Click on the image, above to submit to Pinterest.

Simple Suya Poussin

Simple Suya Poussin is a modern Fusion recipe (based on a Nigerian original) for a classic dish of poussin (baby chickens) flavoured and spiced with a bledn of peanuts and spices, suya. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Fusion version of: Simple Suya Poussin.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

50 minutes

Total Time:

70 minutes

Additional Time:

(+over-night soaking)

Serves:

4

Rating:

Tags : Spice RecipesChicken RecipesFowl RecipesFusion RecipesAfrican-fusion Recipes

Suya (also known as yaji) is a Nigerian spice blend based on peanuts that is an important part of Hausa meat cookery. Typically strips of meat are marinated in suya, threaded on skewers and cooked over a barbecue. A number of native spices are used in traditional suya, including Ashanti peppers (a relative of black pepper) and Calabash nutmeg. As these are not commonly available, I’ve simplified the spice blend here to omit them. Last Christmas there were not turkeys in South Africa due to COVID, so we had suya poussin (baby chickens) instead. Here the suya spice blend is mixed with butter as a spice rub and the fowl is finished with both a stuffing and topping of peanut crumble. Each poussin is enough for one person and you can use any leftover suya as a stuffing. I like my suya hot, so I add dried and ground hot chillies, but this is optional.

Ingredients:

4 poussin
½ shallot, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2⅔ tbsp (10g) parsley leaves, finely chopped

For the marinade
40g salted roast peanuts
1 tsp ground ginger
2¼ tsp smoked paprika
2½ tsp garlic granules
½ tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp dried green peppercorns, coarsely ground in a mortar
¾ tsp ground cayenne pepper
½ tsp ground Scotch bonnet (or habanero) chillies
80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 lemon, zest finely grated, to get 1 tsp, then juiced, to get 1½ tbsp
Fine sea salt

For the peanut crumble
100g salted roast peanuts
¼ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp garlic granules
¾ tsp ground cayenne
¾ tsp caster sugar

Method:

Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan)/425°F/gas mark 7).

First make the marinade. Put the first seven ingredients in a food processor and pulse until the nuts have broken down to the size of couscous grains. Add the butter, lemon zest and juice, and a teaspoon of sea salt, then pulse until well mixed. Reserve 8 tbsp of this mixture then set the remainder aside.

Take the poussin and liberally rub 2 tbsp the spiced butter all over the inside and outside of each one.

Meanwhile, put all the peanut crumble ingredients in the large bowl of a food processor with a quarter-teaspoon of salt, pulse until the nuts are the size of couscous grains, then tip into a bowl. Reserve 12 tbsp of this mixture as a garnish then mix the remainder with the left-over spice butter, onions, garlic and parsley. Use this mixture to stuff the poussin.

Set the poussin on a rack in a roasting tin, transfer to the oven and roast for 30 minutes. At this point scatter the reserved peanut crumb over the four birds and return to the oven to roast for about 15 minutes more.

At the end of this time, remove the birds and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving. I usually serve this with couscous and a tomato, cucumber and feta salad.