About the Recipe
Yassa poulet is a Senegalese dish that I ate growing up in Dakar. It is one of two typical dishes the other one of which is Thieboudienne (pronounced chebou-djen or just cheb).
This dish is one with simple ingredients that are transformed with a little bit of time and cooking.
I combined my version with garlic spring greens as that is what was available at the supermarkets but feel free to adapt.
Ingredients
For the Yassa Poulet
4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of chopped ginger/1 knob of ginger 2-3cm long peeled and diced
4/5 onions
Juice of 2 lemons or equivalent
2 small chillis finely chopped
1 chicken stock cube/pot
Pinch of salt
Black pepper
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon vinegar (ideally red wine but does not really matter)
4 large chicken thighs
2-3 tablespoons neutral oil/olive oil
Optional: sliced olives to garnish
For the spring greens
1-2 bunches of spring greens (or equivalent quantity of desired greens such as spinach, pakchoi, even cabbage)
1-2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon neutral oil
Preparation
For the Yassa Poulet
Prep ingredients: roughly chop the garlic, you can do the same with the ginger but if you prefer to avoid small mouthfuls of ginger then better to grate it. Cut the onions into half-moon slices.
Combine and prep the marinade: combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Start by mixing the oil, garlic, ginger and mustard then add the chicken stock pot/cube. You may need to add a little water if it does not dissolve. That is fine.
Add the chicken: add the chicken thighs then salt and pepper to season.
Marinade: cover it with clingfilm and set in the fridge to marinade over-night.
Cook: in a medium-large pot add the chicken and onions and cover until cooked, usually around 20ish minutes. Ideally you could cook the chicken first to give the skin a bit of crunch and then add the onions. Alternatively, simply lay the onions under the chicken in a baking dish and put in the oven at around 150 for 10-15 minutes (although check for done-ness as ovens do vary).
For the greens
Fry: Slice the washed spring greens and shake to remove excess water. Then combined with roughly chopped garlic and fry in a pan, making sure to put the stalks in first and then the outer edges of the leaves as these take longer to cook.
To serve, simply cook some rice and add the chicken and greens on top.