National Dishes of the World

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Chicken yassa
Photo: T.K. Naliaka, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

main dish

Chicken yassa

Yassa ginaar

Chicken marinated in lime juice with mustard and grilled, then braised in a mound of sweet, tangy onions.

Eaten in: Gambia, Senegal

Prep
25 min
Cooking
1 h
Resting
4 h
Total
5 h 25 min
Servings
4

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About the dish

Yassa is one of the best-loved dishes of Senegal and the Gambia. The chicken is marinated for several hours in lime juice with mustard, garlic, chilli and a huge amount of onion, then grilled or browned, while the onions from the marinade are stewed slowly until soft and sweet. Finally the meat goes back into the sauce, which is sour, sweet and hot all at once. It is served with white rice, often in a shared bowl, sometimes with green olives or carrots. Fish and lamb versions are popular too.

Main ingredients

  • chicken
  • onions
  • limes
  • mustard
  • garlic
  • chilli
  • rice

Senegal: The dish comes from Casamance in southern Senegal; it is also made with fish (yassa jën).

More: Wikipedia (en)

Recipe

Chicken yassa

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

Ingredients

4 servings

4 servings

Method

  1. Slice the onions thinly and mix them with the lime juice, mustard, crushed garlic, chopped chilli, crumbled stock cube, 2 tbsp oil, salt and pepper.

  2. Add the chicken to the marinade, mix and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

  3. Lift out the chicken, pat dry and grill it or brown it in 2 tbsp oil until golden.

  4. Drain the onions from the marinade (keep the liquid) and stew them in the remaining oil for 20 minutes until soft and lightly coloured.

  5. Add the marinade and 200 ml water, the bay leaf and the chicken, cover and simmer for 25–30 minutes until the meat is tender.

  6. Add the olives, cook for 5 more minutes, adjust the seasoning and serve with rice.

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