Yaji Seasoning recipe (Suya Spice)

Honestly, I think one of the super legit delicious foods I’ve come across here in Naija is Suya. Whether it is beef suya, chicken suya or even ram suya, you’ve just gotta love it. And really, what’s suya without the major ingredient…Yaji (Suya spice). Whoever came up with this recipe is a total genius i tell you. If you ask me, i’d say it was born out of a need to avoid waste especially after extracting the oil from roasted groundnut which is the base for the spice. The left-over paste known as “Labu” is then stripped of excess water and used in the preparation of kuli kuli or dried into powdered form for suya spice. 

• 2 cups roasted groundnuts “peanuts” 

• ½ Cup

Small Dry cayenne pepper “Ose Nkiri” , powdered 

• 1 tsp. dry ginger, ground 

• 1 tsp. dry garlic, ground 

• 1 tsp. Salt 

Step 1: Peel the skin off the roasted peanuts by rubbing between your hands. place the roasted peanuts on a flat tray and blow off the skin leaving the bare peanuts.

Step 2:The next step is to extract the groundnut oil because what you’d need is the paste. To do it locally, Place the peeled peanuts in a dry mill and grind into a paste. This is known as

peanut butter

. Add a little water and boil the 

peanut butter

paste til the oil settles at the top. Sieve the oil out in a separate bowl. This can be used for cooking. Pour the chaff/residue in a pap sieve and squeeze till the remaining liquid gradually comes out leaving the groundnut cake behind in the sieve. This is then left to dry a little before frying to make kulikuli. 

Step 3: After the groundnut cake has been fried, add the cayenne pepper, ground ginger, garlic powder and salt, blend some more to incorporate. 

This can now be used to coat the meat you intend roasting/ grilling i.e For Chicken suya, Beef suya, Ram Suya