Ethiopian Chicken

I watched a friend make this wonderful meal recently. I don’t know what the dish is called – it was just dinner. My friend said she uses the same technique with whatever meat she has on hand – ground chicken on this night. The ingredients she used were similar to what you’d find in a doro wot recipe.

The new (to me) and clutch ingredients were Niter Kibbeh and berbere. Niter Kibbeh is an Ethiopian clarified spiced butter that gives braised meat and vegetables a fatty and earthy richness. Berbere is a blend of dried hot peppers, coriander, garlic, ginger, besobela, korarima, rue, ajwain or radhuni, nigella, and fenugreek. In San Francisco, you can buy the butter and the spice blend at We Spice.

The salad is dressed with a simple apple cider vinaigrette. The heat and richness of the chicken is also offset by the sourdough injera, and a little plain yogurt.

Here’s further discussion of Niter Kibbeh from an outsider (to Niter Kibbeh) chef with accolades who made the ingredient for an Eritrean restaurant in Wisconsin. So, take that with some salt, but if you’re an outsider to Niter Kibbeh too, like I am, this might be a good bridge.