cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper flakes and white wine, if using. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes, to let the flavors meld, skimming off fat with a spoon, if necessary (I didn’t need to do this).
  • Meanwhile, cook rice. Also meanwhile, separate the chicken meat from the skin and the bones. Cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks and return to the pot to warm through. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt.
  • Spoon rice into bowls and top with the stew.

Kitchen Notes

Double the recipe. This is easy. Use a 4-pound whole chicken, as the original recipe does, or 4 pounds of chicken thighs, then double all the other ingredients as well.
Get the book(s). You can purchase Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking, published by Penguin Random House, and The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks, published by University of Texas Press, on Toni Tipton-Martin's website.