mshikaki – Kaluhi's Kitchen

Chicken mshikaki reminds me of my days growing up in Lang’ata. We never had as much street food as let’s say Pangani and Eastleigh has, but what we did have made our evenings super exciting. With the cover of dusk, streets lined up with people selling all kinds of things. Hissing sound searing of mutura, smoke rising from jikos being fanned before roasting the maize, mshikaki being skewered for roasting and sold with viazi karai, kaleidoscopes of mabuyu and one shilling ice displayed for passer-bys to choose from were some of the things that made my evenings and walks from school so fun. Things in my childhood neighborhood have since changed but all the fun times remain cemented in my very soul!

To celebrate one of my faves, today’s recipe draws inspiration from chicken mshikaki I used to enjoy snacking on growing up. Of course, in true Kaluhi fashion, my rendition on it has shaken things up, turned up the spice dial and even thrown in a dip. Let’s get to it!

I look forward to the day we shall truly live as a borderless world. Where we shall celebrate what makes us different instead is making it divide us. If it shall happen in my lifetime, that would be really dope! I love discovering new cultures, it opens up your mind to so much more and I get to actually realize we have a lot more in common than that we have otherwise. That is what African culture is all about in particular. We have so much in common. And when it comes to food, this becomes even more glaring. Sometimes, a certain food we think belongs to just one country may also be popular in another, just prepared in a different way. And that is what I discovered about chicken suya. It is a dish that is thought to be primarily Nigerian, but also quite popular in northern Cameroon. This is the final of my fusion recipes, with this one having a mix of Cameroon, Senegal (a largely Islamic country that does not eat pork hence I chose chicken for this recipe), Congo and Ivory coast.

I gave this my own twist and I have to say, this is one of my favorite chicken dishes this year and one I hope to have more of. I gave you a sneak peak in my Instastory on Sunday, and I am not exaggerating when I say this is the best suya recipe you will ever have.