Mothers’ Day Meal – Doro Wat, Ethiopian Chicken Stew

Ethiopian Entree

DORO WAT
(Chicken stew)

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds chicken breast
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
4 garlic cloves
1 1/2 medium yellow onions
1 cup water
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon allspice
3 tablespoons Berbere spice mix (See recipe for BERBERE SPICE MIX INGREDIENTS, if you can’t find the mix)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek
1 teaspoon ginger
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons turmeric
1/4 cup red wine
6 eggs
2 Roma tomatoes
2 cups lettuce
6 pita breads

Goes well with injera, Ethiopian flat bread.

UTENSIL

Dutch oven

PREPARATION

Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes and put into mixing bowl. Add lemon juice and salt. Mix with hands until all chicken cubes are coated with juice and salt. Set aside for at least 10 minutes.
Dice onions and cloves.

Heat butter in Dutch oven on medium heat until melted for about a minute or until melted. Add garlic, onions, water, allspice, Berbere spice mix, cayenne pepper, coriander, fenugreek, ginger, paprika, salt, and turmeric. Cook on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until onions and garlic are tender. Add red wine and chicken. Mix with spoon.

Random happy face : )

Cover. Cook stew on low heat for about 60 minutes, or until chicken is tender, changed color inside, and you are so powerful hungry you find yourself drooling over the prospect of a lutefisk meal.

Meanwhile back at the range, boil 6 eggs. Remove eggs and let them cool. Peel eggs and cut each one into 4 slices. Cut 2 Roma tomatoes into about 8 slices each. (Cut 2 more tomatoes into slices if your significant other ate the first slices while you were preparing the rest of the meal.)

Shred enough lettuce to make 2 cups. (This is aerobic exercise. Take advantage of it. The Olympics will soon be reaching out to you.)

Put stew in pita pocket or fold pita bread. Add lettuce and tomato and egg slices. Pat yourself on the back. (Put down that hot spoon first.) Serve.

TIDBITS

1) Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee.

2) Millions and millions of people in America drink coffee.

3) Many of them do so for coffee’s taste.

4) Pause and reflect.

5) Our entire economy would tank if we didn’t have coffee keeping our workers awake.

6) There would be a world-wide depression.

7) Thank goodness for Ethiopia.

8) Could we send them a nice beverage in return, like root beer?

9) Many Ethiopian women feed their menfolk with their fingers as a sign of love and devotion.

10) Presumably Ethiopian women could also serve their men beverages with their fingers as sign of “Hit the road, Jack.”

– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef

My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.