Chicken Arusha – Style

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 1 chicken
• 10 small banana(s), about finger-long
• ½ bottle chili sauce, sweet and spicy
• 3 tsp salt, coarse
• possibly Tabasco
• salt and pepper
• chili powder
• 3 garlic cloves
• Oil (peanut oil)

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes

from Tanzania

Cut the chicken into at least 15-18 pieces (with bones). Mix a marinade with a little(!) salt, pepper, plenty of chili powder, crushed garlic, and peanut oil (amounts according to taste). Massage the chicken pieces thoroughly into the mixture and marinate for about 1-2 hours. Then place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 180°C for about 30 minutes until crispy. Turn it over. After 30 minutes, brush the peeled bananas with the remaining cooking juices and place them on the baking sheet. Bake for about another 10 minutes. The bananas should not become mushy, but rather firm and dry. Pile the crispy chicken pieces onto a large, wide-rimmed plate in the center, then arrange the small bananas around them (or “regular” ones, cut in half lengthwise and crosswise). Then add small heaps of coarse salt to the edge of the plate. Spice up the chili sauce with Tabasco to taste and serve it in separate bowls. In Africa, this dish is eaten by dipping individual pieces of chicken first in salt, then in the chili sauce, and then eating them. The only thing eaten as a side dish are the bananas – no bread! It’s also a wonderful barbecue recipe, of course.