Recipes from Benin: Boulets de Poulet avec Sauce Rouge (Chicken Meatballs with Red Sauce)

Recipes from Benin


Boulets de Poulet avec Sauce Rouge (Chicken Meatballs with Red Sauce)

Country: Benin
Course: Main
Makes: 6 servings



Ingredients

  • 1 chicken, cut up, deboned and diced
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened peanut butter
  • 1 habanero pepper, minced
  • 1 bunch of green onions, washed and chopped
  • 4 onions, peeled and chopped
  • 6 tomatoes, blanched, peeled, de-seeded and chopped
  • 1 cup red palm oil
  • salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Take about half of the peanut butter and mix it with a little bit of hot water. It should still be a paste, but it should be just thin enough so you can stir it. Set aside.
  2. Take the remaining peanut butter, the chicken, the habanero, the green onions and salt and put them in a food processor. Pulse until smooth.
  3. Shape the mixture into meatballs.
  4. Chop the blanched tomatoes and the onions and toss them with the peanut butter/water paste.
  5. Melt the palm oil in a pan and fry the meatballs in the palm oil until they are nicely golden all over.
  6. Add the onion, tomato and peanut butter mixture. Cover the pan and reduce the temperature to low. Simmer for 15 minutes or so, then remove the lid and check the internal temperature of the meatballs (they should be at 165 degrees or higher).