Doro Wat
Ethiopia's celebratory chicken stew: onions cooked down to sweetness, fiery berbere, and niter kibbeh spiced butter, finished with eggs and eaten with injera.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Doro Wat, in 5 ideas
- The onions cook with no fat at first, long and slow, until they melt into the stew's sweet foundation. This step is the dish.
- Berbere is the soul. A deep, complex chile blend that you bloom in the onion base so its heat turns round and warm.
- Niter kibbeh, butter simmered with spices and. Strained, carries flavors no plain butter or oil can imitate.
- The eggs simmer in the sauce at the end. Whole and peeled, soaking up the berbere until their whites blush red.
- Injera is the plate and the utensil. If you cannot make it, warm flatbread and rice will still carry a great wat.
What you need
Ingredients
- 3 lb chicken legs and thighs
- 3 large onions, finely chopped
- 1/3 cup niter kibbeh or butter
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 1/4 cup berbere spice blend
- 1 cup chicken stock or water
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 4 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
- 1 lemon, juiced
- Injera or flatbread, to serve
How to make it
Method
Toss the chicken with the lemon juice and salt and set aside. Cook the onions in a dry, heavy pot over medium-low heat, stirring often, for 30 minutes, until deeply soft, sweet and reduced by half.
Add the niter kibbeh, garlic and ginger and cook 5 minutes, until fragrant.
Stir in the berbere and tomato paste and cook 3 minutes, until the oil darkens and the spices smell toasted, not raw.
Add the stock and the chicken with its juices. Simmer gently, covered, for 40 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the sauce thick and glossy red.
Make shallow slits in the boiled eggs and nestle them into the sauce. Simmer 10 minutes, turning once, until warmed through and stained with sauce.
Rest 10 minutes. Serve on or with injera, an egg for each person, the sauce spooned over everything.
Make your own niter kibbeh once and keep it in the fridge: butter simmered with cardamom, fenugreek and turmeric transforms plain lentils and greens too.