Chicken Palaver

Recipes for Chicken Palaver abound on the internet and variations can be found all over North and West Africa in such countries as Ghana, Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone etc. This version was inspired by "The African and Middle Eastern Cookbook" from 'Anness Publishing Ltd', but changed to suit a single portion with some minor ingredient changes. The name 'Palaver' is supposed to originate from village conferences/debates during which food was cooked to be enjoyed by all at the conclusion. Other variations of this dish include meat and/or fish/shrimps and quite frequently okra. Delicious and highly recommended.

Ingredients

For 1	Continued...
1 chicken breast	1 tspn peanut butter (see note 2)
1 tspn garlic (crushed)	100 - 200 ml chicken stock
15 gm butter	½ tspn dried thyme
1 tbspn oil	50 gm spinach (see note 3)
50 gm onion (prepared weight)	1 tspn red or green chilli (chopped)
3 tbspn chopped tomato (see note 1)	¼ tspn salt
	freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preparation

Crush the garlic.
Cut the chicken into finger sized strips and mix in the crushed garlic with a little salt and pepper.
Finely chop the onion.
Deseed and chop the red or green chilli.
Chop the spinach.

Cooking

Heat the butter in a non-stick frying pan and fry the chicken strips for about 3 min until brown on all sides, then remove to a plate and set aside.
Heat the oil in a saucepan over a high flame and cook, stirring regularly, the onion and chopped tomatoes for 5 min.
Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the peanut butter and 50 ml of the chicken stock and cook, stirring, for 4 min.
Stir in another 50 ml of chicken stock, thyme, spinach, chilli, salt and pepper, return the chicken to the pan and simmer, covered, stirring regularly, for 10 - 15 min, adding a little more stock or hot water as needed to prevent drying.

Serving

Serve with boiled potatoes (boiled yams would traditionally be used) or rice.

Notes

(1)Traditionally fresh tomatoes would be used, but those available from supermarkets tend to be unripe so I find it better to used the canned variety.
(2)Smooth or crunchy peanut butter can be used.
(3)A green vegetable called 'bitterleaf' would traditionally be used but any bitter greens can be used or even spinach as I have done here.

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