Iwuk Edesi (One-Pot Rice With Chicken)

For the iru: You can buy it online from Burlap and Barrel. For the crayfish/shrimp: A vegetarian alternative is to use is dulse (a seaweed). I use it often and so I buy it online from a supplier in Maine, but you can also find it in natural food stores or Whole Foods. Toast it in the oven until fragrant and then crumble it; it gives a flavor similar to crawfish.

If you are looking for a good palm oil, appropriately sourced, I found Nutiva organic palm oil on Amazon. I use it all the time for beans, Congolese style, learned during my years in the Congo (when it was called Zaïre) with the Peace Corps. There’s nothing like it.

Red palm oil adds a flavor, color, and fragrance common to many west African dishes. A jar lasts a long time in the pantry. I would consider its earthy flavor essential for authenticity, but it is an acquired taste.

I used ghee instead with some annatto for colour. Palm oil is an incredibly destructive product and should not be used when there are alternatives available

For everyone asking about substitutions or where to get ingredients - nigerian ingredients have very distinctive tastes so there are NOT any good substitutions for any of these ingredients that will leave you with an authentic recipe --- however I recommend visiting your local african/carribean market as these are commonly found there (there are also online african markets - would NOT recommend amazon unless seller specifies where ingredients are sourced from)

I made this after hearing Yewande interviewed on The Sporkful. It’s a totally new taste for me, and it was like making a new friend. I ordered the iru and the palm oil, used fish oil for the fish. Because I don’t like things quite this hot and could not find scotch bonnet peppers, I just used about 1/2 a jalapeño. Next time I’ll be braver about the heat. My husband and I both loved this!

Regarding the question about Palm Oil, it is a flavorful addition, which to me tastes like bamboo smells. It is the distinctive flavor which elevates Brazilian Moqueca from a coconut based stew to a unique dish.

Following the instructions everything but the chicken was finished and the chicken needed another half hour in a dutch oven.

We like West African food. This was fine but far from great. I followed the recipe exactly, using the dried shrimp option and all the unusual ingredients. Despite containing two scotch bonnets, seeds and all, the dish had little fire. The flavors of all ingredients came through, but the predominant one was the red palm oil, which for me always has a slightly unpleasant petrochemical aspect. Some love it; I can tolerate it; as the main flavor in a dish, it leaves me wishing I'd chosen better.

A completely new and delicious experience for us. This is so good I ate too much! I ordered the iru from Amazon, later found that Burlap and Barrel has it. I substituted fish sauce for the crayfish, and turned the pepper heat down too far. I then added some chili crunch for serving. Next time: this needs 1/2 cup more liquid to get the rice done, could use a little less palm oil, maybe 1/3 cup, and go for one whole scotch bonnet pepper!

I used lacinato kale for the greens. Substituted the scotch bonnet with diablo grande pepper to reduce the heat and medium grain rice rather than the long grain, otherwise followed the recipe as written. The kale holds up nicely. It took longer than 20 minutes to get the rice soft and I added some of the left over liquid from soaking the shrimp and iru. The dish is a little too oily though very tasty. Next time reducing palm oil, increasing kale and doubling pepper shrimp iru paste

This recipe calls for irû. Other recipes of West African provenance found in the NYT and elsewhere call for dawadawa. I'm no authority on African cooking, but I am 99 percent certain that they are different names for the same thing (fermented locust beans). So, if you ran down dawadawa for another recipe as I did (vegetable maafé), don't bother looking for irû. You already have it.