National Dishes of the World

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Suya
Photo: WhisperToMe, CC0, Wikimedia Commons

snack

Suya

Thin slices of beef on skewers in a hot yaji spice made with peanuts, grilled over charcoal.

Eaten in: Nigeria

Prep
25 min
Cooking
15 min
Resting
1 h
Total
1 h 40 min
Servings
4

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About the dish

Suya is Nigeria's most famous street food. Thinly sliced beef is threaded onto skewers, coated in yaji – a mix of ground peanuts (kuli-kuli), chilli, ginger, garlic and other spices – and grilled over glowing charcoal, brushed with oil. The vendors, known as mai suya, cut up the finished meat and serve it wrapped in paper with raw onion, tomato and an extra sprinkling of spice. It is eaten in the evening as a snack and with cold drinks. Chicken, goat and offal are cooked the same way.

Main ingredients

  • beef
  • roasted peanuts
  • chilli
  • ginger
  • garlic
  • onion

Nigeria: A Hausa tradition from the north, now sold on evening streets all over Nigeria.

More: Wikipedia (en)

Recipe

Suya

https://foodmap.ominuvo.com/dish/suya

Ingredients

4 servings

4 servings

Method

  1. Soak wooden skewers in water; firm the beef in the freezer for 30 minutes and slice it very thinly.

  2. Grind the peanuts to a fine powder (not a paste) and mix with the chilli, ginger, garlic, onion powder, paprika, crumbled stock cube and salt – this is yaji.

  3. Thread the meat onto the skewers in folds, brush with oil and coat generously in yaji, keeping back 3 tbsp of the spice for serving.

  4. Leave for an hour so the meat takes on the flavour.

  5. Grill over high heat, ideally charcoal, or under an oven grill, for 4–6 minutes on each side, brushing with oil.

  6. Sprinkle with the rest of the yaji and serve with sliced red onion and tomato.

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