Day 2: Let’s Head to Senegal
Day 2 of the World Cup of BBQ sees a cook from Senegal who, unfortunately, didn’t get a result against the Dutch today. For the cook from Senegal, I decided on Chicken Yassa, a mustard-based dish from West Africa.
I have cooked a few recipes recently that have mustard as the main ingredient, so when I came across the Chicken Yassa, it was going to be the one I selected.
This one also appealed as there were a few stages to it. First the marinating, then the grilling of the Chicken before the final braise.
Preparation and the Cook
There are a few recipes around for Chicken Yassa, all with slightly different methods. Some call for marinating, others do not. I am a fan of marinating meat to infuse as much flavour as possible into the meat.
After marinating the chicken in the fridge overnight, I took it out about 1 hour before I wanted to start cooking and then proceeded to light my BBQ. Again, I decided to use the Aldi Kamado for this cook. Once the temperature was at 200°C, I started the cook.
The first step was to grill the chicken directly, before adding the deflector plate and braising the meat for the remainder of the cook. If you are cooking this on a kettle BBQ, set your BBQ up for 2-zone cooking. You can then cook the Chicken on the direct area of the BBQ and braise on the indirect area.
I just served this one with plain rice.
The Verdict
I really liked this dish. The chicken was so tender, literally falling off the bone. There was a lovely spice in the dish – maybe a little too spicy for some, but perfect for me. If you want it less spicy you could ease off on the Scotch Bonnet or use a different chilli pepper.
The next time I cook this I will try to thicken the sauce up which I think will add to the dish. Definitely another keeper!!!
Chicken Yassa
Ingredients
Marinating the Chicken
- 4 Chicken Legs (skin on)
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- ½ Onion (finely diced)
- 1 Rind from a Lemon
- 1 Juice from a Lemon
- 1 tsp Lemon Extract
- 1 Rind from a Lime
- 1 Juice from a Lime
- 1 Scotch Bonnet Pepper (fiinely diced)
- 1 tsp Sea Salt
For the Yassa
- 2 tbsp Rapeseed Oil
- 1 Onion (sliced)
- 2 Garlic Cloves (finely diced)
- 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 tsp Haendlmaier Sweet Bavarian Mustard
- 425 ml Chicken Stock
- 1 whole Scotch Bonnet Pepper (pieces with a skewer or fork)
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Freshly Ground Pepper
Instructions
- Place the Chicken in a large bowl or casserole dish. In a separate bowl mix all the marinade ingredients and pour over the chicken. Get your hands into the mixture make sure the Chicken is liberally covered.Tip: wear food gloves for this, not only for hygiene and to keep the food smells (and heat from the Scotch Bonnet) off your hands.
- Place the Chicken in the fridge for at least 4 hours bur preferably overnight. I placed mine in the fridge overnight and gave it another good stir in the morning.
- Remove the Chicken from the fridge about an hour before you want to start cooking and start to prepare you BBQ.
- Initially set the grill up for direct cooking. When the BBQ is ready to cook on scrape the marinade off the Chicken and place on the grate for 10-15 minutes turning regularly. Don't worry about the internal temperature at this stage as you are just getting some lovely char and BBQ flavour on the Chicken. The Chicken gets braised, so that is when we will check the internal temperature.
- Once you have some nice char on the Chicken remove from BBQ and place to one side. At this stage I added the deflector plate and added the Dutch Oven to the BBQ, with the Rapeseed Oil.
- Start by cooking the Onions until they start to soften and begin to lightly brown and then add the Garlic and cook for around 2 minutes.
- Next add both of the Mustards and give the dish a good stir, making sure you liberally cover the Onions. Stir for around 1 minute.
- Finally, add the Chicken Stock, Bay Leaves, Scotch Bonnet, Salt and Pepper. Give it a good stir to mix the ingredients and then add the Chicken. Again, give the mixtures a good stir making sure the Chicken is well covered.
- Place the lid on the Dutch Oven and cook until the internal temperature is 75°C. I did switch the chicken around half way through to ensure all the legs had some time fully submerged in the braising liquid. Once ready remove from the BBQ.
- Serve the Chicken with a side of rice and then spoon over some of the braising liquid and onions. Enjoy!!!
