We sometimes spin the globe with our kids to determine what we’re making for dinner. It makes them very excited to try out new, foreign foods. This is what we made when the kids landed on Benin. As you can tell by the name of this dish, there is quite a bit of French influence in this African nation because it was a former French territory. This dish is made of chicken meatballs with a tomato, peanut butter sauce. We admit that we are not adventurous enough to go for a recipe with bush rat, but lucky for us, there are plenty of Beninese dishes with chicken! Red palm oil is the most common oil used in Beninese cooking but we opted to substitute peanut oil for our culinary experiments. We served these meatballs with coconut rice and took the leftovers to a neighborhood gathering the next day. It was happily devoured by all.
Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken legs and 2 breasts, cut into medium size pieces
1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter, divided
1 hot chili pepper, chopped
1 bunch of scallions, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 onions, chopped
6 tomatoes, blanched, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons of peanut oil
1 tablespoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
Preparation
Place 1/4 cup of peanut butter in a small bowl with a small amount of hot water, just enough to loosen and form a smooth paste. Combine chicken, 1/4 cup of remaining peanut butter, chili pepper, scallions, and salt into a food processor. Pulse mixture until smooth. Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Using a teaspoon, scoop out chicken mixture into small meatballs and place in plan to fry, browning on all sides. Once all meatballs are nicely browned, add onions into the pan. Saute for 3 minutes. Add in tomatoes and diluted peanut butter and stir to mix well. Bring to boil then turn down heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
