Walla Top, a member of the Ouarkhokh poultry cooperative, adjusts lights in the community’s poultry shed. Nighttime light reduces stress in the chickens.
In August, CREATE! field technicians helped community members in Ouarkhokh build their own poultry shed. In the past months, several women have been cooperatively managing poultry production using their new poultry shed. Cooperative members are currently in the process of selling their second batch of 100 chickens in local markets.
The women are diligent caretakers of their chickens. At night, women place battery-powered lights in the poultry shed. Darkness is stressful for chickens, so illumination at night ensures that chickens remain healthy and calm. The women use a small solar panel to charge the lights’ battery pack during the day, so that the lights can stay on throughout the long equatorial night.
Walla Top places food in the chicken feeders. Cooperative members stock the chickens’ feeders at night and remove them in the morning to ensure that the chickens do not overeat.
This new poultry project brings numerous benefits to women in the community of Ouarkhokh. Selling poultry is very profitable for the cooperative and women reinvest their earnings into the next round of poultry production. In the future, the Ouarkhokh cooperative hopes to start a small restaurant using the chickens and fruit, vegetables, and nuts from their garden.
CREATE! staff members Omar Ndiaye Seck, Barry Wheeler, Pape Ba, and Amadou Diouf (left to right) enjoy chicken yassa prepared by cooperative members using their own poultry.
During Barry Wheeler and Louise Ruhr’s recent visit to Ouarkhokh, cooperative members served them chicken yassa made from a chicken raised in their poultry shed. Chicken yassa is a delicious dish commonly eaten in Senegal, the Gambia, and other West African countries. You can make your own using this recipe:
Chicken Yassa
Serves: 4-6
Marinating time: 2 hours or overnight
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
- One whole chicken, washed and cut into medium pieces
- Seven onions, sliced
- Four lemons or equivalent amount of lemon juice
- Two tablespoons of mustard, preferably Dijon mustard
- ½ cup oil
- One head of garlic
- Two bouillon cubes (such as Maggi Jumbo)
- One tablespoon chili powder
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
- Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for at least two hours with the half of the mustard, half of the garlic, juice from two lemons, and black pepper.
- Slice and marinate the onions for at least two hours with half of the mustard, juice from two lemons, and black pepper.
- Grill the chicken in the oven or fry it on the stove with 3 tablespoons of the oil on high heat. When the chicken is brown, remove and set aside.
- Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a cooking pot and stir fry the onions for a few minutes. Then, add in the remaining garlic.
- Return the grilled chicken to the pot with one cup of water. Add the bouillon cubes, chili pepper, and salt to taste. Let it simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is done and the liquid in the sauce is totally absorbed.
Serve with rice or couscous.
Yassa can also be made with beef, lamb, or fish.
Recipe from: http://www.kadiafricanrecipes.com/chicken-yassa.html