Muamba Chicken Stew
Black History Month Virtual Potluck 2023
In 2023, the theme of Black History Month is Black Resistance and Eat the Culture is recognizing the remarkable and, frankly, underrated resistance of our ancestors in bringing culinary traditions across the Atlantic to shape the vibrance of Black cuisine that we know and love today. They physically and mentally carried African foodways across the deadly Middle Passage to pass down through generations. This year’s Black History Month Virtual Potluck traces popular dishes of the Diaspora from their West African roots to North America and beyond. Share these recipes with your friends and loved ones and follow each participant by using the hashtag #BHMVP2023 on Instagram.
You can find the full list of recipes from this year’s collaboration on the Eat the Culture website.
Muamba chicken originated in Angola and has migrated with enslaved African people across the Caribbean, Central America, and the American South. This flavorful stewed chicken main dish combines spices and palm butter. With this recipe, I am teaching you how to make Muamba Chicken stew from Angola and encourage you to follow the story through other virtual potluck recipes like Poulet Creole from Haiti and Pollo Guisado from Puerto Rico.
Muamba Chicken also known as Muamba de Galina is Angola’s national dish. Angolan dishes have many Portuguese influences. Portuguese colonization of various lands and people created the colony of Angola. The Portuguese occupied the land that is now Angola for over 400 years. Angola was a Portugese colony until 1975 when Angola gained its in independence. The Portuguese influenced the use of olive oil and the peri-peri pepper in Angola.
The Story
Muamba Chicken is a chicken stew. With family and friends from the south, I’m used to a good stewed chicken. While still a chicken stew, Muambe Chicken is slightly different from the chicken stews I ate growing up. There are just those dishes that instantly take you back to a moment in time, Muamba Chicken is one of those dishes for me.
I remember taking a trip down south. That trip was memorable because it was the first time I saw my great aunt, my grandmother’s sister, go get a chicken from the yard, pluck the feathers, and that was dinner for the night. Though I was born in New York my grandmother who lived with us was a South Carolinian. She would work most days but on those off days, usually, a Sunday, she was in the kitchen. On Sundays, dinner would be started before I could even open my eyes. One of the dishes my grandmother would always cook was stewed chicken. That tender chicken falling off the bone was a treat. Comfort food always brings up feelings of nostalgia. Needless to say I was drawn to Muamba Chicken stew.
The Ingredients
Muamba Chicken stew is a tomatoey, garlicky chicken stew. Fairly simple ingredients come together to create a flavor-filled one-pot dish. The recipe calls for chicken, palm oil, garlic, onions, tomatoes, and pumpkin, spiced and seasoned to perfection.
I used palm oil in my recipe. I have seen variations of the recipe using palm cream and palm butter. I found the palm oil at my local African market. In terms of vegetables, I chose to go with frozen okra, pumpkin, and red cherry peppers. For a bit of spice, the peri-peri pepper is used in traditional Angolan dishes. I tried a variety of peppers but ultimately went with the red cherry pepper which gave nice spice, when the seeds are added, and sweetness. For my palette two peppers gave the stew heavy medium spice. If you prefer less spice, use less peppers, discard the seeds, or eliminate the peppers. Okra serves as a nice thickener for soups and stews. In addition to the palm oil, I located nice large slices of pumpkin at the African market. If pumpkin is not available butternut squash or acorn squash are good alternative options.
Muamba Chicken stew can be eaten alone but is traditionally served with funge. Funge can be made by adding cassava or corn flour to boiling water and stirring until you reach the right consistency. I steamed some cassava to enjoy with my Muamba Chicken, but white rice would also work just as well.
Ingredients
Method
- Rinse and clean 2 ½ pounds of chicken. After rinsing with cold water, I clean my chicken by rubbing all pieces of chicken with half a lemon.
- Sprinkle and rub into the chicken 3 Tbsp fine sea salt (I use Pink Himalayan), ½ Tsp of black pepper, and ½ Tsp of garlic powder.
- Marinade your chicken for 15 minutes at least, overnight is fine also.
- While the chicken is marinating, chop 1 small onion, 2 small tomatoes, slice 2 red cherry peppers with seeds, slice 2 cloves of garlic, and pull the leaves from a sprig of thyme.
- Heat a Dutch oven or large pot over medium heat.
- Add in 1 Tbsp of olive oil.
- Once the oil is warm, add in the chicken and brown each side, for about 10 minutes.
- Leaving the pot on, take the chicken out and set it aside.
- Add 1 ½ Tbsp of palm oil to the pot and stir.
- Add in the chopped onion, 2 bullion cubes, sliced red cherry peppers, 2 Tbsp of tomato paste, 2 chopped tomatoes, 2 Tbsp of peanut butter, 2 cloves of sliced garlic, and thyme.
- Stir, scraping the bottom, drop in the 3 bay leaves and continue to simmer on medium-low for 10 minutes.
- While the stew is simmering, dice 2 C of pumpkin.
- After 10 minutes, add the chicken back to the pot and the pumpkin.
- Pour in three cups of water, or enough to cover the chicken.
- Simmer for 20 minutes covered on medium-low.
- Taste and add additional seasonings if necessary. (I added another ¼ Tsp of salt and ½ Tsp of garlic powder here, I am a garlic fan.)
- Pour in 1 C of okra.
- Simmer for another 20 minutes covered on medium-low.
- Enjoy your Muamba Chicken stew!
Discover more from Flights and Foods
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
5,672 Comments
pengeluaran toto macau
Just wish to say your article is as astonishing. The clarity in your post is just great and i could assume you are an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission let me to grab your feed to keep updated with forthcoming post. Thanks a million and please continue the enjoyable work.
olxtoto jitu
Thanks for helping out, great information.
olxtoto togel
I am typically to running a blog and i actually recognize your content. The article has actually peaks my interest. I am going to bookmark your website and maintain checking for brand spanking new information.
gacor
Hello my friend! I want to say that this article is amazing, great written and come with almost all important infos. I¦d like to look extra posts like this .
gacor
Hi! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay. I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.
prozenith reviews
Hey there just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the images aren’t loading properly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show the same results.
olxtoto
Thanks for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do a little research about this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more clear from this post. I’m very glad to see such magnificent info being shared freely out there.
OrlandoJinna
замена венцов кемерово
audizen reviews
Whats up are using WordPress for your blog platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and set up my own. Do you need any html coding expertise to make your own blog? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
audizen
We stumbled over here different website and thought I should check things out. I like what I see so now i’m following you. Look forward to finding out about your web page for a second time.
pon788 login
Virtually all of whatever you state is supprisingly legitimate and it makes me wonder the reason why I had not looked at this in this light previously. This article truly did switch the light on for me personally as far as this issue goes. Nevertheless at this time there is actually 1 point I am not necessarily too comfortable with and while I try to reconcile that with the central idea of your issue, permit me observe exactly what the rest of the subscribers have to say.Very well done.
situs toto
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something informative to read?
OrlandoJinna
замена венцов кемерово
link alternatif situs toto
I genuinely enjoy reading on this internet site, it has good content.
semutoto gacor
Awsome website! I am loving it!! Will be back later to read some more. I am bookmarking your feeds also.
semutoto gacor
Woh I like your blog posts, saved to bookmarks! .
pink salt trick recipe
I always was concerned in this subject and stock still am, thankyou for putting up.
pink salt trick
I couldn’t resist commenting
situs toto login
I want to show my thanks to you just for bailing me out of this particular setting. As a result of surfing through the search engines and seeing things which are not beneficial, I assumed my entire life was over. Living devoid of the strategies to the difficulties you’ve solved by means of your entire site is a crucial case, as well as ones which could have negatively damaged my career if I hadn’t encountered your web page. The competence and kindness in maneuvering all the things was crucial. I am not sure what I would have done if I hadn’t discovered such a point like this. I’m able to at this point look ahead to my future. Thank you very much for this specialized and results-oriented guide. I will not think twice to suggest your site to anyone who desires tips on this area.
pink salt trick for weight loss
Very good blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers? I’m hoping to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you advise starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many choices out there that I’m totally confused .. Any tips? Kudos!