One of my friends used to own an African restaurant in Paris, specializing in the food that her grandmothers' used to make. One of her signature dishes was the Ivory Coast version of the Senegalese classic chicken dish "Mafé de Poulet", a luscious chicken and root vegetable stew in a thick peanut based sauce, redolent with spices and red palm oil. I have never been a huge fan of palm oil but always liked the idea of the peanut sauce.
For some reason I have been thinking about the dish recently and decided to deconstruct it to my own needs by subbing a tiny bit of olive oil for the usual larger quantity of palm oil and making a sauce to drizzle over poached chicken thighs, rather than cooking the chicken in the sauce -- thus making a lighter dish. L. and I were a little root vegetable tired, so I steamed collard greens to further lighten the dish.
The grocery store sent me skin on chicken thighs instead of skinless, which would have been wasted in the poaching process, so I removed the skins and rendered out the fat over very low heat and served the crispy skin as a garnish to the dish. This was a nice touch and I highly recommend it, but not necessary in the grand scheme of things. Some crushed peanuts sprinkled over the top will add texture instead.
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1 scotch bonnet pepper, washed and pricked in several places
2 bay leaves
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 Tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup poaching water from the chicken
Add the chicken thighs to a skillet, along with the scotch bonnet, the bay leaves and a teaspoon of salt. Cover with water, just to the top of the chicken thighs. Cover, turn the heat to medium low and simmer for 15-18 minutes until the chicken is poached through. Turn the chicken over at the half way mark.
Once you have turned your chicken over, get started on your sauce. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and, as soon as it is shimmering, add the onion, garlic and ginger to the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring often, until the onion is starting to look translucent.
Add the thyme and the tomato paste to the pan and lower the heat. Cook for a minute or so, stirring constantly, until the tomato paste slightly darkens in color.
Measure out 1 cup of the chicken poaching water (it can finish cooking without it). Add the peanut butter, the scotch bonnet from the chicken pan, and the cup of water to the sauce. Cook, whisking to combine, until you end up with a thick, sauce like the one pictured above. Remove the scotch bonnet and discard.
Remove the chicken from the poaching water and serve over steamed greens, pumpkin, sweet potatoes. etc. Drizzle liberally with the sauce.
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