Where it comes from
The chicken-and-tomato stew is the modern Swati family meal, served at most dinner tables. Reflects the cattle-tradition supplemented by modern poultry farming.
On the plate
Spoon up Swati chicken stew over sishwala — chicken pieces tender in deep amber-brown sauce, carrots soft, thyme perfume rising. Bite: chicken falls off the bone, the tomato-onion sauce rich and tangy, paprika warm; the sishwala absorbs the sauce. Plain, satisfying, the modern Swati family dinner table.
How it works
Flour dusting thickens the gravy and aids browning. Long simmering of bone-in chicken extracts collagen.
Variations
With beef instead. With added pumpkin. With chili (spicier). With coconut milk. With added greens. With white wine in gravy.
On the Palate
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
9 steps · Show ↓35 min active · 55 min waiting
How it's made
9 steps · Show ↓- 18 min
Cut 1.2 kg bone-in chicken into 8 pieces. Season with salt, pepper, paprika; dust with 1 tbsp flour.
- 212 min
Heat 3 tbsp oil in heavy pot. Brown chicken pieces 5 min per side; remove.
- 39 min
Sauté 2 sliced onions 6 min. Add 4 minced garlic cloves; cook 1 min.
- 46 min
Add 4 chopped tomatoes + 2 tbsp tomato paste; cook 5 min.
- 53 min
Return chicken. Add 600 ml chicken stock, 2 bay leaves, 4 sprigs thyme.
- 636 min
Cover; simmer 35 min until chicken is tender.
- 716 min
Add 200 g sliced carrot in last 15 min.
- 81 min
Stir in 2 tbsp chopped parsley; adjust salt.
- 91 min
Serve hot over sishwala with slambu greens alongside.
