Ethiopian recipe
How to make Doro wat
ዶሮ ወጥ
The highlands, especially Amhara and Tigray
A deep red, spicy chicken stew made with a large amount of slowly cooked onions, berbere and spiced butter, with whole hard-boiled eggs added at the end. It is the dish of feast days, above all Christmas and Easter, when the long fast ends, and many people call it the national dish.
Ingredients
- 1 kg chicken pieces on the bone, skin removed
- Juice of 1 lemon and 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 large red onions, very finely chopped
- 100 g niter kibbeh (Ethiopian spiced butter) or ordinary butter
- 3 to 4 tablespoons berbere spice mix
- 4 garlic cloves and a thumb of fresh ginger, finely chopped
- About 300 ml chicken stock or water
- 4 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
Method
- Rub the chicken with the lemon juice and salt and leave it for 15 minutes.
- Put the onions in a heavy pot without any fat and cook them over a low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring often, until soft and brown. Add a spoonful of water if they begin to stick.
- Stir in the butter, berbere, garlic and ginger and cook gently for 10 minutes, until the sauce is dark red and smells rich.
- Add the chicken and the stock, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, until the chicken is cooked right through and tender. Add a little water if it gets too thick.
- Cut a few shallow slits in each egg, add them to the pot and simmer for 10 more minutes. Serve on injera, with mild fresh cheese on the side.
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The onions are first cooked without any fat in a dry pot until they break down; this is what makes the sauce so thick.
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