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A Taste of Nigeria

Stories from my kitchen — where flavor meets memory, and every dish carries a piece of home.

🍗 Nigerian Peppered Chicken

Deeply spiced, crispy fried chicken tossed in a rich, fragrant pepper sauce.

⏱️ Prep: 20 mins🍲 Cook: 25 mins👥 Serves: 6-8🌶️ Heat: Bold

🌿 View Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (cut into pieces)

• 1 large or 2 medium bell peppers

• 4 attarugu (scotch bonnet) or hot peppers

• 1 tomato, 1 large onion

• Salt, curry powder, thyme, chicken seasoning

• 1 double Knorr chicken cube and 1 Royco cube

• Oil for frying

📖 View Method

1. Boil the Chicken: Cut chicken into pieces, wash, and place in a pot with 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp curry, chicken seasoning, Royco cube, thyme, and half the chopped onion. Cover and cook for 30 mins until soft.

2. Fry the Chicken: Remove chicken pieces and deep-fry in hot oil until golden brown. Set aside.

3. Prepare the Pepper Sauce: Blend remaining onion, bell peppers, hot peppers, tomato, and garlic. Cook mixture until water dries up, then add oil and fry until oil separates.

4. Combine and Finish: Season sauce with ½ tsp salt, curry, chicken seasoning, thyme, and 1 Knorr cube. Fry 30 seconds, then add fried chicken. Mix well and fry another 30 seconds.

✨ Serve hot with jollof rice, fried rice, boiled yam, or plantain.

👨🏾‍🍳 Chef's Tips: The 30+30 seconds rule keeps chicken crispy. Add smoked paprika for extra smokiness. Reduce scotch bonnets to 2 for milder heat.

🥣 Eba & Okro Soup

Smooth, golden eba paired with rich, slimy okra soup — a wholesome taste of home.

⏱️ Prep: 20 mins🍲 Cook: 55 mins👥 Serves: 6-8

🌿 View Ingredients

• 500g beef (cut into chunks)

• 2 cups okra (chopped)

• 1 onion (chopped)

• 2 scotch bonnet peppers

• 1 bell pepper, 1 tomato

• 1 tsp iru (locust beans)

• 1 tsp liquid potash (akanwu)

• Seasoning cubes, salt, curry, thyme

• 2 cups garri (for eba)

📖 View Method

Okro Soup: Boil beef with onion, garlic, salt, stock cube, curry, thyme. Blend onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, scotch bonnet. Fry until oil separates. Add water, salt, stock cubes, iru. Boil 5 mins. Add chopped okra, cook 5 mins. Add liquid potash, cook 5 mins. Add beef and stock.

Eba: Boil 2 cups water. Slowly sprinkle garri while stirring until thick. Cover on low heat 5 mins. Stir vigorously, cover, rest 10 mins. Shape and serve.

✨ Serve warm, with the soup generously ladled over the eba.

👨🏾‍🍳 Chef's Tips: Liquid potash (akanwu) gives okro soup its signature texture. For smoother eba, stir vigorously in one direction and let it rest covered.

🍲 Semo & Egusi Soup

A classic Nigerian comfort meal — rich melon seed stew with semolina.

⏱️ Prep: 20 mins🍲 Cook: 70 mins👥 Serves: 6-8

🌿 View Ingredients

• 2 cups egusi (melon seeds, ground)

• 500g beef or assorted meat

• 1 cup smoked fish or stockfish

• 2 cups pumpkin leaves (ugwu) or spinach

• 1 onion, 2 scotch bonnet peppers

• 1 bell pepper, 2 tomatoes

• ½ cup palm oil

• 2 tbsp crayfish (ground)

• Seasoning cubes, salt

• 2 cups semolina flour (for semo)

📖 View Method

Egusi Soup: Boil beef with salt and Maggi. Mix egusi with crayfish into paste. Fry garlic, onions in oil. Add blended peppers, fry until soft. Add beef, crayfish, daddawa, seasonings. Add fish. Scoop egusi paste, cook 7 mins, stir, cook 5 more mins. Add remaining palm oil, ugwu, water leaves, cook 5 mins.

Semolina: Boil water. Mix semo with cold water into paste. Pour into boiling water, cook 5 mins (careful — it rises!). Slowly add semolina while stirring until thick. Cook 5 mins, turn off heat, let finish on hot stove.

👨🏾‍🍳 Chef's Tips: Add smoked fish for richer flavor. Adjust water for consistency. Some prefer egusi in lumps, others broken — both are delicious.

🍚 Nigerian Party Jollof Rice

The legendary one-pot party rice — smoky, vibrant, unforgettable.

⏱️ Prep: 20 mins🍲 Cook: 50 mins👥 Serves: 6-8

🌿 View Ingredients

• 4 cups long-grain rice (rinsed)

• 800g fresh tomato blend + 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 2 large onions (diced)

• 3-4 scotch bonnet peppers

• ½ cup vegetable oil

• 2 tbsp thyme, 2 tbsp curry powder

• 3 seasoning cubes & salt to taste

• 4 cups chicken stock

• 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp ginger powder

• 2 bay leaves

📖 View Method

1. Blend tomatoes, scotch bonnet into smooth puree. Fry in hot oil until reduced and deep red.

2. Add diced onions, garlic, ginger, fry 3 mins. Add tomato paste, curry, thyme, seasoning cubes.

3. Pour in chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add bay leaves and rinsed rice.

4. Cover and cook on low heat until rice absorbs liquid (~25-30 mins).

✨ For smoky flavor, let it burn slightly at bottom. Serve with fried plantain.

👨🏾‍🍳 Chef's Tips: Add 1 tsp Nigerian curry powder and ½ tsp white pepper for deeper warmth. Leftover Jollof fried with onions makes 'Jollof rice stir-fry' — even better the next day!

✦ First Published Online — May 2026 ✦

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🍚 Peten Chinkafa

The original Fulani comfort food — passed down through generations, now shared with the world.

By Hadiza Bagudu • First published online May 2026

⏱️ Prep: 25 mins🍲 Cook: 60 mins👥 Serves: 6-8🌡️ Best: Cold days & mornings

💡 Hadiza's Note: This is my ultimate comfort food when I have the flu. The warmth of the peppers, the richness of the stock fish, and the sourness of yakuwa — it heals from the inside out.

🌿 View Ingredients

• Short grain white rice

• Beef

• Bonga fish

• Stock fish

• Crayfish

• Attarugu (scotch bonnet peppers)

• Red bell pepper

• Green bell pepper 🫑

• Tomatoes 🍅

• Green bitter garden eggs

• Vegetable oil

• Palm oil

• Onions

• Garlic

• Yakuwa (sour spinach)

• Bitter leaf (optional)

• Curry & thyme

• Daddawa (locust beans)

• Salt

• Cabbage

📖 View Method

1. Boil the meat: Boil beef with onions, garlic, curry and thyme until soft and containing stock. Set aside.

2. Prepare the fish: Break and open the bonga and stock fish in a bowl (except crayfish), removing sharp bones. Cover with boiling water and leave for 10 minutes to clean. Discard the water, wash again with cold water, then add to the cooked meat with stock.

3. Prepare the pepper base: Roughly blend or pound the peppers, attarugu, one onion, and one garlic. Cook until the water is gone, then fry until darker. Add to the meat pot.

4. Add garden eggs: Chop garden eggs and add to the meat pot with about 2 liters of water. Add salt, seasonings, and daddawa. Allow to cook for a few minutes.

5. Cook the rice: Wash rice well, removing stones, then add to the pot. Allow to cook until soft. Important: Make sure the water is more than the rice so when the rice is soft, it is still watery — like porridge.

6. Finish with vegetables: At that stage, add chopped cabbage, garden eggs, onion, green pepper, and bitter leaf. Cook for 5 more minutes.

✨ That's it. Your delicious Fulani comfort food PETE is done. Enjoy. Best eaten on cold days and in the morning.

👨🏾‍🍳 Chef's Tips: The secret to authentic Peten Chinkafa is the water-to-rice ratio — it must finish watery, like porridge. The yakuwa (sour spinach) adds a distinctive tang that balances the richness of the fish. If you can't find yakuwa, substitute with sorrel leaves or add a squeeze of lime at the end.

✽ ✿ ✾

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