Who wouldn’t love a brightly coloured, strongly flavoured scrumpdeleeicious plate of PEPPERED chicken to accompany a nice plate of jollof rice. This recipe uses brightly coloured bell peppers and a variety of spices to to transform that regular side turkey into a crowd pleasing main dish!!
Get ready to experience my Lagos childhood on a plate. I kid you not, when I bit into this I got transported to Festac , I can still smell the fumes of chicken and party jollof entangled with burning firewood.
My mom was one of those active members of the community. You will see this woman cooking firewood jollof rice with that big metal pot and “turning stick” at the back of the close with some other women. She would do it with so much passion that you will think she was a real deal “mama put” forgetting that this woman worked a corporate job ooh.
Anytime I make peppered chicken(or turkey or any Nigerian meal for that matter) it draws me closer to where I came from, reminds me of Lagos, and puts me in a very good mood. Now I want to share that experience with you! I’m kind of happy that you are here to catch this cruise with me.
Yes! you can apply this recipe to turkey! I often hear people say that turkey is TOO DRY!! I get it! believe me I do. I have made my own fair share of mistakes with this dish and I am here to offer you a saucy solution that you can take to any table
What you need to know about this Nigerian peppered chicken recipe
The common misconception about peppered chicken is that it is spicy/hot! if you aren’t a fan of pepper, you’ll be glad to know that THIS DISH IS NOT EYE-WATERING HOT and its only as hot as you want it to be.
1) Chicken- the star of this dish! i used hard chicken for this recipe and it was elite but if you prepare soft chicken then use that instead.
2) I know it says peppered chicken but SPOILER ALERT there are tomatoes in it as well. The tomatoes are optional but there is nothing wrong with additional nutrition and sauciness
3) Yes! you can use this recipe for turkey, beef , fried fish and gizzard. It’s potential is massive and it will always standout
4) Here are some pepper alternatives that work just as well.
| Ingredients | Alternatives |
| Red bell pepper | Red long pepper (tatashe), Red cubanelle peppers |
| Green bell pepper | green cubanelle peppers, jalapeño peppers,poblano |
| Scotch bonnet | cayenne pepper, thai chilli, habanero peppers, ghost pepper |
I noticed the smaller the pepper the hotter! I won’t lie, I dey fear ooh! Personally, I stick to scotch bonnets, what about you?
P.s if you try this recipe at home, remember to tag me @nigerianfoodiehub on instagram so that I get to see it and I add you to my cabinet of honourable foodies.
More Nigerian recipes
Peppered chicken
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken
- 2 Onion
- 4 Garlic
- 2 Red bell peppers
- 1/2 green bell pepper sliced
- 3 tomatoes
- 2 scotch bonnet
- oil
Spices
- Salt
- black pepper
- Stock cube
- oregano
- rosemary
- curry
- thyme
Instructions
Cook Chicken
- Prepare marinade by blending 1onion, 1scotch bonnet pepper and 2 cloves of garlic
- Season chicken with marinade, salt, seasoning powder, black pepper, paprika curry and thyme. Boil for 30 minutes
- Separate chicken from broth and fry turkey in vegetable oil
Prepare pepper sauce
- Blend 1onion,2 garlic cloves, 3 tomatoes,1 scotch bonnet and 2 red bell peppers and fry in a little vegetable oil till it darkens in colour. Season with one stock cube
- Add chicken to sauce and stir till it's all coated. Cook for 5 minutes
- Add diced green pepper to garnish the dish
- Serve and enjoy
