Cook this: Peanut-crusted chicken — Chef Anto’s version of mafé — from Saka Saka

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Our cookbook of the week is Saka Saka: Adventures in African Cooking, South of the Sahara by Anto Cocagne and Aline Princet. Over the next two days, we’ll feature another recipe from the book and an interview with one of the authors.

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To try another recipe from the book, check out: Beef baguette and papaya gazpacho.

Anto Cocagne (a.k.a. Chef Anto) created this dish with a West African classic in mind: mafé.

“Peanut stew is really known in sub-Saharan African countries,” says the Paris-based chef, artistic director of Afro Cooking magazine, president of the We Eat Africa food festival, and star of the TV series Rendez-vous avec Le Chef Anto.

“If you are in the central part of Africa, the peanut stew is going to be eaten with fish because we have a lot of lakes, rivers. Some countries are near the sea, so peanut stew is (made) with fish.”

In the west, mafé often contains meat — mainly chicken, as she features here with a twist. Instead of the usual stew presentation, Cocagne gives the chicken a crisp crust and serves it alongside a peanut butter-chili sauce.

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“This recipe is a creation because when I was in French culinary school, my teacher told me, ‘You know, Anto, in a recipe it’s important to have different sensations,’” says Cocagne. “Something smooth, something crunchy.”

She calls for red nokoss, one of her base recipes, in both the sauce and the marinade for the chicken.

Cocagne has seen cooks using nokoss — a seasoning paste — throughout sub-Saharan African countries, as well as in Jamaica, Martinique and Guadeloupe.

She includes three different versions in Saka Saka: orange, for vegetables; green, for fish and crustaceans; and red, for meat.

Article content

Made with chilies, onions, garlic, ginger and herbs, the paste is commonly used in marinades, but it doesn’t stop there.

“If you want to season your sauce, you use it. If you want to make vinaigrette, you use it too. If you want to marinate your fish or your meat, you use this paste,” says Cocagne. “This paste is used for everything.”

PEANUT-CRUSTED CHICKEN

My version of mafé

3 lb 5 oz (1.5 kg) free-range whole chicken, or 2 lb (910 g) boneless breasts and thighs plus some bones for the sauce
1 lemon
1 tbsp red nokoss (recipe follows)
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp vegetable oil

For the crust:
1/3 cup (50 g) roasted peanuts
1/2 cup (50 g) dried breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper
2 eggs, beaten
Scant 1/2 cup (50 g) all-purpose flour

For the sauce:
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp red nokoss (recipe follows)
3 tbsp peanut butter
1 mild/sweet chili
Salt and pepper

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Step 1

Clean the chicken the day before, or at least 2 hours prior to cooking, and separate the breast and thigh meat from the bones. Set the bones aside for the sauce. Juice the lemon.

Step 2

Coat the boneless chicken pieces with the lemon juice and nokoss and season with salt and pepper. Leave to marinate in the fridge.

Step 3

To make the sauce, break up the chicken bones. Heat the oil in a pot and sweat the red nokoss for 3 minutes. Add the chicken bones and brown for 20 minutes over medium heat.

Step 4

Stir the peanut butter and 2 cups (500 mL) water into the red nokoss mixture. Add the whole chili and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. The sauce will gradually thicken. Season to taste and remove the bones.

Step 5

For the crust, finely crush the roasted peanuts and put them on a plate with the breadcrumbs and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well. In a shallow bowl, mix the beaten eggs with 1 tablespoon water. Put the flour on another plate. Coat the chicken pieces in the flour, then dip in the beaten eggs and coat with the peanut breadcrumbs.

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Step 6

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Step 7

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and brown the chicken pieces. Transfer the chicken to a baking pan and bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until cooked through.

Step 8

Serve the chicken and sauce with rice, plantain fufu (recipe is in the book) or cassava tubers cooked in water.

Serves: 4

RED NOKOSS

For meat

1 red sweet pepper
2 mild/sweet red chilies
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves
3/4 oz (20 g) fresh ginger
1 tomato
1 celery stalk
2 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
1 tbsp soumbala powder (see note)

Step 1

Deseed the sweet pepper and chilies. Peel and roughly chop the onion, garlic and ginger. Roughly chop the tomato and celery.

Step 2

Using a blender, blend the sweet pepper, chilies, onion, garlic, ginger, tomato, celery and herbs into a smooth paste. Add the soumbala and 3 tablespoons water, then blend again.

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Step 3

Keep the paste in a glass jar in the fridge (see note).

Note: Soumbala is a traditional condiment used in West African cooking and is an ingredient that is widely used, in the same way that fish sauce is used in Southeast Asia. It is made by processing the seeds from the pods of the néré tree. It can be found with different names: “nététou” in Senegal, “moutarde africaine” in Togo, “soumbala” in Guinea and Mali, “soumara” in Ivory Coast, and “dadawa” or “iru” in Nigeria and Ghana. Source it from African and Afro-Caribbean grocery stores, or online (e.g., mychopchop.ca, obiafric.ca, Etsy).

Nokoss is a paste used to season sauces, meats and fish. It will keep longer if you add a layer of vegetable oil to the jar. Store it in the fridge for up to a week. To keep the paste for longer, use an ice cube tray (that you use for nokoss only) and freeze the whole batch.

Recipes and images excerpted from Saka Saka: Adventures in African Cooking, South of the Sahara by Anto Cocagne and Aline Princet. First American edition published in 2022 by Interlink Books. Copyright © Mango 2019. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.

Article content

Our cookbook of the week is Saka Saka: Adventures in African Cooking, South of the Sahara by Anto Cocagne and Aline Princet. Over the next two days, we’ll feature another recipe from the book and an interview with one of the authors.

Article content

To try another recipe from the book, check out: Beef baguette and papaya gazpacho.

Anto Cocagne (a.k.a. Chef Anto) created this dish with a West African classic in mind: mafé.

“Peanut stew is really known in sub-Saharan African countries,” says the Paris-based chef, artistic director of Afro Cooking magazine, president of the We Eat Africa food festival, and star of the TV series Rendez-vous avec Le Chef Anto.

“If you are in the central part of Africa, the peanut stew is going to be eaten with fish because we have a lot of lakes, rivers. Some countries are near the sea, so peanut stew is (made) with fish.”

In the west, mafé often contains meat — mainly chicken, as she features here with a twist. Instead of the usual stew presentation, Cocagne gives the chicken a crisp crust and serves it alongside a peanut butter-chili sauce.

Article content

“This recipe is a creation because when I was in French culinary school, my teacher told me, ‘You know, Anto, in a recipe it’s important to have different sensations,’” says Cocagne. “Something smooth, something crunchy.”

She calls for red nokoss, one of her base recipes, in both the sauce and the marinade for the chicken.

Cocagne has seen cooks using nokoss — a seasoning paste — throughout sub-Saharan African countries, as well as in Jamaica, Martinique and Guadeloupe.

She includes three different versions in Saka Saka: orange, for vegetables; green, for fish and crustaceans; and red, for meat.

Article content

Made with chilies, onions, garlic, ginger and herbs, the paste is commonly used in marinades, but it doesn’t stop there.

“If you want to season your sauce, you use it. If you want to make vinaigrette, you use it too. If you want to marinate your fish or your meat, you use this paste,” says Cocagne. “This paste is used for everything.”

PEANUT-CRUSTED CHICKEN

My version of mafé

3 lb 5 oz (1.5 kg) free-range whole chicken, or 2 lb (910 g) boneless breasts and thighs plus some bones for the sauce
1 lemon
1 tbsp red nokoss (recipe follows)
Salt and pepper
3 tbsp vegetable oil

For the crust:
1/3 cup (50 g) roasted peanuts
1/2 cup (50 g) dried breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper
2 eggs, beaten
Scant 1/2 cup (50 g) all-purpose flour

For the sauce:
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp red nokoss (recipe follows)
3 tbsp peanut butter
1 mild/sweet chili
Salt and pepper

Article content

Step 1

Clean the chicken the day before, or at least 2 hours prior to cooking, and separate the breast and thigh meat from the bones. Set the bones aside for the sauce. Juice the lemon.

Step 2

Coat the boneless chicken pieces with the lemon juice and nokoss and season with salt and pepper. Leave to marinate in the fridge.

Step 3

To make the sauce, break up the chicken bones. Heat the oil in a pot and sweat the red nokoss for 3 minutes. Add the chicken bones and brown for 20 minutes over medium heat.

Step 4

Stir the peanut butter and 2 cups (500 mL) water into the red nokoss mixture. Add the whole chili and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. The sauce will gradually thicken. Season to taste and remove the bones.

Step 5

For the crust, finely crush the roasted peanuts and put them on a plate with the breadcrumbs and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well. In a shallow bowl, mix the beaten eggs with 1 tablespoon water. Put the flour on another plate. Coat the chicken pieces in the flour, then dip in the beaten eggs and coat with the peanut breadcrumbs.

Article content

Step 6

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Step 7

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and brown the chicken pieces. Transfer the chicken to a baking pan and bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until cooked through.

Step 8

Serve the chicken and sauce with rice, plantain fufu (recipe is in the book) or cassava tubers cooked in water.

Serves: 4

RED NOKOSS

For meat

1 red sweet pepper
2 mild/sweet red chilies
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves
3/4 oz (20 g) fresh ginger
1 tomato
1 celery stalk
2 sprigs thyme
2 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
1 tbsp soumbala powder (see note)

Step 1

Deseed the sweet pepper and chilies. Peel and roughly chop the onion, garlic and ginger. Roughly chop the tomato and celery.

Step 2

Using a blender, blend the sweet pepper, chilies, onion, garlic, ginger, tomato, celery and herbs into a smooth paste. Add the soumbala and 3 tablespoons water, then blend again.

Article content

Step 3

Keep the paste in a glass jar in the fridge (see note).

Note: Soumbala is a traditional condiment used in West African cooking and is an ingredient that is widely used, in the same way that fish sauce is used in Southeast Asia. It is made by processing the seeds from the pods of the néré tree. It can be found with different names: “nététou” in Senegal, “moutarde africaine” in Togo, “soumbala” in Guinea and Mali, “soumara” in Ivory Coast, and “dadawa” or “iru” in Nigeria and Ghana. Source it from African and Afro-Caribbean grocery stores, or online (e.g., mychopchop.ca, obiafric.ca, Etsy).

Nokoss is a paste used to season sauces, meats and fish. It will keep longer if you add a layer of vegetable oil to the jar. Store it in the fridge for up to a week. To keep the paste for longer, use an ice cube tray (that you use for nokoss only) and freeze the whole batch.

Recipes and images excerpted from Saka Saka: Adventures in African Cooking, South of the Sahara by Anto Cocagne and Aline Princet. First American edition published in 2022 by Interlink Books. Copyright © Mango 2019. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.