Sierra Leonean Chicken Groundnut Stew

Sierra Leone is a small country located along the central west coast of Africa. Its capital is Freetown. Portuguese and Spanish trading ships began visiting the area in the 1400s, later followed by English ships. Sierra Leone came under strong British influence through freed slaves during the latter part of the 1700s, and it became an official colony in 1808. The name "Freetown" was from the notion of freed slaves settling there, which was the site of a previous settlement that had been destroyed a couple of year earlier. The name of the country traces back through English to Spanish to Portuguese and Portuguese "Serra Lyoa" ("Lion Mountains"). 
  
This is a super tasty stew. The word "groundnut" is used in various parts of the world for "peanut." Traditionally a scotch bonnet pepper is used in this recipe. Scotch bonnet chilies are VERY hot, and one pepper, slit through, is the usual "dosage," but if you don't have a scotch bonnet, you can substitute a habanero chili, or you can use other chilies, using one or two, depending upon your heat preference. You don't cut up the scotch bonnet or habanero pepper, but rather you simply cut a slit or two in the pepper to let the flavor and heat mix into the stew as the pepper cooks. You can do the same with other chilies, but if you like heat, you may want to actually cut up chilies of less heat to give you the "kick" you desire.   

Ingredients (6 servings):

6 medium to large chicken thighs, skin removed
4 tablespoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
2 baseball size onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 mild green or red pepper, chopped (a bell pepper or a cubanelle is fine)
1 scotch bonnet or habanero, or 1 to 2 other hot chili pepper(s)
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup tomato sauce

Heat the peanut oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper, then brown them lightly on both sides in the hot oil (you aren't cooking the chicken through at this time). Set the chicken aside. Cut a slit in the chili or chilies (I slit the chilies on two sides, but I don't detach the halves). Add the onion, garlic, mild green or red pepper and the chili(es) to the hot oil. Stir the vegetables while they cook for about 3 to 4 minutes to begin to soften. Add the tomato sauce and stir to mix it in. Now add the peanut butter, stirring and taking the time to get it blended into the sauce. Now return the chicken pieces to the skillet. Reduce the heat to low and keep the stew at a gentle simmer for about 45 minutes, until the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the sauce reduces and thickens somewhat. If you cover the skillet, the stew won't reduce properly, so I use a splatter screen to prevent any of the bubbling sauce from ending up all over the stove or even down the street.
   
Sierra Leonean Chicken Groundnut Stew (1 chicken thigh in sauce) with some salad ...

WORD HISTORY:
Gamut-This word for "the range of musical notes," probably most often used in the phrase, "run the gamut," meaning, "experience an entire range of sights, sounds or emotions of something," comes from the assignment of names to designate musical notes in the Middle Ages by musically talented Italian monk Guido d'Arezzo. "Gamut" is a contraction from Latin "gamma ut," with "gamma" being the name of the third letter of the Greek alphabet, a word Greek borrowed from Phoenician, and "ut" being the conjunction meaning "that," "likely" a distant relative of English "when," "where," "what," "why," all from the Germanic roots of English, but related to Latin "ut" by way of Indo European "kwo." It is also a likely relative of "quorum," a word borrowed by English from Latin, and of "quote," another Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French. To be clear, "ut" seems to be from Indo European "kwo," but that is not a definite.