Poulet Nyembwe
Gabon's national dish, chicken simmered in a rust-colored palm nut cream, its name from the Myene-language Bantu word for palm oil. It's genuinely and technically distinct from West Africa's peanut-based stews already on this site: nyembwe sauce comes from boiling and crushing the fleshy pericarp of whole palm nuts, botanically and technically unrelated to ground peanuts, even though both traditions produce a similarly creamy, orange-red sauce. The same palm-nut-cream technique is the iconic dish of Republic of Congo, DRC, and Angola too, under the shared name moambe — a real Central African regional family, not a single-country invention.
Meat
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, cut into pieces
- 400g palm nut cream or palm butter (canned 'sauce graine' as a realistic substitute)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 chiles
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- Okra (optional)
- Salt
- Rice, pounded cassava, or plantain, to serve
Steps
- Sear the chicken pieces, smoking first if possible.
- Simmer with the palm nut cream, thinned with stock or water, along with the onion, garlic, chile, and tomato.
- Cook until the sauce reduces and the chicken is tender, about 45-60 minutes.
- Adjust seasoning and serve over rice, pounded cassava, or plantain.