Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Poulet Yassa
Chicken smothered in a mountain of lemon-and-mustard onions, grilled then braised, Casamance’s gift to West Africa.
Senegalese (Casamançais) · easy · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 50 min
~694 cal · 74g protein · 25g carbs · 31g fat · 5g fiber · 9g sugars · 7g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Poulet yassa comes from the Casamance region of southern Senegal, the homeland of the Jola people, and it has become one of West Africa's most exported dishes. Chicken is marinated in lemon juice, mustard, and a great quantity of onions, then grilled for smoky char before being in that same tangy, silky onion sauce until meltingly tender.
The magic is in the onions, cooked down in vast amounts until sweet and jammy, sharpened by lemon and mustard into something bright and deeply savory. Getting the balance of acid, sweetness, and heat right is the mark of a good yassa cook.
Served over rice to catch the sauce, yassa is festive food that has crossed borders throughout the Senegalese diaspora. From a Casamance village to restaurants in Dakar, Paris, and New York, it carries the flavor of home wherever Senegalese cooks travel.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
2.5 lbs chicken legs and thighs
5, yes, five yellow onions, thickly sliced
3 lemons (juice)
2 limes
3 tbsp Dijon-style mustard
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 , whole
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup
to taste salt and black pepper
for 4 broken or jasmine rice, to serve
Instructions
1
Marinate the chicken (or mushrooms and tofu) and ALL the onions in citrus juice, mustard, garlic, and salt, 4 hours minimum, overnight ideally.
2
Lift out the chicken and brown it hard on a grill or in a skillet until charred in spots.
3
Fry the drained onions in oil, slow and patient, 15 minutes until soft and golden.
4
Return the chicken with the marinade, bay, and the whole Scotch bonnet; cover and simmer 25 minutes.
5
Rescue the bonnet, season, and serve over rice, onions first, generously.
Casamance tradition, now national.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Casamance. This is the wet green end of Senegal and it grows its own rice, where most of the country imports it. The Diola have farmed paddy in the tidal flats here for centuries, and the palm groves give both the red oil and the palm wine that set southern cooking apart from Dakar's.
🗺️
Senegal. Senegal's Atlantic coast gave the world thieboudienne, the national dish of fish, broken rice, and vegetables in a rich tomato base. Rooted in the value of teranga (hospitality), Senegalese cooking leans on yassa's onion-and-lime tang, groundnut stews, and hibiscus and baobab drinks.
🌍
Africa. The structure repeats across most of the continent: one starch and one sauce. A grain or root is cooked stiff, torn or rolled by hand, and used to carry a stew of leaves, groundnut, okra or fish, usually from a shared bowl and with the right hand. UNESCO listings have followed that logic, inscribing couscous in 2020 as a shared Maghreb tradition and Ivorian attieke in 2024.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Senegal
Thieboudienne (Senegalese Fish & Rice)Senegal’s national dish: herb-stuffed fish braised with vegetables over deeply tomato-stained broken rice.
FondéA comforting Senegalese millet porridge cooked with milk, sugar, and a hint of orange-flower or nutmeg.
NdambéA spiced black-eyed pea stew served in a crusty baguette, Senegal's everyday street breakfast-lunch.
Browse all Senegal recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Skillet or frying pan, Grill or barbecue.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
Make it a Senegal meal
BissapDrink
Ngalakh (Baobab & Peanut Millet Cream)Dessert
NdambéLunch
Similar dishes from around the world
Chicken AdoboPhilippines
Coq au VinFrance
Chicken Paprikash (Paprikás Csirke)Hungary
Kedjenou de PouletCôte d’Ivoire
Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemon & OlivesMorocco
Pollo alla CacciatoraItaly
Cuisine
Diet
Gluten-Free Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free Recipes from Around the World
Nut-Free Recipes from Around the World
Egg-Free Recipes from Around the World
Pork-Free Recipes from Around the World
Gluten-Free Dinners from Around the World
Dairy-Free Dinners from Around the World
Nut-Free Dinners from Around the World
Egg-Free Dinners from Around the World
Frequently asked questions
What is Poulet Yassa?
Chicken smothered in a mountain of lemon-and-mustard onions, grilled then braised, Casamance’s gift to West Africa.
Where does Poulet Yassa come from?
Poulet Yassa is a Senegalese (Casamançais) dish from Casamance, Senegal.
Can Poulet Yassa be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Poulet Yassa recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Poulet Yassa safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Poulet Yassa take to make?
About 75 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 50 minutes cooking), serving 4.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.