CAMEROON GHANA NIGER NIGERIA
Celebrated as a night street food suya is now a cafe, restuarant and takeaway food far beyond western Africa and still an enigma as chefs and cooks keep a strong fidelity to their own spice powder recipe, known as yaji in Nigeria, used to marinade the meat, everything from beef to chicken, lamb to turkey, goat to pork.
Cooked on skewers or sticks, suya originated in northern Nigeria among the Hausa people, and now is known throughout western Africa, America and Europe where suya beef and suya turkey is very popular.
Usually made with flaked or powdered cayenne pepper, powered dried ginger, powdered kuli kuli (deep-fried roasted groundnuts with the oil removed – peanuts are not a substitute because of the high oil content) and powdered uda seeds, suya powder may also contain garlic powder, onion powder and salt plus ingredients that always remain a secret. Among these will be bouillon powder, smoked paprika, red chillies, red pepper flakes, shuru seeds and the perfect amount of salt among other aromatics such as okazi leaves, utazi leaves and uziza leaves.
These leaves are essential to the success of a suya mixture because they bring a depth of flavour that is unique to the creator. Used to make soups – afang, egusi, okazi – the okazi leaf, dried and crushed, will add a bitter flavour to the suya mix. The utazi leaf also imparts a bitter flavour albeit with more subtlety. A leaf that is cherished by some suya mallams (artisans) is the uziza, more commonly associated with pepper soup largely because it will impart a lingering pepper taste. The uziza seed will achieve the same effect.
This is Flo Chinyere’s interpretation for chicken suya.
Red Meat
- 1 kg beef / lamb / pork, fillet meat
- 30 g kuli kuli, ground
- 30 g uziza leaves, ground / 30 g uziza (black pepper) seeds, ground
- 15 ml + vegetable oil
- 15 g bouillon powder (Vegeta)
- 15 g garlic powder
- 10 g okazi / ukazi leaves, ground
- 10 g onion powder from dried fried onions
- 5-10 g red chilli seeds from Nigerian habenero or scotch bonnet peppers, ground
- 10 g shuru seeds, ground
- 10 g uda seeds, ground
- 10 g utazi leaves, ground
- 5 g ginger, dried, ground
White Meat
- 1 kg chicken / turkey, breast meat
- 100 g suya pepper mix (garlic powder, kuli kuli, okazi / ukazi leaves, pepper seeds, shuru seeds, uda seeds, utazi leaves, uziza leaves), ground
- 20 g kuli kuli, ground
- 15 ml + vegetable oil
- 10 g bouillon powder (Vegeta)
- 5 g ginger, dried, ground
- 5 g onion powder from dried fried onions, ground
- 5 g red chilli flakes / red pepper flakes
- 5 g salt
Soak wooden skewers or sticks in water for about six hours.
Make the suya mixture, make sure all the ingredients are fine ground.
Prepare the meat by cutting the white meat into thin fillets or the red meat into thin slices flattened with a mallet over parchment.
Thread the meat onto the skewers or sticks.
Pour some vegetable oil into a bowl. Brush the oil onto the meat.
Dust a large plate with the suya powder. Coat the skewered meat with the suya powder.
Put the plate in a refrigerator, marinate for at least six hours or preferably overnight.
Pre-heat oven to 200ºC.
Put a rack on a tray, place the skewered meat on the rack.
Bake white meat for 20 minutes, turning the skewered meat after 10 minutes.
Bake red meat for 30 minutes, turning the skewered meat after 15 minutes.
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