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Haitian Chicken in a cast iron skillet in a savory red sauce with lime wedges and slices of red bell pepper.

How To Make Incredibly Delicious Haitian Chicken!

Grace
Absolutely bursting with flavor! This Haitian Chicken dish is totally worth taking the time to enjoy preparing it as well as eating it! This may become your new FAVE chicken dish!
5 from 1 vote
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Marinating Time 5 hours
Total Time 5 hours 55 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Haitian
Servings 3 people
Calories 469 kcal

Equipment

  • Cast iron pan with cover preferred, or large skillet with cover

Ingredients
  

  • 2 lb chicken drumsticks
  • 1 lime juiced; reserve juice and lime skins
  • 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 onion diced
  • 1-3 Habanero peppers sliced; deseed if you prefer a less spicy dish; use 1-3 according to how you like your heat!
  • 1 red bell pepper sliced
  • 2 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 cup chicken broth low salt or unsalted is preferred
  • salt to taste

Marinade Ingredients

  • 2 ts black pepper
  • 1 bouillon cube Maggi is preferred!
  • ⅓ cup Haitian epis
  • 1 tablespoon Adobo seasoning use Goya if possible - cut this to ½ tablespoon if you are watching your salt

Instructions
 

Clean The Chicken

  • Start by removing as much skin from the drumsticks as possible. Make some cuts into the meat (this is so the marinade can penetrate) and then rub the drumsticks with skins from a lime that has been juiced (reserve lime juice for later).
    Chicken drumsticks and limes
  • Next remove the lime skins and add hot water to cover the drumsticks for around 45 seconds. Then drain the hot water off and rinse with cold water.
    Chicken drumsticks in water in a glass bowl

Marinade The Chicken

  • Add the Haitian epis, black pepper, bouillon cube, Adobo seasoning, lime juice, and lime skins to the cleaned and rinsed chicken. Stir to combine the ingredients as well as you can, cover, and allow to marinate in your fridge for a minimum of one hour and up to overnight. I marinated mine for 5-6 hours and that worked just great!
    Chicken drumsticks in Haitian marinade

Cook The Chicken

  • Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet on medium high. Remove the chicken from the fridge, and brown the chicken in the hot oil. (All contents from the marinade including the lime skins should be added to the skillet at this time).
    Chicken drumsticks cooking in a cast iron skillet
  • Once the chicken is browned, add chicken broth, onion, habanero pepper, red bell pepper, and tomato paste. Stir to combine, and bring to the boil. Then lower the heat, and cook covered for around 30-45 minutes until the chicken is tender. Taste and add salt if you would like.
    Chicken drumsticks with sliced red pepper, habanero pepper, and diced onion
  • Your divine Haitian Chicken is now ready to serve!
    Haitian Chicken in a cast iron skillet

Notes

This recipe calls for Habanero peppers which are quite spicy.  If you do not like spicy food, feel free to leave this out.  If you want to enjoy some heat but not too much, you can deseed the peppers and of course vary the amount that you will use.
You actually can skip the "Cleaning The Chicken" step, BUT I highly recommend going through this step so you can enjoy the full experience of making Haitian Chicken.
Enjoy this with some Haitian Rice and Beans and fried plantains!
Cheers! Grace

Nutrition

Calories: 469kcalCarbohydrates: 14gProtein: 39gFat: 29gSaturated Fat: 7gPolyunsaturated Fat: 9gMonounsaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 186mgSodium: 644mgPotassium: 844mgFiber: 3gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 1545IUVitamin C: 67mgCalcium: 52mgIron: 2mg
Keyword Chicken, chicken drumsticks, haitian chicken
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