Ghanaian Chicken Stew Recipe: The Everyday Tomato Stew
Ghanaian Chicken Stew Recipe: The Everyday Tomato Stew
If Ghanaian homes abroad had an official weeknight sound, it would be this stew bubbling on the stove. Chicken stew is the one that goes with everything: plain rice on a Tuesday, jollof when people are coming, boiled yam when the stew needs to stretch. It is rich, red, gingery, and deeply familiar, the stew most of us learned by watching it happen rather than by reading anything down.
Every home has its hand. Some fry the chicken crisp before it meets the stew, some never do. Curry powder and thyme are the seasoning backbone in most pots, with bay leaves in plenty of them too. What does not change is the order of work: season and steam the chicken first so it makes its own stock, then build the tomato stew properly, cooking it down until the oil rises. Skip either step and you will taste the shortcut.
Steam the chicken first
This is the step that separates chicken stew from chicken dropped into tomato sauce. The chicken goes into the pot with its blended seasoning and just a little water, and steams in its own juices until it is half cooked and the pot holds a rich, concentrated stock. That stock goes into the stew later, so the chicken flavor runs through every spoonful instead of sitting only in the meat.
Steaming first also means the chicken finishes gently in the stew instead of boiling hard in it, which keeps it tender. Save every drop of the stock. It is doing more work in this recipe than any seasoning cube.
Ghanaian Chicken Stew Recipe: The Everyday Tomato Stew
Get the Diaspora Pantry Starter Kit
19 tested swaps for the Ghanaian ingredients you can't find abroad, plus where to buy them in the US, UK, and Canada. Free.
Join the list and you'll be first to hear when our cookbook drops, with an early bird price.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, about 3 1/3 lbs (1.5 kg), cut into pieces, or the same weight of thighs and drumsticks
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable oil
- 3 large onions: 1 for the chicken seasoning, 1 sliced for the stew, 1 blended with the tomatoes
- 8 large fresh tomatoes (about 1 3/4 lbs / 800 g), blended
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated or blended
- 4 cloves garlic, minced or blended
- 1 to 2 Scotch bonnet peppers, blended with the tomatoes or left whole
- 2 teaspoons curry powder
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 seasoning cubes
- Salt to taste
- To serve: boiled rice, jollof rice, waakye, ampesi (boiled yam or plantain), or bread
Method
- Rinse the chicken pieces and pat them dry. Blend the first onion with the ginger and garlic and a splash of water. Rub the blend all over the chicken with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 crushed seasoning cube. Cover and rest for at least 30 minutes, or overnight in the fridge if you have the time.
- Put the chicken and all its marinade in a pot with 1/2 cup of water. Cover and steam over medium heat for 12 to 15 minutes, until the chicken is half cooked and has released a good amount of stock.
- Lift the chicken pieces out with a slotted spoon and set them aside. Pour the stock into a bowl and keep it. This stock is gold.
- Optional but popular: heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a wide pan and fry the steamed chicken pieces until lightly golden on all sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Set aside. If you skip the frying, the stew is still proper; the chicken will simply be paler and softer.
- In the main pot, heat the remaining oil over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook for about 5 minutes, until soft and starting to color at the edges.
- Stir in the tomato paste and fry for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until it deepens to a dark brick red.
- Add the blended tomatoes, the blended onion, and the Scotch bonnet. Stir in the curry powder, thyme, and bay leaves. Cook over medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring often, until the stew has thickened, darkened, and the oil is floating on top. This cook down is where the raw tomato taste leaves and the stew flavor arrives. Do not rush it.
- Pour in the reserved chicken stock and stir. Return the chicken pieces to the pot, nestling them into the stew. Cover and simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes, until the chicken is fully cooked and tender.
- Taste and adjust: salt, the second seasoning cube if it needs it, more pepper if your house runs hot. Take out the bay leaves and the whole pepper if you left it whole.
- Rest the stew off the heat for 5 minutes and serve hot over rice, with waakye, or with boiled yam or plantain.
Tips
Judge the stew by the oil. When the tomato base is truly cooked, the oil separates and glistens on the surface and the stew smells sweet rather than sharp. That is your timer, not the clock.
Blend the pepper with the tomatoes if you want even heat. A whole pepper gives perfume and a gentle warmth you can control; blended pepper puts the fire in every bite. Ghanaians argue about this too. Both are right, depending on who is eating.
It is better the next day. Chicken stew settles overnight and the flavors marry. Make it a day ahead for guests and you will look like you planned your whole life this well.
Key ingredients
Garden Egg Stew · Kontomire Stew
Frequently asked questions
What makes Ghanaian chicken stew different from other tomato stews?
The ginger forward seasoning, the curry powder and thyme in the base, and the method: the chicken is seasoned and steamed first to make its own stock, and that stock builds the stew. The result is a stew that tastes of chicken all the way through, not tomato sauce with chicken in it.
Do I have to fry the chicken?
No. Frying after steaming gives golden edges and a firmer bite, and many home cooks insist on it. Plenty of excellent pots skip it entirely, especially on weeknights. The recipe works both ways; the method marks the frying as optional because it is.
What do you serve Ghanaian chicken stew with?
Plain boiled rice is the everyday answer. It is also classic with jollof rice, Ghana fried rice, waakye, ampesi (boiled yam or plantain), and even bread for mopping. If there is a Ghanaian staple this stew refuses, nobody has found it yet.
Can I use chicken breast?
You can, but thighs, drumsticks, and mixed pieces on the bone give a richer stew and stay tender through the simmer. If you use breast, cut it large and shorten the final simmer so it does not dry out.
How long does it keep?
Four days in the fridge, three months in the freezer. Reheat gently with a splash of water. Like most tomato stews, it tastes better on day two than day one.