One Pot Ghanaian Chicken & Peanut Stew

This rich and spicy chicken and peanut stew hails from Ghana in West Africa, a country known for it’s diverse cuisine. Soups and stews such as this are popular in Ghana, often enjoyed with cornmeal and vegetables. If you’re not familiar with the flavours, imagine a cross between an East Asian peanut satay and a curry. The scotch bonnet chilli adds a fiery heat whereas the peanut butter provides nutty creaminess to balance it out. This is a straightforward one pot dish from Alan Rosenthal’s Foolproof One-Pot: 60 Simple and Satisfying Recipes.

Read our full review of Alan Rosenthal’s Foolproof One-Pot cookbook for more on this handy book full of delicious ideas for meals that can be made in a single pan.

Print Pin

Ghanaian Chicken & Peanut Stew

This rich and spicy stew is wonderfully comforting. The recipe calls for a Scotch bonnet chilli, one of the hottest you can buy! However, you can control the level of spice in the dish by removing the chilli towards the end of cooking. Do wash your hands after you prepare the chilli to avoid any painful moments…

Servings 4 servings

Author Alan Rosenthal

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 red onions, peeled and thinly sliced 3 garlic cloves, finely grated
• 1½ tbsp finely grated fresh root ginger 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp paprika
• 750 g 1lb skinless, boneless chicken thighs, each cut into 2–3 pieces
• 200 g 7oz canned chopped tomatoes 150g (5oz) crunchy peanut butter 250ml (9fl oz/1 cup) chicken stock
• 1 Scotch bonnet chilli, deseeded and halved
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ½ cucumber cut into 5mm (¼ in) slices, on an angle
• juice of ½–1 lemon, to taste
• extra virgin olive oil, to serve
• cooked brown rice, to serve

Instructions

• Heat the sunflower oil in your deep pot. Add the red onions, with a pinch of salt, and cook over a medium heat for about 7 minutes until soft. Add the garlic, ginger and bay leaves and cook for 3 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent anything from catching on the bottom of the pot.
• Reduce the heat slightly and stir in the paprika. Cook for another couple of minutes before adding the chicken pieces. Turn the chicken in the onion and spice mixture and cook over a medium heat for around 5 minutes until the chicken is opaque.
  
• Now add the tomatoes, peanut butter, stock, chilli, 1 tsp salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 20–25 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Stir regularly, scraping the bottom of the pot to prevent the dense peanut butter from catching.
• After 25 minutes, have a taste. If it’s spicy enough for you, remove the two chilli halves. If you’d like it a little hotter, then mash up the chilli and incorporate into the sauce.
  
• Place the cucumber slices in a small bowl and dress with a little lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. Season well.
  
• Serve the stew with brown rice and the dressed cucumber.
  

Reviewer Jack loved the flavours of this dish, though he noted that the heat from the scotch bonnet chilli is intense, even if you remove it from the dish before serving. You may like to use a milder chilli or just half a scotch bonnet if you’d prefer a milder dish.

Made the recipe? Let us know how you enjoyed it in the comments!

Browse our full collection of curry recipes from around the world.

If you decide to buy this book after reading our content, please consider clicking through our affiliate link, located within the post and in the footnote at the end.

Kavey Eats received a review copy of Foolproof One-Pot by Alan Rosenthal from publishers Quadrille. Book photography by Rita Platts. Home cooking photography by Jack Thomas.