African Chicken Galinha à Africana

Macanese African Chicken (Galinha à Africana)

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Serves 4

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes (less if you use individual chicken pieces)

• 10 cloves garlic, peeled
• 5 golden shallots, peeled
• 2-3 large red chillies, sliced
• 400ml/14.13 fl ozs. milk
• 100ml/3.5 fl ozs. white wine
• 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
• 3 pieces lemon zest
• 70g/2.47ozs. desiccated coconut
• 200g/7ozs. tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons five spice powder
• 4 tablespoons peanut butter (you can also use almond butter)
• Oil for frying
• 1.8kg/4lb. whole chicken, cut into pieces (you can also use drumsticks or wings if you have less time)
• 75g/2.5ozs butter
• 2 teaspoons sugar or honey
• 1/2 cup coconut cream
• Roasted golden potato slices (recipe below), pickles and black olives to serve

Step 1 - Place the garlic, shallots, chillies, milk, white wine, paprika, lemon zest, coconut, tomatoes, tomato paste, five spice powder and peanut butter in a food processor and process until you get a smooth liquid.

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Step 2 - Fry the chicken on high heat skin side down to brown. Place the chicken along with the butter into a large pot with a lid and add the sauce over it. Add the honey into the mix and cover with the lid and simmer on medium heat for 30 minutes, turning the pieces over to give them an even cooking time. Remove the lid and cook for another 30 minutes. The wings and ribs will probably need to be removed after about 35 minutes or so.

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Step 3 - Add the coconut cream to thicken. At this point you can cool and chill the chicken and eat it on another day - there is a valid argument to doing this as the spices and flavours will develop over the next couple of days. To reheat, place the chicken on a foil lined tray and top with a bit of the sauce and place under a hot grill to warm up. Serve this with sliced grilled potatoes, pickles (a must!) and black olives.

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Roasted Golden Potato Slices

• 5 large potatoes, peeled
• 1/4 cup goose fat
• Salt

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Step 1 - Preheat oven to 220C/440F. Slice the potatoes as shown and spoon over a little goose fat on each potato. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden.