Ofe Akwu (Igbo Palm Nut Stew) with Chicken and Rice
Dietary and allergen labels, nutrition and cost are worked out automatically from each recipe’s ingredients and are a guide only. Check the labels on what you buy yourself — especially for allergies or coeliac disease. More about recipe labels.
Opens Equal House and puts it on the night you choose. No app yet? It’s free, and the recipe comes with you when you install it.
Ingredients
- 1000 g skinless chicken thighs, bone-in
- 400 g tinned palm nut concentrate
- 1 onion
- 2 scotch bonnet chilli
- 2 tbsp dried shrimp
- 1 chicken stock cube
- 100 g spinach
- 15 g fresh basil
- 300 g long-grain rice
Nutrition (per serving)
- Calories
- 1069 kcal
- Protein
- 53.5 g
- Carbohydrate
- 72.9 g
- of which sugars
- 6.1 g
- Fat
- 61.5 g
- of which saturates
- 26.7 g
- Fibre
- 5.3 g
- Salt
- 2.96 g
Estimated from typical values for each ingredient — a guide, not a substitute for the label on what you actually buy.
Method
- 1
Put the chicken in a large pan with the chopped onion, the crumbled stock cube, 1 tsp salt and 400ml water. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- 2
Stir in the palm nut concentrate (or 150ml red palm oil whisked with 200ml coconut cream if you cannot find it), the finely chopped scotch bonnets and the dried shrimp, ground to a powder (it replaces crayfish).
- 3
Simmer uncovered for 20-25 minutes, stirring now and then, until the stew is thick enough to coat the chicken, the oil rises to the top and the chicken pulls from the bone with no pink remaining.
- 4
Meanwhile, rinse the rice and simmer it in 600ml lightly salted water, covered, for 12-15 minutes until tender.
- 5
Stir in the chopped spinach (for ugu leaves) and torn basil (for scent leaf) and cook for 2 minutes. Season with salt.
- 6
Serve the ofe akwu straight away over the rice, as Igbo families do, and cool any leftover rice quickly.
Plan your meals — and share the cooking
Equal House builds your shopping list by aisle, times the cooking for dinner, and shares it out fairly. Free to start.
Free to start on your iPhone Free to start on your Android phone Free to start · No ads · Your family's data stays yours.