Nkrakra (Light Soup With Chicken) From Zoe Adjonyoh Recipe on Food52 (2024)

This Genius recipe is actually a twofer: The fiery, freezable tomato base called Chalé Sauce that chef Zoe Adjonyoh created to distill the holy trinity of Ghanaian cuisine. (In one step, it will make everything from peanut stew to pasta instantly more delicious.) And the cozy one-pot chicken soup called nkrakra that you should make with it, anytime your belly, soul, and home need warming.

As Zoe writes in Zoe's Ghana Kitchen, “This light and spicy broth is so wholesome and warming. It’s my go-to dish on chilly winter days to stave off cold symptoms... and works every time!”

Of the Chalé Sauce, Zoe writes, “This basic recipe is based on my dad’s everyday cooking sauce. He would whip this up and then literally throw in any type of meat, fish or protein, but it was always tasty. It's my version of a Ghanaian passata and is in some ways similar to the Nigerian ata dindin. You can just blend the ingredients and store the uncooked sauce for later use, or cook it and then leave to cool—either way it saves time when making many of the recipes in this book. I make a big batch of this at least once a week—you can easily double the quantity if you want to make a bigger batch, although it’s not necessary to increase the Scotch bonnet unless you like it extra-extra hot!”

A few more tips: Sustainable red palm oil gives the stew much of its rich, bright red color and earthy flavor and is easy to order online. Guinea peppers, also called grains of Selim, add a woodsy, eucalyptus-like flavor—you can order them online, too, including from Zoe’s shop. Zoe says habanero chiles are a comparable substitute for the heat of Scotch bonnets. Both the Chalé Sauce and the final soup freeze beautifully in batches for future meals.

Recipe adapted very slightly from Zoe's Ghana Kitchen: An Introduction to New African Cuisine — From Ghana With Love (Voracious, October 2021).

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Hear more about this recipe from Zoe herself on our podcast The Genius Recipe Tapes. —Genius Recipes

Directions

1. *For the Nkrakra:*
2. Place the chicken in a large, heavy-based saucepan or Dutch oven with the sustainable red palm oil, onion, thyme, peppers, chili powder, garlic, and 1 teaspoon of the sea salt. Cook together over a low heat, partially covered, until the juices start to run from the chicken.
3. Pour the Chalé Sauce over the chicken mixture, then cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.
4. Stir in the stock and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 1 hour until the chicken is tender. Season to taste with pepper.
5. Add your choice of vegetables, if desired, and cook until tender (approximately 30 minutes). Remove the sprigs of thyme before serving.
6. To serve: I love to serve this dish in a traditional Ghanaian asanka pot with a ball of fufu on the side, as it looks so inviting that way. You can also serve it on its own in a large bowl garnished with a sprig of cilantro, or with a slice of slightly toasted sourdough bread on the side.
7. Tip: If you're happy to go low and slow while cooking, this dish is perfect for cheaper cuts of chicken such as from older hens or broiling hens—you get tons of extra flavor but need to slow cook for 3 to 4 hours over a low heat.

1. *For the Chalé Sauce:*
2. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend together until you have a fairly smooth paste.
3. This is your Chalé Sauce. Throughout Zoe’s book there are references to adding Chalé Sauce, so she recommends making a big batch and freezing in smaller quantities to make many of the stew and sauces recipes much faster to re-create at home. Use straight away, or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze for future use.

Recipe by: Genius Recipes