West African Chicken and Peanut Stew

I made this back in February. Wow, does time fly. For some reason, last month, I didn't really feel like blogging. Sometimes I just want to eat my food without taking pictures or writing down my recipe modifications. But don't get me wrong, I love having all my recipes together in one place and watching my cooking style evolve. More than that, I love hearing feedback from people-- especially if they've had success with one of my recipes.

This stew was really wonderful, though maybe there was a tad too much peanut butter if that's even possible.  If you're a vegetarian, I think it would be great with tempeh or tofu, and maybe even chickpeas?  It was also extremely filling-- probably all that peanut butter.  Since I'm not a big meat eater, I only used half the amount of chicken called for but kept the measurements for the sauce the same.  Needless to say, I had a lot of sauce so I served it over a bed of spinach to get some more vegetables into the meal.  The sauce is definitely a keeper; it's thick, creamy, rich, and just perfect for soaking up with warm pita wedges.

West African Chicken and Peanut Stew
The recipe below contains my modifications.  I halved the amount of chicken so I would have more sauce, halved the amount of ginger, and increased the amount of jalapeno.  In the recipe below, I also decreased the amount of peanut butter from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup.  I didn't do this when I made it, but as I said above, I think it had a bit too much peanut butter, which made it a little too filling for me-- I wanted to eat more because it tasted so good but I was stuffed!
Adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen

1 tablespoon olive or canola oil
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
1 1/2 teaspoons finely minced ginger root
1 finely minced jalapeno
salt to taste
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup natural chunky peanut butter
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups diced, cooked chicken
fresh ground black pepper to taste
3-4 green onions (scallions), thinly sliced

Finely chop the red onion, ginger, and jalapeno, and roughly chop the chicken. Heat oil in a heavy pan, add finely diced onion, ginger, and jalapenos, season with salt, and saute about 2 minutes. Add the chili powder, stir into other ingredients, and saute about 1 minute more.

Add chicken stock, peanut butter, tomato paste, and apple cider vinegar, stir, and bring to a slight boil. As soon as it starts to boil, lower heat to a very gentle simmer, add roughly chopped chicken, gently stir to combine, and let simmer 10-15 minutes.

While mixture simmers, wash, dry, and slice green onions. After 10-15 minutes, gently stir again if the oil from the peanut butter has separated. Serve hot, with a generous handful of green onion slices on each serving.