Moambe recipe

The Congolese national dish: chicken simmered in the sieved pulp of palm nuts until the red oil rises to the surface.

1 hour and 55 minutesmedium10 ingredients

Ingredients

• 400 g palm nut pulp
• 1500 g chicken
• 1 onion
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 clove garlic
• 20 g ginger
• 1 chili pepper
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 500 ml water

How to make Moambe

1. Cut 1.5 kg of chicken into pieces and rub with 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 2 crushed garlic cloves and 20 g of grated ginger; leave 30 minutes.
2. Dilute 400 g of palm nut pulp, sold as sauce graine or noix de palme, in 500 ml of hot water and pass it through a sieve to get a thick orange cream. This pulp, not peanut butter, is what makes it moambe.
3. Brown the chicken in a heavy pot over medium high heat for 8 to 10 minutes; the pulp is fatty enough that you need no extra oil.
4. Add 1 chopped onion and 2 chopped tomatoes and cook 5 minutes until they collapse.
5. Pour in the strained palm sauce with 1 whole chilli and bring to a bare simmer.
6. Cook uncovered 45 to 60 minutes, stirring now and then, until the orange oil separates on the surface and the sauce clings to the chicken.
7. Taste for salt, lift out the chilli, and serve with fufu, rice and fried plantain.

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