Ceeb u Guinaar
“Chicken thiébou — broken rice cooked in tomato-stained chicken stock with whole pieces of stuffed chicken. The Sunday-special form.”
Where it comes from
Adaptation of ceebu jën for inland regions where fresh river fish was hard to source. The Wolof «guinaar» means chicken; the form spread inland from Saint-Louis with the railroad to Thiès in the 1880s. Often called thiébou yassa when the chicken is yassa-marinated first.
On the plate
Same red rice as thieboudienne, but the chicken pieces are bigger and richer than fish, the skin browned dark before braising. The rof paste (parsley-garlic-onion-chili) goes under the skin. Cabbage, carrot, eggplant arrayed the same way.
How it works
Whole chicken (1.5kg) jointed into 8, browned hard 8 min per side, then braised in tomato-onion-stock 35 min till cooked; removed, rice cooked in the same broth 25 min absorbing all liquid. The rof under-the-skin step is what differentiates it from a lazy chicken-thiéb.
Dakar restaurant Chez Loutcha (Plateau, since 1992) serves ceeb u guinaar Sunday lunch only; reservations needed by Friday. The chicken is always pintade (guinea fowl, Numida meleagris) in the Saint-Louis purist version, not commercial broiler.
Variations
Ceeb u guinaar standard (red, rof stuffed), thiébou yassa (chicken pre-marinated yassa-style), Casamance version with palm-oil rice, and the Gambian crossover that adds peanut paste at the end.
On the Palate
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
5 steps · Show ↓50 min active · 50 min waiting
How it's made
5 steps · Show ↓- 115 min
Stuff 1 whole chicken with onion + garlic + parsley + salt + lime juice.
- 210 min
Brown chicken in oil all sides.
- 345 min
Simmer with tomato + onion + spices in 1.5 L water 45 min to flavor stock.
- 425 min
Add 500 g broken rice; cook 25 min absorbing stock.
- 55 min
Place chicken on rice; cover and rest 5 min before serving from platter.
