Zambia | Village Chicken & Nshima

Village Chicken Recipe

Nshima Recipe

Zambia is the second to last country in this project. But it is the first country that led to me reading an article on PubMed about chickens because I wanted to know more about village chickens. (The History of African Village Chickens: An Archaeological and Molecular Perspective by J M Mwacharo, G Bjørnstad, J L Han, and O Hanotte)

Anyway, a village chicken seems to be pretty much what one would assume; a free-range chicken running around a village doing chicken things. They are leaner and more nutrient dense than commercially-raised chickens and have adapted to live all over Africa.

I don’t have access to African village chickens and I didn’t want to cut up an entire chicken so I, once again, went with chicken thighs. I always have leftovers with these meals and thighs reheat better than all other parts of the chicken.

I had all the needed spices and seasonings on hand for the chicken because I now have an incredibly well-stocked (overflowing) spice cupboard.

I did have to order “mealie meal” (finely ground white cornmeal) to make the nshima (thick porridge shaped into balls and used to scoop up food) because they don’t carry it at our local store and masa is not the same thing. I guess the nixtamalization process (soaking the corn in an alkaline solution) that masa undergoes changes the flavor profile and the way the starch in it behaves. (This was an educational meal!)

Meal prep was easy. I had to dice up an onion and measure out spices. The cooking process for the chicken was also easy. Sauté things and then cover and let them cook through. Stir in some tomatoes and cook a little longer.

The nshima wasn’t difficult but required a lot of stirring.

How was it?

It was okay.

The chicken and sauce were good. The prominent flavor was tomato and I like tomatoes. It was slightly spicy but not overwhelmingly so.

The nshima just isn’t for me. By itself, it doesn’t taste like much of anything at all. It isn’t meant to have much flavor; it is meant to be a means of delivering whatever it is served with into your mouth and it did that effectively. It didn’t taste bad; it just didn’t taste of anything. It is filling and easy to prepare but I’d rather have rice.

Would I make it again?

No. I just don’t think it will be a dish I find myself looking back on and craving. It was a decent meal and I will eat the leftovers without complaint and appreciate the experience and the education.