Ethiopian Berbère Chicken with Lentils & Greens

I'll be trying to update this site regularly with ideas, suggestions & recipes to use with the spice blends featured here. I know - for the most part I have singled out the Green Thai, Cajun & Greek seasonings and have neglected the Moroccan Tajine, Indian Tandoori & Ethiopian Berbère - so I will try to add some posts that will help others in creating dishes with these particular spices. Here is a dish suggestion for Ethiopian Berbère using chicken. Of course, you can use almost any other meat in place of chicken. Lamb in particular would be great.

Ethiopian dishes traditionally come with Injera , a warm, soft & spongy bread which you use to pick up the food and eat it with. It adds an extra texture to the wonderful, tasty curries and stews common to the cuisine & will become one of your favorite comfort foods. I haven't made injera bread at home - yet- and the one book I have on regional African cooking has a recipe which calls for instant pancake mix! I did some searching and found this simple recipe which I'm sure will do nicely, courtesy of Paula Deen and the Food Network. You won't want to miss out on the wonderful addition of injera bread for your meal.

Injera Bread

2 pounds self-rising flour
1/2 pound whole-wheat plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt
16 ounces soda water

Combine the dry ingredients and then add the water. Mix to a smooth, thin batter. Heat a large nonstick skillet. Ladle enough batter to cover the bottom of the skillet, tilting the skillet to cover the base evenly, and then set back on heat. When small holes appear on the surface remove the injera bread. Cook only on 1 side. Repeat with remaining batter.

Chicken

1 - 2 lbs. boneless Chicken, in pieces

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Coat the chicken pieces lightly with extra virgin olive oil and place in a baking dish.
Season evenly with 1 - 3 ± teaspoons Ethiopian Berbère Spice.
Cover dish with a lid or aluminum foil and bake for 20 - 30 minutes.

You can also try this variation:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
Place the seasoned chicken in an uncovered baking dish in the oven for 10 minutes, then cover and reduce the heat to 350 degrees.

This should give you crisper chicken pieces which will still be tender.

Serve with:

Lentils

1 pound dried lentils
1 tablespoon olive oil (to saute white onion)
1 white onion, chopped
1 teaspoon Ethiopian Berbère Spice
1 teaspoon fresh Sage leaves, finely minced
1 teaspoon Marjoram
1 teaspoon ground Cumin
1 teaspoon ground Ginger
salt and pepper to taste
1 large ripe tomato, seeds removed and diced
4 cups vegetable stock

Rinse lentils in a colander and examine to make sure there are no pebbles or other strange objects. Transfer to a saucepan, add the 4 cups of vegetable stock, Ethiopian Berbère Spice, sage, marjoram, cumin, ginger, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer for about 20 minutes until lentils are re-hydrated and water is absorbed, then lower the heat and cook for a few minutes to integrate flavors, but do not allow lentils to get mushy.

While the lentils are cooking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and sauté the onion until translucent, then add the diced tomato and sauté until soft but still firm. When the lentils are through cooking and ready to be served mix in the sautéed onion and tomato.

Spinach, collard or mustard greens

In a steamer on medium high heat, add plenty of washed and cleaned fresh greens and steam cook them until they have just begun to turn dark, wilt and shrink. Remove from heat.

Serve each plate with a generous ladling of lentils and greens. You can season the greens with a touch of salt and pepper. Trying adding a light squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice on the greens or grating fresh romano cheese over the greens. Place 1 - 2 pieces of chicken on each plate and serve with the injera bread.

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