Chicken Yassa (Senegalese Yassa Poulet)

Chicken Yassa, or Yassa Poulet, a simple yet favorite Senegalese dish, is a staple in many West African countries. Traditional Yassa poulet is made with lime, onions, and chicken to yields a fantastic flavor combination.

I grew up eating this dish every Sunday. I still recall how my mother expertly cooked each ingredient to produce different flavor profiles (for example, grilling vs. frying). One of the first traditional African meals I cooked was Yassa Djeun (Yassa with fish), which uses the same cooking concept and replaces chicken with fish. I was about 7 years old and frying that fish under the nanny's careful supervision. Yassa Yapp (with beef or lamb) is a delicious version of Yassa that is worth trying!

Tips for making the best Chicken Yassa (Yassa Poulet)

Using fresh ingredients is always essential to unlock the best possible flavors in your dish. Cooking the ingredients with love, patience, and a few tricks is another way to achieve the best results. Below are tips to make an excellent and flavorful Yassa. 

1. Chicken

Skin: Trim extra fat and remove the skin to reduce the dish's fat content. 

Marinade the chicken for a few hours to overnight with onions, lemon, salt, and pepper. 

Roff (stuffing in Wolof) is a type of purée made with onion, garlic, salt, and pepper used to stuff the chicken and make it more flavorful. Just form 1 or 2 small holes in the chicken piece of your choice and insert a bit of roff. Roff is optional in this recipe. 

To obtain the best-flavored chicken for your Yassa, use grilling (with coal or wood) as a cooking method. However, frying with oil or baking (and broiling for a bit of charring ) will yield a delicious result. 

Upon assembly of the sauce, simmer the chicken in the onions and the juice from the marinade. Be careful not to throw away that marinade as it contains tons of flavor. If baking, conserve the liquid collected in the baking pan and add it to the stew. 

2. Onions: 

Tasty local yellow or red onions are always the best options. 

Chop: Chop your onions in stripes or dice shapes. Submerge whole skinless onions in the water before chopping them to reduce tearing. 

Remove extra juice: Before frying, remove excess liquid to make the frying process more effective. 

Cook: Cook onions in hot oil until translucent. Monitor the cooking process to avoid burning the onions. 

3. Give it time, and simmer:  

It is no secret the longer you simmer most African stews, the better tasting the final result. However, if simmering for longer than an hour, you may need to add a few more layers of seasoning. In Senegal, we call seasoning nokoss, usually added at the beginning of the cooking and later on mid-cooking. The nokoss can also serve as the roff (optional chicken stuffing), made of pureed onions, garlic, salt, and pepper for the Yassa dish. Nokoss is not necessary for this recipe. 

How to make an express Yassa Poulet with store-bought grilled chicken?

Express Yassa Poulet is my favorite version of the dish. It is easy and quick to make, and using grilled chicken imparts an additional layer of flavor to the dish.  

To make this quick version of Yassa Poulet, directly skip to the onion step, and upon assembling the sauce, add 2 to 3 tbsp of mustard, chilies, Ijuices from 2 limes/lemon, spices, a bit of salt and pepper to taste, and the pieces of chicken. Cook for 45 min, and that's it!

Tricks to render the Yassa Poulet sauce slightly less acidic:

• Use a bit of baking soda (1/4 tsp at a time)

• Use a bit of sugar (very little at a time).

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Chicken Yassa (Senegalese Yassa Poulet)

Yield: 4-6

Author: mddolce

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 1 H & 45 MTotal time: 2 Hour

Ingredients

• A 2 to 3-pound whole chicken cut into 4 to 8 pieces
• 10 yellow or red onions
• 3 to 4 juicy limes or lemons
• 7 cloves of garlic
• vegetable oil
• 2 to 3 tablespoons of dijon mustard
• 2 chilies or scotch bonnet peppers
• 4 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup water
• Salt
• Black pepper
• 3 cups of basmati rice (or your favorite rice)

Instructions

Chicken

1. Cut chicken into 4 to 8 pieces, trim fat, and remove the skin (optional).
2. In a large bowl (preferably glass, as it won't react with the acidity of juices), add chicken, juice from 3 limes/lemons, 1/2 tablespoon of salt, and 1/2 tsp of black pepper.
3. Marinate overnight or for a few hours in the fridge. If needed, marinade for 30 min.
4. Disclaimer: reserve the marinade in the bowl upon cooking the chicken, do not throw it away after the following step!
5. Gently squeeze marinade out of the chicken and bake on a tray at 375 F for 45 minutes, until brown. Broil the chicken for 5 more minutes or until dark brown.
6. Alternatively (traditionally), fry in hot oil until golden brown or grill for an extra tasty dish.
7. Keep the rest of the marinade juice aside.

Onions

1. Finely chop onions in strips or dice of about 1/6 inch (0.35 cm) thick.
2. In a large pot, caramelize the onions by adding them to 1 cup of hot vegetable oil, and cover on medium heat for about 10 to 20 min. Mix from time to time, and cook until translucent and slightly brown. Re-adjust heat to low-medium soon after adding onions, if needed, to prevent onions from burning. The duration of the cooking process will depend on the size of your onion cuts (dice vs. stripes) and heat level.

Sauce Assembly

1. Add cooked chicken and its juice to the onions, the marinade juice, finely chopped garlic, and bay leaves. Mix. Add salt and pepper and 1/2 tbsp of mustard.
2. If the sauce looks too thick or pasty, rinse the marinade bowl with 1/2 cup of water and add to the sauce. Add a few tbsp of lime/lemon juice for a slightly more acidic dish. The sauce will naturally become more fluid while simmering.
3. Cover and let simmer for 1 to 1.5 hr on low heat, until the chicken becomes tender.
4. Serve with white rice.

Rice

1. Rinse rice with cold water two times and remove excess water.
2. In a medium-sized cooking pan (with cover), add 5.5 cups of water, 1/4 cup of oil, and rinsed rice.
3. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for 20 to 25 min.
4. Verify the rice is cooked. Add a few tablespoons of water and cook for a few more minutes if needed.

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