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Nigerian Goat Stew

This flavorful, colorful, spicy goat stew is a traditional meal across West Africa.
Course Stew
Cuisine African
Servings 2 to 3

Ingredients

  • 1-1/2 pounds bone-in goat meat, cut into large chunks (see Kitchen Notes)
  • 2 cups chopped onions (2 or 3 onions)
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons Diamond kosher salt (use about 1 teaspoon if using Morton)
  • 3 plum tomatoes, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 red bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 habanero pepper, chopped (see Kitchen Notes)
  • olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder
  • 1 teaspoon curry powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves)
  • cooked rice for serving

Instructions

  • Combine goat meat, 1/2 cup chopped onions and 1 teaspoon salt in a medium pot. Add enough water to cover the meat and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. You may need to skim off some foam with a spoon when it starts boiling. Reduce heat to medium, cover the pot and cook the meat, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour (or longer, if needed) until meat is tender.
  • Using a slotted spoon, transfer meat to a bowl and reserve the stock. You can do this a day or 2 ahead, refrigerating the meat and stock. Bring the meat to room temperature when you’re ready to cook the stew.
  • Meanwhile, combine the tomatoes, garlic, about 2/3 of the bell pepper, habanero and 1 cup of onions in a food processor or blender (we recommend the former). Blend until smooth and set aside.
  • Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large, high-sided skillet over medium-high heat. Transfer the boiled goat to the pan and brown on all sides, 3 or so minutes per side. Return meat to the bowl when done.
  • Reduce heat to medium and add 2 more tablespoons of oil to the skillet. Add the remaining 1/2 cup onions and bell pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring often, about 5 minutes.
  • Add the tomato-pepper puree and stir to combine. Stir in the bouillon powder, curry powder, thyme and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cook for 3 minutes. Add the goat meat and 1/2 cup of the reserved broth (save the rest for another use), and stir to combine. Cover and simmer over low heat until the stew thicken, about 10 minutes.
  • Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, if needed. Serve with rice.

Kitchen Notes

Getting your goat (meat). Finding goat meat can be a bit of a challenge. If you live where there is a significant Middle Eastern population, you may find it in their markets. Stores serving a Mexican population are another possibility. If you can't find it, you can substitute lamb or mutton.
If you use lamb, do boil it. We don’t normally boil lamb when we’re making a lamb stew, but in Nigerian kitchens, almost all meat is boiled before cooking it in other ways. It will also give you lamb stock to add to the stew.
Regulating the habanero heat. Habanero peppers do pack some heat. We used the whole pepper, seeds and all, and the stew was spicy. But eating it with rice toned it down to a pleasantly fiery level for our taste buds. If you don’t like heat, remove the seeds and ribs from the pepper, or use a less hot jalapeño pepper. You can also remove the seeds from that. Or skip the hot pepper. But it is traditional and we like what it adds.