This Berbere Chicken is an easy Ethiopian food dish with juicy chicken and crispy skin. Topped with a sweet and spicy Berbere, honey and garlic sauce!
Why This Recipe Works
This can be a one pot meal! Using a oven safe pan when browning the meat, makes this a one pan dish. Plus, I made this with quick prep in mind! You season the chicken and mix a few spices and fresh ingredients together for the sauce.
Then, there’s the skin. It has a nice crispy crunch to it. This has to do with the quick sear and oven roasting cooking methods I use.
What Goes Into This Dish
Honey– This gives it the sweetness to balance the spicy flavor.
Garlic– Fresh garlic helps the garlic flavor to stand out. Double the amount for even more garlic flavor.
Cooking Steps
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Score the skinless side of the meat by slicing slits into the thighs using a knife.
- Season each side of the poultry with the salt, pepper and Ethiopian seasoning.
- In a small bowl mix together the garlic, wine, honey, and remaining Ethiopian seasoning. Set aside.
- Heat a cast iron pan, heavy bottom skillet, Dutch oven or oven safe large skillet on the stove top using medium-high heat. Once pan is hot, add two teaspoons of olive oil to the pan.
- Place meat skin side down in the cooking vessel. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes or until it gets a nice golden brown.
- Once browned, turn the pieces over in the pan. Turn the stove top heat off. Add sauce mixture to the pan.
- If using an oven safe pan, using oven mitts, place the pan in the oven. If you don’t have an oven safe pan, put all the ingredients in a baking dish with the skin side up.
- Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165 degrees when a food thermometer is placed in the thickest part of the meat.
- Remove pan from oven using oven mitts and serve.
Experts Tips
Scoring meat– This will help the season and the sauce permeate it for more flavorful results.
Other meat alternatives– You can use chicken breasts instead when cooking this dish. If using this, only use the stove top to cook the meat. After searing the breasts, cook them for six to eight minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees when inserting a meat thermometer into the pieces.
Thicker sauce– If it is too thin for you, add a mixture of two teaspoons of cornstarch and 3 teaspoons of water to the sauce. If there is too much oil in the pan after you brown the pieces of meat, discard some of the oil with a heat resistant spoon before adding the sauce mixture as this can help with thicker results too.
Other Cooking Methods– To save time you can just use the oven to cook this dish. Omit the browning step, cook the sauce mixture in a medium pot using medium heat on the stove top and set aside. Cook pieces of chicken in the oven on a sheet pan or baking sheet lined with parchment paper for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees. The meat should still turn light brown with some crispy skin. Serve the sauce with the cooked meat.
FAQs
This is an Ethiopian spice mix made of chilis, black peppercorns, cumin seeds, sweet paprika, garlic, allspice, garlic and fenugreek and other different spices.
It has a mild spicy heat with sweet citrus flavors.
It tastes good on fish, vegetables, in beans and stews.
Daring Gourmet has an easy how to recipe for a homemade blend. You can also purchase this online and find in specialty spice stores.
Brown lentils, rice, green beans and any side salads are a good easy side dishes to complete this meal!
Love to explore different flavors and cultures? Try these other poultry dishes!
- Chipotle Chicken and White Queso Cheese Sauce
- Fried Chicken Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits
- Chinese Orange Chicken
Made This Recipe?
♥♥♥ Please rate this recipe and leave a comment below to let me know if you enjoyed it. And follow me on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more delicious inspiration! ♥♥♥
Berbere Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken Seasoning:
- 4 whole chicken thighs with skin and bone
- 2 teaspoons Ethiopian Berbere Seasoning
- Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
- Kosher Salt
Sauce Ingredients:
- 8 garlic cloves finely chopped or pressed in a garlic press.
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1/8 cup pure raw honey
- ½ teaspoon Ethiopian Berbere Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
- Kosher Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Score the skinless side of the meat by slicing slits into the thighs using a knife.
- Season each side of the poultry with the salt, pepper and Ethiopian seasoning.
- In a small bowl mix together the garlic, wine, honey, and remaining Ethiopian seasoning. Set aside.
- Heat a cast iron pan or oven safe pan on the stove top using medium high heat. Once pan is hot, add a drizzle of olive oil to the pan.
- Place meat skin side down in the cooking vessel. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes or until it gets a nice golden brown.
- Once browned, turn the pieces over in the pan. Turn the stove top heat off. Add sauce mixture to the pan.
- If using an oven safe pan, using oven mitts, place the pan in the oven. If you don't have an oven safe pan, put all the ingredients in a baking dish with the skin side up.
- Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165 degrees when a food thermometer is placed in the thickest part of the meat.
- Remove pan from oven using oven mitts and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that I am not a nutritionist, and the nutritional information is an estimate only. It varies based on the products and brands used.
♥♥♥ Please rate this recipe and leave a comment below to let me know if you enjoyed it. And follow me on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more delicious inspiration! ♥♥♥
Thanks for stopping by! Welcome to the Savory Spicerack! The place where I share recipes that fulfill my never ending cravings, and inspirations. If you want to get into more of the details of how this all started and who I am, just click the link for all the gossip! 
Now this is the dinner to serve to make any evening a notch more special! 🙂
Love Berbere!! Making this tonight for dinner. It’s a cold windy and wet Wisconsin day so this sounds perfect ♥️
I am making this right now to take to a Ethiopian themed dinner and board game night. Thanks for the recipe. I am hoping it will be a big hit! Went to World Market and found the Berbere. J Beard
Yay! Hope you all enjoyed it! Hope game night was fun as well!
Hi Sharee! We missed you! We’ve been “offline” in the last months for a variety of reasons (all bad) but we’re back now, and we started using our social media accounts and visiting our favorite blogger friends like you:)
We hope everything is going great for you and your family and you guys are all OK.
Moving on to your recipe now: This one is delicious recipe we’d love to replicate at home. We’ll see how to prepare our own Ethiopian mixture, as we have all the ingredients you described and it sounds fantastic!
Thank you for another beautiful recipe sweetie!
Lots and lots of hugs,
Panos and Mirella
Oh my gosh! I missed you guys! I didn’t see recipes as I checked your page from time to time. I thought you may take summers off to regroup! Sorry you had some issues! We are ok over here! I am in school and doing some catering here and there! So happy to hear from you!
We’re so glad you guys are OK!:) Thank you for stopping by our blog as well!:) Off we go to check out your comment!
Big kiss!
Sure thing!
Berbere is one of my favorite flavors. This looks so tasty!
It is so delicious isn’t it??? Thanks so much!