Chop the vegetables, except the eggplant. Chopped eggplant oxidizes when exposed to air. You’ll chop it when you’re ready to add it to the pot.
Put your chicken in a big bowl. Don’t remove the bones or skin. If you do, you might miss out on the full flavor.
Add your chopped ginger, garlic, salt, smoked paprika, thyme, bay leaf, and whole hot peppers to the chicken.
Add chopped vegetables. Mix and leave the mixture to marinate for 2 hours.
When the mixture is ready to cook, chop the eggplants.
Remove chicken, hot peppers, and bay leaves and set them aside. Add the chopped eggplant and mix it into the vegetable mixture.
Layer part of the veggies and the eggplants in a canari or cooking pot.
Layer the chicken on top of the vegetables.
Add bay leaves, some extra thyme sprigs, salt, and whole habanero hot peppers. You can prick the hot peppers if you’re looking to cook something spicy or “hot-pepperish”.
Crumble bouillon cube on top. Then layer the rest of the vegetables on top of the chicken.
Close the lid and cook it undisturbed for 45 minutes on high heat. Leaving the sauce to cook undisturbed infuses the chicken with the flavor of the spices and vegetables.
You can choose to use the oven in this process too.
Lower the heat after 15 minutes and shake the cooking pot without removing the lid. Allow the sauce to braise in its juices. The vegetables and chicken will create a lot of liquid, which helps the chicken to stay moist and tender.
Shake again after the next 15 minutes.
Check the chicken after 45 minutes to make sure it’s probably cooked. Taste for salt.
Cook for another 15 minutes and voila! Your Kedjenou Chicken is ready.