Yassa, also known as chicken yassa or poulet yassa, is Senegal's national dish, a stew consisting of chicken that is marinated in lemon, lots of onions, and vinegar. The chicken needs to marinate in the mixture for at least eight hours, making sure that the lemon juice and vinegar take the bite out of the onions and tenderize the tough poultry found in the Casamance region.
Chicken pieces are then cooked over medium-high heat until the marinade becomes a sauce in itself. This process results in an incredibly flavorful and tender meat that is traditionally served with fluffy rice in brightly decorated plates. Other examples of good accompaniments include fufu and couscous, with or without the chickpeas.
MOST ICONIC Yassa
Thiébou yapp is a hearty Senegalese stew made with a combination of rice, meat, and vegetables. It is usually prepared with steamed broken rice, which is added to a meat broth containing browned chunks of beef or lamb, and the concoction is then simmered until fully cooked.
Typical ingredients include onions, garlic, bell peppers, cabbage, eggplants, habanero peppers, mustard, carrots, tomatoes, paprika, vinegar, oil, and chopped parsley. This stew is a variation of the Senegalese national specialty thiébou jen, which uses fish instead of meat.
MOST ICONIC Thiébou yapp
Thiébou guinaar is a traditional dish based on rice and chicken. It is usually prepared with marinated chicken pieces which are browned and then simmered with water, tomato paste, bouillon cubes, and vegetables. Once cooked, the meat and vegetables are carefully removed, and the steamed rice is added to the same liquid to cook further.
The rice is spread over a serving plate, topped with the chicken pieces and cooked vegetables, and the whole thing is drizzled with the sauce. This traditional specialty is typically eaten as a main course and is often garnished with fresh vegetables.
Ndambé is a type of traditional Senegalese stew prepared with black-eyed peas as the main ingredient. The pre-cooked black-eyed peas are usually combined with a sauce consisting of onions and tomato paste, flavored with garlic, bay leaves, bouillon cube, vinegar, chili powder, salt, and pepper.
This warm and filling stew can optionally contain sweet potatoes and meat, usually beef or lamb. This Senegalese winter specialty is typically eaten for breakfast or dinner, accompanied by bread, rice, couscous, or quinoa.
Thiou à la viande is a traditional dish that is typically served over white rice. It can be made with any meat, usually beef or lamb that is cut into small pieces, browned, and then cooked in a tomato-based sauce with chopped vegetables.
Typical vegetables include potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, cabbage, onions, and tomatoes. The stew is usually served over white rice, but it can also be consumed on its own, typically with bread on the side.
Bassi-salté is a traditional dish consisting of millet couscous that is combined with meat and vegetables. This authentic dish typically contains cooked millet couscous, mutton meatballs known as diaguas, chunks of meat (usually mutton or chicken), sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, cassava roots, carrots, white beans, cabbage, and tomato paste.
Besides being savory, the dish is also characterized by a mild sweetness as it includes sweet ingredients such as raisins and dates. It is usually served with the millet couscous and beans mixture on the bottom, topped with meat and vegetable chunks, all generously drizzled with a thick sauce.
TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.