Toyo Odetunde’s chicken yassa pot pie and stewed-bean plantain boats

Toyo Odetunde presents two West African sunshine dishes: a chicken yassa–inspired pot pie and plantain boats (canoas) stuffed with stewed black-eyed beans, offered as comforting winter recipes.

The plantain boats are Odetunde’s take on ewa riro using tinned beans for convenience. Dried prawns and West African red palm oil, which are integral to our cooking (and the latter is not to be confused with those industrial palm oils that are driving mass deforestation), give the stew its umami and earthy-sweet flavour. The method calls for blitzing a tomato-and-pepper stew base, frying onions with stock powder and ground prawns, roasting buttered plantains, cooking the beans until very soft, adding tinned mackerel and folding the beans into the stew, then splitting and stuffing the roasted plantains. Prep 25 min, cook 1 hr 15 min, makes 6.

The chicken yassa–inspired pot pie starts with a marinade of garlic, ginger, onion, scotch bonnet, lemon and Dijon mustard; the chicken marinates for at least two hours. The recipe directs cooking the marinated chicken, caramelising onions with brown sugar and allspice, returning the chicken with stock and green olives, and assembling the filling in ready-made puff pastry before an hour-long bake at 220C (covering after 45 minutes). Prep 15 min, marinate 2hr+, cook 2 hr, serves 4–6. Toyo Odetunde is described as a food writer and supper club host.

Key Topics

Culture, Toyo Odetunde, Ewa Riro, Chicken Yassa, Plantain, Red Palm Oil