Sauce d'Arachide Togolese

Easy·30 min active + 45 min resting

Togolese peanut sauce — ground peanuts cooked with tomato, onion, garlic, ginger, and meat (chicken, beef, or fish) into a rich, creamy stew. Served over akume, fufu, or rice. The universal West African groundnut tradition adapted with Togolese flavor.

Sauce d'arachide (peanut sauce) is a universal West African dish, with versions across Ghana, Togo, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Sahel. The Togolese version uses palm oil as the cooking medium and tends to be slightly less spiced than Beninese or Nigerian variants.

Spoon up sauce d'arachide — deep golden-brown, creamy, thick with peanut richness and palm-oil sheen, chunks of fork-tender meat throughout. Bite: the peanut flavor is deep and warm (raw peanut butter mellowed by long cooking), the tomato-onion base adds acidity and sweetness, the meat is melt-in-mouth tender, the scotch bonnet builds in the background, the ginger's brightness lifts. With a mound of akume or fluffy rice underneath, this is the universal West African comfort meal.

Mixing peanut butter with warm water first creates a smooth slurry that doesn't lump in the sauce. Long simmering allows the peanut's raw notes to mellow and the flavors to integrate. Stirring occasionally prevents the peanut butter from settling and burning on the pot bottom.

Variations

Sauce d'arachide with smoked fish (more umami). With shrimp. Vegetarian version with mushrooms. Modern Lomé restaurant version with truffle oil.

On the Palate

Where Sauce d'Arachide Togolese sits in the Togolese flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 6

600 gChicken

200 g smoothPeanut Butter

2Onion

4 clovesGarlic

1 tbspGinger

3 + 2 tbsp pasteTomato

How it's made

9 steps · 30 min active + 45 min waiting

1
4 min
Cube 600 g chicken (or beef) into 4-cm pieces. Season with 1 tsp salt + 1 tsp pepper.
2
7 min
In a large pot, heat 3 tbsp red palm oil. Brown the meat 6 min.
3
9 min
Add 2 chopped onions + 4 minced garlic + 1 tbsp grated ginger; cook 8 min.
4
6 min
Add 3 chopped tomatoes + 2 tbsp tomato paste + 1 chopped scotch bonnet; cook 5 min.
5
4 min
Mix 200 g smooth peanut butter (natural, unsweetened) with 200 ml warm water until smooth. Add to the pot.
Watch out
Whisk the peanut butter smooth into the warm water before it touches the pot — dropped in straight, it clumps and won't come loose.
6
2 min
Add 800 ml chicken stock + 1 tsp salt + 1 bouillon cube + 1/2 tsp ground cumin.
7
45 min
Simmer covered 40 min, stirring occasionally to prevent the peanut butter from sticking, until the meat is tender and the sauce is creamy.
Watch out
Stir every few minutes and keep the heat gentle — peanut butter sinks and scorches on the bottom fast, and burnt peanut ruins the whole pot.
8
1 min
Add 1 tbsp lime juice + 2 tbsp chopped cilantro.
9
3 min
Serve hot over: akume, fufu, jollof rice, or plain steamed rice.