Doro wat (Ethiopian spiced chicken stew) with eggs, injera and greens
130 min · 57 g protein · 585 cals / serving
Ethiopia's festive chicken stew: a mountain of red onions cooked down slowly without fat until jammy, then simmered with berbere spice, garlic, ginger and spiced butter into a deep red, fiery sauce for chicken and whole hard-boiled eggs. Served with sour, spongy injera for scooping and garlicky collard greens.
Ingredients
Chicken
- 8 drumsticks, skinned (about 1 1/3 lb meat) chicken drumstick, skin pulled off, slashed to the bone
- 2 breasts (14 oz) chicken breast, each cut in 3
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 3/4 tsp salt
Stew
- 5 large red onions, very finely chopped (a food processor is fine)
Spiced butter (niter kibbeh)
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/2 tsp ground fenugreek
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1 tsp dried basil, or dried besobela
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
Berbere
- 3 tbsp paprika, sweet
- 2 tsp red pepper flakes, ground cayenne; use 1 tsp for medium
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- a pinch cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Stew
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 2/3 cups chicken broth, low-sodium
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 5 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled and scored
Gomen (greens)
- 1 large bunch (1 1/3 lb) collard greens, stems removed, leaves shredded
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 green chili pepper, sliced
- a pinch salt
To serve
- 3 injera, torn in quarters to share; or flatbread
Steps
- Toss the chicken with the lemon juice and salt and leave it while you cook the onions.
- Put the chopped onions in a large, heavy, dry pot over medium heat, without any fat. Cook for 25–35 minutes, stirring often and adding a spoon of water whenever they start to stick, until they have collapsed into a soft, sweet, golden-brown paste.
- Add the butter with the fenugreek, cardamom, basil and turmeric and stir until it melts and smells nutty. Add the garlic, ginger, paprika, cayenne and the rest of the berbere spices, and cook, stirring, for 3–4 minutes until dark red. Stir in the tomato paste for a minute.
- Add the drumsticks, broth and salt, bring to a simmer, cover and cook gently for 20 minutes, then add the breast pieces and cook 15–20 minutes more, turning now and then, until the drumsticks are tender and every piece reads 165°F, next to the bone for the drumsticks. Uncover for the last 10 minutes if the sauce is thin; it should be thick enough to coat a spoon.
- Score the eggs lightly all over and nestle them in the sauce for the last 10 minutes so they turn red.
- For the gomen, warm the oil in a wide pan, add the garlic and chilli, then the collards with a pinch of salt and a splash of water. Cover and cook 8–10 minutes, stirring once, until tender.
- Serve the doro wat with an egg in every portion, the greens alongside and injera to tear and scoop with.
Good to know
Why cook the onions with no fat?
It is how doro wat is made. Dry-cooking drives out the water and concentrates the onions' sugars, so they melt into the thick, sweet base that carries the spice. Patience here is what makes the dish.
Can I use more spiced butter?
Traditional doro wat is rich with niter kibbeh, often half a cup. Using 1/4 cup gives a glossier, richer stew: the score goes from about 64 to 60.
Where do I find injera and berbere?
Ethiopian and East African grocers sell both, and many supermarkets now stock berbere. If you buy a berbere blend, use 3 1/2 tablespoons of it in place of the paprika, cayenne and the other ground spices here.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 111
- Protein
- (40%)
- 11 g
- Fat
- (33%)
- 4 g
- Carbohydrates
- (27%)
- 9 g
- of which sugar
- 3 g
- Fiber
- 3 g
- Sodium
- 268 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2926 kcal goes into the pot and 3655 g of ingredients comes out as about 2640 g of food: 111 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.