West African Chicken Suya Recipe- Spicy Skewered Meat with African Pepper Sauce

After making delicious sosaties, Afrikaans skewered meat, the last time I made a barbecue, I decided I wanted to explore different skewered meat recipes from around the world, so see which is my favorite. As I looked through my list of recipes to try, I was trying to find something without any special ingredients, using just what I had in my cupboard. This recipe for chicken suya fits the bill.

Also known as as agashe in Sudan, suya is spicy skewered meat dish from Western Africa, with origins in Nigeria. Suya can be made with beef, chicken, lamb, but I chose to use chicken since that is cheapest. There is no one set recipe for suya, with different regions having their own recipe, but common ingredients in the marinade (called yaji in the Hausa language) are peanuts, oil, onions, and spices. I based my recipe on this one, and as they suggested, served it with a pepper sauce. Because I was serving it with a hot pepper sauce, I decided to leave the cayenne pepper out of the marinade, and let whoever wanted to dip their suya into the spicy hot pepper sauce.

My kids all enjoyed this, but my kids said that the sosaties recipe was even better.

I had extra marinade after making the chicken suya, so I used it to marinate zucchini and mushrooms before grilling them on skewers, and it was phenomenal that way as well.

This recipe is gluten free and cheap, as well as allergy friendly if you’re not allergic to peanuts. And if you are allergic to peanuts, I’m sure you could also make this with sun butter.

The African pepper sauce is a vegan condiment and can be used as a topping for anything you like, sandwiches, proteins, etc… Apparently, the blog of the person where I got the original recipe from actually likes to eat it with Nigerian donuts.

West African Chicken Suya Recipe- Spicy Skewered Meat with African Pepper Sauce

Chicken Suya Ingredients:
1 pack chicken breast (about 3 whole chicken breasts, or 6 chicken breast sides)
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon salt
Cayenne pepper to taste

African Pepper Sauce Ingredients
1 small onion
4 cloves garlic
2 hot peppers or to taste
3 tomatoes
2 basil leaves
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro or parsley
Salt to taste
1/3 cup oil

Instructions for Chicken Suya
1. Blend all the ingredients for the yaji marinade together. (Everything aside from the chicken.)

2. Chop the chicken into small cubes, put it in the marinade, and let sit for at least 30 minutes.

3. Soak bamboo skewers in water to prevent them from burning.

4. Thread the chicken cubes on the skewers.

5. Grill, rotating frequently, until fully cooked on all sides. Alternatively, or broil until fully cooked, rotating occasionally.

6. Serve with hot pepper sauce.

African Pepper Sauce Instructions:

1. Blend all the ingredients together, adding more or fewer hot peppers depending on the heat of the peppers, types of peppers, and your taste.

2. Add salt to taste.

Enjoy!

Have you ever had suya before? Does this look like a recipe you’d try? What is your favorite marinade for grilled meat?

West African Chicken Suya Recipe- Spicy Skewered Meat with African Pepper Sauce

West African Chicken Suya Recipe- Spicy Skewered Meat with African Pepper Sauce

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