Amiwo au Poulet (Red Paste and Chicken)
This Beninese dish is reserved for special occasions. The red paste known as “amiwo” is served with “poulet bicyclette” or “bicycle chicken”, a West African term for quick-footed street chicken.
This recipe was kindly contributed by the EU Delegation to Benin. Ambassador Oliver Nette prepared the dish with his chef, Jean Melonou
- A 1.5 kg chicken
- seasoning (garlic, pepper, ginger, salt),
- 0.25 litres of peanut oil
- 2 onions
- 8 fresh tomatoes or one can
- 20 g of smoked prawns
- 6 glasses of corn flour (or of extra fine semolina)
- green chili peppers
Season the chicken (in pieces), fry and put to one side. Heat 4 spoons of oil, add 4 crushed tomatoes and 2 cups of water (or chicken stock). Leave to cook for 10 minutes. Add the remainder of the spices, the smoked prawns, and crushed chillies. Salt and leave to cook for another 10 minutes.
Turn the sauce into a “porridge” with one or two glasses of corn flour. Bring to a boil and gradually add the remainder of the flour while stirring well. Do not let the paste become too hard. Cover the amiwo for 10 minutes.
Prepare a tomato sauce with chicken stock, oil, onion, tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper, and chili peppers.
Serve the chicken with some amiwo and the tomato sauce, and sprinkle with crushed chili peppers
This Beninese dish is reserved for special occasions.
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