Doro Wat

An Ethiopian chicken dish

• CuisineEthiopian
• CategoryChicken
• CourseMains

Ingredients

• 1.6 kgChicken
• 100 mlWhite vinegar
• 50 mlLemon juice
• 3 kgOnions, chopped
• ½ tspGreen cardamom seeds
• ½ tspFenugreek seeds
• ½ tspCinnamon
• ¼ tspcloves
• ½ tspAjwain (Carom seeds)
• ½ tspNigella seeds
• ½ tspPeppercorns
• ¼ tspAllspice powder
• 1 tspCoriander powder
• 1 tspGinger powder
• 1 tbspSalt
• 2 tbspChilli powder
• 2 tbspGhee
• ½ cupOil
• 6Eggs, boiled

Preparation

1. Cut chicken into pieces and marinate in vinegar and lemon
2. Put chopped onion in a pot and slowly simmer. This will cook for about 1 hour with no added oil.
3. Grind cardamom, fenugreek, cinnamon, cloves, ajwain, nigella and peppercorns into a powder
4. Add allspice, coriander and ginger powders along with 1 tbsp of salt and mix
5. To the cooked onions, add the spice powder, ghee and oil
6. Add the marinated chicken, optionally draining the marinade
7. Bring to boil and then simmer till chicken is nearly cooked. Add salt to taste.
8. Make shallow slits in the boiled eggs and add and cook till chicken is well cooked

This is an exotic (for me) dish but with familiar ingredients easily found in most Indian pantries. Yes, it does need 3 kgs of diced onions. The onions are gently heated for an hour till it goes soft and almost disintegrates. The spice powder is berbere. There are as many variations of this as there are of garam masala and this is just one of them. The oil and ghee go in after the onion is cooked. The ghee is part of niter kibbeh but I just used the ghee on its own. The dish is expected to be very oily but I have gone a bit easy on it. The two tablespoons of chilli powder may seem excessive but works very well. The dish is usually had with injera, which is a sourdough flat bread. Sounds a bit like dosa, especially the ragi dosa, so that is what I will use. The Wot in the name is the curry and provides material for endless Abbott and Costello routines with the Cub.

Cub: What's for dinner?
Tiger: Wot's for dinner.
Cub: I am asking you. What?
Tiger: I am telling you. Wot!