I am on a mission to use up the things I have in my pantry. Accumulating non-perishable foods is an inevitable side effect of this blog. I don’t have any space to spare in my kitchen, so I’m going to make some. First up is an unopened bag of black lentils I bought and never found a recipe to use them in. Well, now I have a use for them in this Berbere Chicken with Ethiopian Lentils. I have all 13 of the seeds and spices needed to make the Berbere spice blend, so I don’t have to buy anything else to take up space in my pantry. That makes me really happy, and I can’t wait to try my first Ethiopian dish!
A flavorful delicious Ethiopian recipe that features Berbere Spice.
The Ingredients
As I mentioned, I had all 13 spices to make the Berbere spice blend. It’s a lot, but several are popular in American cuisine like cinnamon, nutmeg, paprika, clove, and ginger. The rest were probably purchased to make Indian food. Things like cardamom pods, turmeric, and chili flakes along with cumin, fenugreek, and coriander seeds. Plus good old salt and black pepper that’s universal. I don’t imagine it’s common to have all these, so buying ready-made Berbere might be the way to go instead of buying tons of spices.
I had cooking oil, garlic, and carrots on hand. That left chicken thighs, tomato, onion, and ginger for my shopping list. They were all available at my regular grocery store.
The Process
I started my Berbere Chicken with Ethiopian Lentils by making the Berbere spice blend. It wasn’t too involved, just toasting the seeds in a skillet for a few minutes, letting them cool a little, and then using a coffee grinder to pulverize them. I was able to measure out the already-ground spices while the seeds were toasting. It took me 10 minutes to make.
Tip: Grinding coffee and spices in the same coffee grinder can lead to some odd flavor combinations. I keep one for each, so my coffee doesn’t have hints of curry powder.
I thought about cutting the Berbere in half because it sounded like it would make a lot. I’m glad I didn’t because I ended up using most of it.
Making the Lentils
Once the Berbere was done, I moved on to prepping the vegetables and measuring the remaining ingredients. It all used basic cooking skills, so there was a little peeling, dicing, and mincing.
The actual cooking began with the lentils. I used a 5-quart cast-iron Dutch oven, and it had plenty of room. The process was pretty typical for most cuisines—add a few ingredients, sautee, and repeat until everything is in the pot. Once all of the ingredients were added, I brought them to a boil, covered the pot, lowered the heat, and let the lentils simmer for 30 minutes.
Making the Chicken Thighs
The chicken thighs were up next. I added them to a large mixing bowl and generously sprinkled them with salt, pepper, and my homemade Berbere spice blend. Then I used tongs to flip each piece and added more Berbere. I gave them all a few more flips to make sure they were thoroughly covered.
Tip: Berbere has turmeric in it, and turmeric will stain everything it touches including skin, fingernails, and even nail polish. I used tongs to flip the seasoned chicken thighs, but gloved hands would have worked too. It’s a matter of preference, but bare hands are not a good idea.
Cooking the seasoned chicken thighs was very simple and easy. I preheated a saute pan with olive oil and added meat thermometer probes to the two largest pieces. After the pan preheated for two minutes, I added the thighs skin side down and let them sizzle away for eight minutes. Then I flipped them, let them cook for another three minutes, then put the pan in my oven to finish.
Finishing Up
The chicken finished while the lentils were still cooking, and they had plenty of excess liquid after simmering for 30 minutes. Cooking it off was simple. I just removed the lid, turned up the heat, and stirred so the lentils didn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. It took about 10 minutes for them to get to a consistency I liked.
Shallow pasta bowls turned out to be perfect for serving my Berbere Chicken with Ethiopian Lentils. I added a very generous scoop of the lentils and topped them with a piece of chicken (or two!) and some chopped parsley. A little touch of green was a nice pop of color on the brown chicken and lentils!
Timing
This recipe listed 20 minutes to prep, 40 minutes to cook, and a total time of 1 hour. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 20 minutes to shell cardamom pods for 1 teaspoon seeds
- 10 minutes to make Berbere spice blend
- 24 minutes to prep
- 41 minutes to cook lentils
- 13 minutes to cook chicken on the stove
- 9 minutes to cook chicken in the oven
- 10 minutes to cook off excess liquid in lentils
- 1 hour 45 minutes total
