Chicken Peanut Stew – All Things African!

Feeling adventurous? Give a hearty bowl of African Chicken Peanut Stew a try!

African Chicken Peanut Stew

I am finally coming up for air after moving into our new home and ready to resume my joy of cooking and food blogging! Today’s posts focuses on all things African, in honor of our book club selection Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah  FYI – This was an interesting and entertaining read that I would recommend.

African Chicken Peanut Stew was the South African dish I selected for the main course. It is a hearty combination of chicken, peanut butter and sweet potatoes with a nice little kick of cayenne for heat. In all honesty, my stew ended up getting a little thicker than I preferred. The recipe called for simmering for 60-90 minutes and I went the full 90 minutes. I would recommend going 60 minutes. This should provide enough time for both the chicken and the potatoes to get tender. It will also prevent the potatoes from cooking down too far, which is what caused my stew to thicken up. The flavor was still excellent though.

Mealie Bread (South African Sweetcorn Bread) accompanied our stew. Whole corn kernels are blended into the cornbread, giving it a unique and chewy texture. 

Citrus Winter Salad

I also served Citrus Winter Salad, a recipe I found in the HyVee magazine, along with the stew. My version included a few modifications based on preferences and availability of ingredients. I used canned Mandarin oranges in place of the blood oranges because they were not in stock. I also added some pomegranate seeds for a little additional color. Instead of baby kale I used mixed greens and also substituted thinly sliced green onions for the red onion. As I’ve said before, salads are a template, which can be easily customized! 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Mousse

We wrapped up the evening with Pumpkin Cheesecake Mousse. This easy-to-make dessert is both a crowd please and feeds a crowd (10 servings), making it perfect for Thanksgiving. It features a graham cracker crust layer and a mousse made from cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. It’s topped off with whipped cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Yummy!

I hope you enjoy the African Chicken Peanut Stew and the other recipes found at the links provided above.

African Chicken Peanut Stew

Chicken Peanut Stew is a hearty combination of chicken, peanut butter, sweet potatoes and chopped peanuts with a great hint of heat from cayenne.

5 from 1 vote

Print Pin Rate

Course: Soup

Keyword: Chicken, ginger, peanut, sweet potatoes

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours hours

Total Time: 2 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 8

Author: Hank Shaw on Simply Recipes

Ingredients

• 3 pounds chicken thighs
• 3 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large sweet onion diced
• A 3-inch piece of ginger peeled and minced
• 6-8 cloves minced garlic
• 2 pounds sweet potatoes peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 15- ounce can of crushed or diced tomatoes undrained
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup roasted peanuts I used Fischer dry roasted peanuts
• 1 Tbsp ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon cayenne or to taste (1 tsp. provides just a slight amount of heat)
• salt and black pepper
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro or parsley

Instructions

• Note – Do not substitute boneless chicken breast for the thighs. Browning the thighs and simmering them in the stew with the skin and bones creates the stock for the stew. Once the thighs are cooked, the skin and bones are removed.
• Heat the vegetable oil in a large soup pot set over medium-high heat. Pat the chicken thighs dry and season well with salt. Brown the chicken in batches to avoid over crowding. Set the chicken pieces aside as they brown.
• Sauté the onions in the oil for 3-4 minutes, stirring often and scraping any browned bits off the bottom of the pot. Add the ginger and garlic and sauté another 1-2 minutes, then add the sweet potatoes and stir well to combine.
• Add the chicken, chicken broth, tomatoes, peanut butter, peanuts, coriander and cayenne and stir well to combine. Bring to a simmer, cover the pot and simmer gently for 60 minutes (check after 40 minutes), or until the chicken meat easily falls off the bone and the sweet potatoes are tender.
• Remove chicken and allow to sit until cool enough to handle. Discard skin and remove meat from bones. Chop or shred meat and put back in the pot.
• Adjust the seasonings for salt and cayenne, then add a generous amount of black pepper (the stew should be peppery.) Stir in the cilantro or parsley, simmering for a few more minutes to warm chicken and blend flavors. Garnish with a sprinkle of herb before serving, if desired. The stew can be served as is or over steamed rice for an even heartier meal.