Safeway had ten pound bags of chicken quarters (8 quarters) on sale for 59cents a pound and I was thinking about a delicious Ethiopian dish I had at Abyssinia Restaurant and Cafe in Phoenix AZ called Doro Wat. It’s the national dish of Ethiopia and is a delicious spicy robust chicken stew served with a hard boiled egg and it normally comes with spongy but light Ethiopian Bread called injera. It might not be for everyone because it is spicy…..but it truly is really delicious. Another thing you must know is that this takes two or three days to prepare. One day to make the onions and to let them cool overnight. Next day cook the chicken. Third day is optional…..I used third day to chill the Doro Wat sauce to remove the fat that comes to the surface (some people might prefer to keep the fat) I make chicken stews all the time but I wasn’t sure of the seasonings that go in Doro Wat so I read every recipe that I could find on the internet for Doro Wat. The base of the sauce besides all the spices are onions. Different people prepare the onions differently but I read on one website that the onions are traditionally cooked in the oven. Anyways I picked the seasonings from the recipe from food.com because the person that wrote the recipe was someone named Zurie from Africa. Also Zurie’s Berbere seemed the most complex of the Berbere Mixtures I came across. I made her stew different because I used whole chicken quarters with skin and bone so I have to cut out all the extra fat that she put into her recipe from using boneless. I also added around a cup of red wine. I read on someone else’s recipe that Ethiopian Mead is normally added to this dish so I got the idea to add red wine. Did a few other minor changes. You might not need to make as much as I did but this freezes well incase you want to know. My 10 pound bag of chicken quarters made 10 four ounce portions of chicken and a little extra chicken. I cut Zurie’s recipe for Berbere in half because she makes enough Berbere for TWENTY POUNDS of chicken. Half is just right for 10 pounds (my bag contained 8 quarters). This recipe makes around 10 servings. My idea of serving size might differ from your idea of serving size.

Ingredients for 10 servings

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon cardamon seed

1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground clove

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1 Tablespoon sea salt

1/4 cup cayenne powder

1/4 cup sweet paprika

10 pounds chicken quarters

3 large sweet onions – fine chopped or grated

1 whole head garlic – peeled – fine chopped (around 13 cloves)

13 oz slow cooked peeled tomatoes (you can use canned but you might need to adjust sugar and or salt)

1 Tablespoon honey

1 cup red wine

1 Tablespoon vegetable soup base (instead of salt is less sodium and adds more flavors)

non stick spray

optional water to thin sauce to your liking

Directions

Get two small bowls. Make the Zurie’s Berbere Spice Mixture.

In one small bowl add all the spice powders (ginger, nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon, clove, allspice, salt, cayenne, paprika). In the other small bowl add all the spice seeds (cardamon, fenugreek). The spice seeds get heated till fragrant. You can do this either in a pan, the oven or the microwave. (I like doing it in the oven best………like 300 degrees 5 minutes). Then the seeds have to cool off. Then you can grind them and add them to the powders and mix well. This is the Berbere Spice Mixture. Set to the side.

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a large pan or 1/2 buffet pan with non stick spray.

In a large bowl add the onions, garlic, 3 Tablespoons berbere spice, cooked tomatoes, wine, honey and salt. Mix well and add to pan. Cover with foil and cook for an hour. Leave on counter to cool off and blend. Refrigerate over night and cook tomorrow.

Next day cook chicken.

Set oven to 350 degrees F.

You will need about three big pans. Rub chicken all over with all the remaining berbere spice mixture. Lay out the chicken in the pans and add the onion mixture on top of the chicken.

Cover tight with foil and cook still chicken is tender and falling off the bones (skin will not be edible). (timing will differ but this will be 2 hours or slightly less like one hour 45 minutes) While the chicken is cooking you might want to boil some eggs to serve with the meal…..

Use tongs and remove the chicken quarters from the sauce. They are too hot to mess with so you need to let them cool some. At this time you can blend the sauce again to get it smoother. Depending on how thick the sauce came out you might want to add some water to thin it down.

Next part is optional……I like to remove the fat from the sauce so I chill the sauce over night.

The next day.

The fat is easy to remove from the top. You can save it because it full if delicious flavors and can make a delicious dumpling or pastry if you care to.

It’s a Forking Delicious dish!

A special THANKS to Zurie from www.Food.com for her amazing Berbere Recipe. Without it I wouldn’t have made such a delicious dish.