escapades of an obsessed runner

Okay, today I attempted to make yassa poulet, according to the guidelines of Mouse. Yassa poulet is a Senegalese dish that she learned about during her study abroad trip. Mine turned out alright, but I ended up with a larger onion-to-chicken ratio due to the fact I was trying to make yassa for two people instead of like…. eight and things got a little hard to judge.

Start with making coffee. Because it is morning. Note the awesome coffee mug from Dickson Mounds.

Then, continue with a collection of food: a package of chicken thighs on the bone, 4 onions, white vinegar, dijon mustard (not shown in pic), cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, garlic, and 1 1/4 lemons.

Pretend that’s not sideways. Note the wooden spoon- this is ABSOLUTELY necessary for your food to become extremely tasty. Nothing better than cooking with a wooden spoon. Be sure to wash the chicken, and marinate it with half of a lemon, some vinegar, salt and pepper while oven preheats to 375 Fahrenheit. Put a dab or four of olive oil in a glass dish, place the chicken evenly around the dish, pour the excess marinade over, and lock it in the oven for a good 40-45 minutes, or just until the meat can fall off the bone.

Now, while the chicken was in the oven, I decided this was a good time to attack the onions. However, to do so, I had to go on an adventure through the house to find proper onion-slicing PPE (Personal Protective Equipment, for those of you who have never seen those crazy videos from the 80s.) I was already wearing my mother’s apron, one that we’re pretty sure Grandmoom made from an old curtain, so I was halfway to being prepared already.

Debated the yellow hard hat, which is mainly used for large-house-icicle-killings in the winter. However, decided that was too overboard and wouldn’t do too much in protection from volatile onion milk vapors. So I moved on towards the basement, running into the Engineer’s BFM (Big F***ing Mess)… where I found a LOT of stuff, including…

Safety Onion Goggles! (God, they make my nose look huge.) I’m grimacing because it decided resting on my nose ring was the only way it wanted to stay on my face. Lovely. Anyways, I sliced the onions and luckily avoided crying too much. After slicing up a shitton of onions, I put them in a large pot to await further destruction. After heating for a few minutes on medium heat, I added another half lemon, vinegar, salt and fresh cracked pepper, some dijon mustard, cayenne, water, and chicken bouillon. Not particularly in that order, but I don’t really remember, and it probably doesn’t entirely matter anyway.

Eventually, your chicken will be done. I can’t tell you when that was for me, or when it will be for you. It just happens. Under recommendation of Mouse, I took the chicken skins off here after they cooled (removing them from the pan is the smart way to go, they cool quicker that way), then used kitchen shears to snip off obvious fat & cartilage, and shredded the remaining meat off the bone into the pot with the onions. (Look at the runt thigh! Awwww) Ernie accompanied me in the kitchen throughout this process, trying to look pathetic and unfed enough to scam some chicken skins off me. It worked.

It’s a little hard to see, since apparently according to my mom’s camera onions, chicken, and minced garlic are all the same color… but this is the point where I added about that much garlic and left it to simmer away. Surprisingly, the house doesn’t stink like onions, garlic, or anything specific; it’s actually a really nice smell/taste all blended together, nothing crazy. Also, this is where you make the spicy mustard that Batty never really listens about (love you Batty!). Take that much mustard and this much cayenne and make orange mustard. It is spicy. Do not eat a lot of it if you don’t want to die. Take a dab and mix it in with your yassa IF more spice is desired. Eat with sticky, steamed jasmine rice. Delicious.

Oh, and if you’re anything like me, which you’re probably not, you can always take the chicken femurs from the thighs and boil them when you get bored. But that’s not necessary. At all.

In the end though, the thought of chicken knees are disgusting. I think more chicken for the amount of onions would have been a wise decision, but it’s still amazingly tasty.

NOTE: I would still recommend that you follow Mouse’s guideline for yassa! Less pictures, more precise.