Ethiopian spiced chicken stew: the national dish, built on berbere and niter kibbeh
Origin: Ethiopia
From the journey of Chilli Pepper.
Doro wat (literally 'chicken stew' in Amharic) is the national dish of Ethiopia, a deeply spiced, brick-red chicken stew that is the centrepiece of every major Ethiopian celebration, from Christmas (Genna) to weddings and the Timkat festival. The dish's defining character comes from berbere, the complex Ethiopian spice blend in which chilli is the dominant heat, working alongside fenugreek, coriander, bishop's weed, korarima (Ethiopian cardamom), rue, and over a dozen other spices that together produce a depth no other spice blend in the world quite achieves. The chilli pepper reached Ethiopia from two directions simultaneously: via Portuguese traders operating along the East African coast and via the Ottoman Empire's Red Sea trade routes in the mid-16th century. It merged with Ethiopia's pre-existing tradition of spiced cooking and transformed it, berbere as we know it became possible only with the chilli's introduction, and doro wat became the culinary monument it is. The stew is cooked for hours with niter kibbeh (an Ethiopian spiced clarified butter infused with onion, garlic, ginger, and cardamom) and served on injera: the sourdough flatbread that functions as both plate and eating implement. Sharing doro wat from the same injera is an act of friendship and ceremony in Ethiopian culture. Eritrea cooks the same stew and claims it with equal conviction. The Tigrinya-speaking highlands run across a border drawn in 1993, and doro wat and its Eritrean counterpart are the same dish: chicken and eggs in berbere over onions cooked down dry, served on injera from a shared platter. The Orthodox fasting calendar is what makes the dish legible. Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Christians keep something close to two hundred fasting days a year, on which no animal product whatever may be eaten, and doro wat is what arrives when the fast breaks: chicken, butter, and eggs together on one platter, which is as complete a reversal of a vegan discipline as the larder allows. It is the Easter morning dish and the Christmas one, and its richness is not incidental but the entire point of it. There is a convention at the table worth knowing, too: the drumstick is offered to the guest being most honoured, and declining it is not a neutral act.
Berbere paste (wet berbere) is available in Ethiopian and East African food shops and increasingly in specialty supermarkets. Berbere powder can also be used, add 3–4 tbsp and mix with a little water to form a paste before adding to the pot. Niter kibbeh (Ethiopian spiced ghee infused with onion, garlic, ginger, korarima, and other spices) is worth making or buying from an Ethiopian shop, substituting with plain ghee produces a good but noticeably different result. The pierced eggs are traditional and essential: they absorb the deep, spiced sauce and become entirely transformed from plain hard-boiled eggs.
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