Doro Wat (Ethiopian Chicken Stew, Sunday's National Dish) 🍗

Name: Doro Wat (Ethiopian Chicken Stew, Sunday's National Dish)
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 100 min
Yield: 2-4 servings
Cuisine: Cuisine éthiopienne
Ingredients: 1.5 kg chicken on the bone, jointed (drumsticks and thighs ideal); 4 large red onions, chopped fine or pulsed to rice — no garlic yet; 4–5 tbsp berbere spice blend (the real one; adjust to heat); 150 g butter; divided: most for the wat; last 30 g for finishing; or use spiced niter kibbeh; 2 tbsp tomato paste (optional, modern shortcut; traditional cooks won't judge you loudly); 6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and slit a few times; Juice of ½ lemon; salt; 1 cup water or stock; injera and extra berbere-oil to serve

Ethiopia's answer to the question 'what should a stew be?' is doro wat: onions cooked alone for an hour until they collapse into sweet gold, then berbere — the country's red spice blend, earthy and hot — bloomed in butter until the whole flat smells like Sunday. Chicken on the bone, hard-boiled eggs for the contrast, and a final slick of niter kibbeh, the spiced clarified butter every household guards. It's eaten with injera: the sour spongy flatbread that doubles as plate and fork. No dish explains Ethiopian hospitality better — the first spoonful is always fed to someone else, a gesture called gursha.

Addis Ababa Cuisine éthiopienne ⏱ 100 min Intermédiaire

Méthode

1

Melt butter in a heavy pot and add all the onion with a pinch of salt. Dry-ish cook over medium-low, stirring often, 45–60 minutes: the pot should smell sweet, the onions golden and jammy, no browning. This is the dish.
2

Push the onions around to open a well, add berbere (and tomato paste if using), and fry the paste in the fat, stirring, 10 minutes, until dark red and glossy.
3

Add chicken, turn to coat, cover the pot and cook on its own steam 15 minutes; then add water to cover halfway, lemon and salt. Simmer 25–30 minutes until the meat gives from the bone.
4

Lower the peeled eggs into the stew, spoon red sauce over them, and simmer 5 more minutes. If the sauce is thin, fish out chicken and eggs and boil the sauce down; it should be glossy and thick.
5

Finish with the last butter (or niter kibbeh) stirred in off the heat for the signature sheen.
6

Serve over torn injera on a shared platter — eggs halved at the table — and feed the first gursha (a wrapped bite, no hands visible to the giver) to whoever you like most.

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Doro Wat (Ethiopian Chicken Stew, Sunday's National Dish) 🍗

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