West African roasted poussain ... itty bitty chickens, that is.

Poussain: “Poo-sahn”. That’s the way Natacha pronounces it. And, I had to try them with our West African signature marinade.

These itty bitty chickens are what my mother used to fry up on the stove back in the day, down south. Honestly, they’re soooooo tender, juicy and just not like those huge, white-breasted, tasteless factory farmed things that are sold in the stores today.

These are chicken like there used to be. Yeah. Back in the day.

I saw them in the Whole Foods ‘exotic’ meat freezer section, where you’ll find the elk and ostrich. They’re a bit pricey if you’re used to the factory farmed stuff. But, I bought three, which I cut into halves and there we have dinner for tomorrow night, too. You could easily substitute Cornish Game Hens for this dish. Their meat is a bit darker.

In the autumn, I crave roasted chicken, baked squash and that sort of thing. So, to go with the poussain, I cut up a small Butternut squash (into 1/2 inch slices) and a couple of asian pear apples, tossed them with Zambesi Forest Honey (rather like a very light molasses), a bit of African Palm/Canola Oil (sustainably grown), garlic, onion, salt and pepper. That got covered with foil and put into one of the convection ovens to bake until fork tender. We’re talking about 325 for about 60 minutes or so.

But earlier in the afternoon, after having defrosted the poussain, I cut them in halves and liberally coated them in our West African marinade of:

1/2 medium sweet onion, diced

4-5 large cloves of garlic, minced

3-4 tablespoons of freshy grated ginger root

3-4 whole bay leaves

1/4 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon sea salt

A dash chili powder ( chipotle, if you have it)

Whiz this all up together in the food processor to a runny paste. Rub it all over the halved poussain and let it sit in a glass dish, in the fridge for about 2 hours. About 30 minutes before you’re ready to pop them into a 425 degree oven, take them out of the fridge and put them onto a rack over a foil covered baking sheet. Let them set out to air dry.

You’ll want to roast them at 425 for about 45 minutes. I have a European convection oven, so I convection roasted them at 375 for about 35 minutes.

  

Convection roasting is faster, and gives you a moister, crispier skinned bird, due to the circulating hot air.

This is the final product. It was very juicy, tender and succulent, with a crispy, delicately flavored skin and meat.

For the sauce, I cut up 3 tomatoes and combined them with 2 cups orange juice,  1/4 cup of the reserved onion/garlic/ginger marinade, 2 tablespoons “Better than Broth” chicken broth reduction, 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes, 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning, salt and pepper to taste. That simmered over a very, very low heat for about one hour, partially covered. Stir it occasionally and keep it covered.

Here’s the final plating, with a lightly dressed romaine salad, and the baked butternut and asian pears:

To be very West African, eat it with your fingers. It was a total ‘Yum’, and Natacha gave it her enthusiastic blessing, declaring that we’d definitely do this again.

For a wine pairing: Champagne would be really nice, but also a Gewurtraminer would work, too.

This West African Marinade is very versatile. We use it all the time, on pork, fish and chicken. So learn it and make it one of your standards.

Comments

[Kristy]

Cindy - this looks absolutely amazing. I'm going to bookmark this recipe and try it out next Sunday. Thanks too for the link to aging beef. I love the setup and would like to see you cook more on YouTube! I'm gonna borrow this one!

thanks agian Kristy