How to Cook Nigerian Turkey Stew (2023)

FAQs

What is Nigerian stew made of? ›

What is Nigerian Stew? Nigerian stew, also known as Nigerian tomato stew, is a popular West African cuisine, made with fresh tomatoes (or tomato paste), red bell peppers, and scotch bonnet peppers (or habanero peppers). The vegetables are simmered in olive oil, peanut oil, or red palm oil.

Place your smoked turkey on the broiler try rack and tent securely with tin foil. Place the trayed smoked turkey in the middle of a 350° F oven and cook for about 1.5 – 2 hours (or until a meat thermometer reaches about 140° F in the center of the breast). Remove the turkey and carve for serving.

A smoked turkey is an already cooked turkey. Yes, you can eat it cold. Same is true for a ham.

Flour is a traditional thickener for stew, and it can be added in a few different ways. You'll want to use about 1½ teaspoons of flour per cup of liquid added to the stew. If the stew is meat-based, you can add the flour when you sear the meat (aka before adding any liquid).

Don't lift the lid — unless your recipe calls for adding vegetables or other ingredients later on. You'll know it's done when the beef is fork-tender.

The three main thickening agents for gravies are flour, cornflour and arrowroot. The first two are normally used in savoury dishes while arrowroot tends to be used in sweet dishes – that said, arrowroot will work in a savoury dish as it has no flavour.

Give stew plenty of time

For most types of stew, it takes time to develop great flavor. Stew uses collagen-rich, tough cuts of meat, which need at least two hours to break down. If you try to rush it and boil the stew, the muscle fibers will shrink and become tough. So give yourself a few hours to let it do its thing.

While water is wonderful for a great many things, broth or stock will add a wonderful depth of flavor to your stew.

The Ideal Stew Ratio: Two Parts Meat, One Part Vegetable

Most meat-based stews call for tough, inexpensive cuts of meat, while vegetarian recipes include the same onions, carrots, and celery typical of a beef stew. Two parts meat to one part vegetables is the perfect ratio for a meaty stew.

Pepper Soup

Pepper soup is one of the most popular types of soup in Africa. It's a spicy and watery soup made with peppers and an assortment of meat like goat, chicken, oxtail, or fish.

What is the famous Nigerian stew? ›

Ofada stew (Ayamase) is a palm-oil-based stew popular in western Nigeria. It's made with palm oil, unripe pepper and tomatoes, beef, tripe, cow skin and locust beans.

The Ofada stew is a popular native Yoruba stew, also called rich stew or Ayamase stew. The stew is made with red bell peppers, bleached palm oil, locust beans, onions, crayfish, stockfish, and a variety of meat like beef, cow foot, tripe, beef, turkey, chicken, and ponmo.

First, preheat your oven to 325° F. Remove the turkey from the aluminum foil wrapping and place in a roasting pan. Pour 1 cup of water in the bottom of the pan and cover the turkey with a tented sheet of aluminum foil. For a 10-12 pound cooked turkey, bake for one hour, or until the turkey is 125° F.

Therefore, you don't need to wash your turkey, but you will need a food thermometer on Thanksgiving Day. Remember to check the turkey's temperature in the innermost part of the thigh and wing, and the thickest part of the breast to be sure it is free of illness-causing bacteria.

Smoke the turkey.

Close the lid and smoke for around 30 minutes per pound. The turkey is done when it reaches a temperature of 165 degrees F.

Although foods that have been hot smoked are often reheated or further cooked, they are typically safe to eat without further cooking. Hams and ham hocks are fully cooked once they are properly smoked, and they can be eaten as is without any further preparation.

The answer, in short, is if it is cured, smoked or baked, ham is considered “pre-cooked,” and would not technically need to be cooked. This includes the ham that is purchased at the deli. In fact, most ham that is sold to consumers is already cured, smoked or baked.

So, how do I make my stew less watery? Start by cooking your stew without the lid on for a bit longer—this will allow for more of the liquid to evaporate and let the stew reduce. (Cooking with a lid on traps the moisture inside instead of letting it cook off.)

Cooking a soup, stew, or sauce uncovered allows water to evaporate, so if your goal is to reduce a sauce or thicken a soup, skip the lid. The longer you cook your dish, the more water that will evaporate and the thicker the liquid becomes—that means the flavors become more concentrated, too.

Stews like boeuf bourguignon should ideally be thick and glossy enough that the liquid coats the back of a spoon, a process aided by collagen-rich cuts of meat and a long, slow simmer. Sometimes, however, you need a little bit of a boost to get you there: this is where the thickening part comes in.

Is stew better the longer it cooks? ›

Not cooking the stew long enough.

The most important key to making stew meat tender is being sure to cook it for a long time. If you want super tender beef, you'll need to cook it on a low heat in a Dutch oven on the stove or a slow cooker for at least a few hours.

Fact is, no matter what long-simmered stew or soup you're making, if it tastes good on the first day, it's gonna taste good on the second and third days as well. Conversely, if it tastes good on the third day, it probably would have tasted great on that first day, too.

Give it a nice mix. Cook on low for 9-10 hours, medium 7-8 hours, and high 6-7 hours. To thicken the stew, 30 minutes before serving, remove about 1/2 cup of the liquid/sauce, mix it with about 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.

The flour helps to thicken a stew as it cooks. Whisk a teaspoon of flour in a little cold water to make a slurry, then stir into the stew as it's cooking. Don't add dry flour directly to the stew as it may clump. After adding the slurry, bring the stew to boil.

Stew needs to be thick to have the best flavor and texture, but reaching the right consistency can be difficult. If your stew looks too watery, have no fear! You can thicken it by adding common starches, adding flour, pureeing part of the stew, or boiling away excess liquid.

The most classic and surefire way to thicken a broth-based soup is with a cornstarch slurry.

The heat must be slow and gradual -- never reaching the actual boiling point -- and the soup must be removed occasionally. Some meats and fruits and certain vegetables are usually subjected to stewing. Only enough liquid is used to cover the meat to prevent evaporation.

The addition of the vinegar adds subtle acidity that balances well with the soy sauce and the honey giving this otherwise super hearty beef stew a nice lightness to it. Feel free to add sweet potato noodles(glass noodles) or egg noodles to this dish, serve it alongside rice, or as-is.

How Much Broth Do You Need In Stew? I like to start with 4 cups of broth adding more as necessary. The broth should just cover the meat and veggies by a half an inch. Bring the stew to a boil, and then reduce the temperature to low.

What ingredients are often used in stew? ›

Ingredients can include any combination of vegetables and may include meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef, pork, venison, rabbit, lamb, poultry, sausages, and seafood. While water can be used as the stew-cooking liquid, stock is also common.

Add potatoes during the final 2-3 hours of cook time to prevent them from getting mushy. Stovetop or slow cooker, your family will thank you for this one. Stew up and enjoy.

They are added to cream up the soup or stew, giving it a richer flavor and making them heartier than just plane soup.

First, gather your main ingredients, starting with the meat: you want about a half pound of meat—beef, lamb, pork, and veal all work—per person you're serving. (You could get by with 6 ounces of meat per person, but a half pound ensures you'll have leftovers, and leftover stew is a very good thing.)

Ofe Owerri is one of the richest and most enjoyed soups from the south-east region of Nigeria where the Igbos originate from. Ofe Owerri is usually served with any swallow of choice (eba, semovita, fufu, pounded yam).

Here are five of the most popular meat dishes in Nigeria: Nkwobi, Peppered Ponmo, Spicy Beef Offals, Bushmeat and Chicken. Nkwobi (which means spicy cow foot) is an Igbo meat delicacy made of palm oil, ugba, pepper, fresh utazi leaves or bitter leaf, ehuru seeds, edible potash and cow foot.

Fufu usually is eaten with a hearty vegetable soup. It can be a vegetable from melon seed, mango seed, okazi, spinach, peanut soup. Most of the time, all of our West African soups are tribal-based.

Soup Uses More Liquid

In soup, the liquid is the primary ingredient. Soup can be completely liquified or it can consist of other elements (like meat and vegetables) that are fully submerged in water, stock, or broth. Stew, meanwhile, is typically "chunkier." It contains just enough liquid to cover the main ingredients.

Not only is the Nigerian stew delicious, but it also offers numerous health benefits. Rich in Nutrients: Tomatoes, the primary ingredient in the stew, are a great source of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C, vitamin K, and potassium.

1 – Soak the turkey overnight in a wet brine

Liquids, herbs, and spices like beer, vegetable broth, rosemary, sage, and thyme, are commonly added to the brine.

What is the difference between turkey ham and smoked turkey? ›

One difference is that Ham tends to be saltier and fattier than the Smoked Turkey, which has more of a smoky, savory flavor. Smoked Turkey does not need to cook very long.

A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients can include any combination of vegetables and may include meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef, pork, venison, rabbit, lamb, poultry, sausages, and seafood.

Edikang Ikong soup is recognized as one of the healthiest Nigerian soups because of its rich nutritional contents some of which include; Protein, Vitamin B1, B2 and E, Fiber, Folic acid, Carbohydrate, Calcium, Iron, Phosphor, Selenium, Potassium.

Ofe owerri is a Nigerian soup native to the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria. It is considered one of the most expensive soups in Nigeria.

Ofe Owerri is one of the richest and most enjoyed soups from the south-east region of Nigeria where the Igbos originate from. Ofe Owerri is usually served with any swallow of choice (eba, semovita, fufu, pounded yam). It is served here with fufu.

Turkeys should be brined overnight, coated with fat only initially, and minimally seasoned. Brining keeps the turkey from drying out during the smoking process. Basting the turkey only results in soggy skin. Overly seasoning the skin just makes inedible skin – let the brine and aromatics add flavor.

You can baste or spritz with chicken broth while smoking the turkey to help keep it moist as well as help crisp up that skin. The butter of this recipe will really get that skin crisp, so the spritzing is more to keep it from drying out.

"Turkey is a great source of protein, rich in many vitamins and minerals, and is low-fat – if you don't eat the skin," Champagne said. It's rich in B-complex vitamins niacin, B6 and B12 and the essential nutrient choline.

The best reason for cooking your next turkey in a smoker is that smoked turkeys taste better. The flavors from the wood smoke envelope the bird as it cooks, giving the meat a light smokey flavor that we often refer to as the taste of fall.

While it's higher in fat and cholesterol than ham, with about double the cholesterol, fresh turkey meat is richer in vitamins, protein, phosphorus, copper and magnesium. Ham provides more zinc, potassium and iron, but it typically has high sodium content.