I’m always in search of the perfect kienyeji chicken recipe, so Tuesday this week was one of those days. I had a whole chicken in the fridge and I wasn’t quite sure of how to prepare it. After shooting down several ideas I finally had an epiphany so I phoned my grandmother. Every time I have had chicken while on a visit to the country side it has turned out to be utterly delicious so I figured who better to ask for the recipe other than her. After a few struggles coining some words in my mother tongue I managed to get the recipe 🙂 This recipe is pretty simple and you need less than a handful of ingredients. It is ideal for kienyeji (road runner) chicken.
Ingredients:
1 whole kienyeji chicken cut into pieces
4 medium sized onions sliced
1 tablespoon cumin seeds (optional)
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil.
In a sufuria add chicken, onions, cumin seeds and sprinkle the oil. Cover and cook over medium heat. 
Generally this recipe is very hands off. Let the chicken cook for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
At first, there will be soup out of the chicken, which is good since it will aid in cooking the chicken. 
About 30 minutes into cooking, the liquid will start to reduce. The aim is to ensure the soup reduces completely and the chicken will brown lightly. Remove from heat when the chicken is completely cooked. Serve with oven roasted paprika potato wedges similar here and some stir fried veggies. 
The chicken, enjoy. 
Delicious does not even begin to describe this chicken, Hubby ate almost half the chicken. I guess it’s safe to say we have a recipe.
Next time, I’ll use even more onions.
Grandma’s Onion Fried Chicken
- 1 whole kienyeji chicken cut into pieces
- 4 medium sized onions sliced
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds (optional)
- Salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil.
Instructions
In a sufuria add chicken, onions, cumin seeds and sprinkle the oil. Cover and cook over medium heat.
Let the chicken cook for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
About 30 minutes into cooking, the liquid will start to reduce.
Let the soup reduce completely and the chicken will brown lightly.
Remove from heat when the chicken is completely cooked.
Serve and enjoy!
I cook my chicken almost the same way but instead of the cumin seeds i use rosemary.and lots and lots of onion,i mix the red onions and the other type of onions-(kitunguu ya majani) and rosemary.then after its cooked,sprinkle some royco and add one cube of chillie cubes and let it cook well!nom nom nom
Different types of onion, I like that. I’ll try that next. Thanks.
I love your table mats…where did you get them from?
Thank you Peris. I bought them in Mombasa a store called Nawal.
So I was just preparing a blog post for kienyeji chicken for my blog and remembered u had one and decided to stop by and coz i thought ud used the wording onion fried that I wanted to use. Turns out we also thought of our grandmas coz I am making my cucus recipe as well. looks like they hv similar ways of cooking 🙂 thank God the recipes arent exactly the same. looks tasty.. will try ur way next time
Interesting coincidence, I’ll definitely check out your recipe I am always on the look out for kienyeji chicken recipes.
i am also in search of the perfect chicken recipies. will definately try this out although for the non free range chicken, how long will the timing be?
Hey Beth, for non free range chicken try 30 -40 minutes.
I am officialy addicted to this website….cant wait to try all the recipes
Welcome Christine, happy cooking.
[…] served them with some onion fried chicken and some stir fried […]