Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Caldo de Mancarra
Guinea-Bissau’s beloved peanut stew: chicken browned and simmered in a creamy groundnut and tomato broth with sweet potato and okra, ladled over white rice.
Bissau-Guinean · medium · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 55 min
~976 cal · 85g protein · 42g carbs · 52g fat · 10g fiber · 15g sugars · 11g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Caldo de mancarra is one of Guinea-Bissau’s national dishes, a rich groundnut stew whose name comes from mancarra, the local word for peanuts. It carries the country’s history in a bowl: a West African base of pounded peanuts and chili married to the tomatoes, onions and one-pot rice culture left by Portuguese trade.
Chicken (or fish, the coastal alternative) is browned, then simmered in a broth thickened with smooth peanut paste and softened with tomato, onion, ginger and sweet potato. gives body near the end, and a whole chili floats in the pot to season without overwhelming. As it cooks the oil rises and the sauce turns glossy and generous.
It is always served over plain white rice, which drinks up the sauce. Make it a little looser than a stew, closer to a rich, spoonable broth, the way the name suggests.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, 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
1 kg bone-in chicken pieces
1 cup smooth peanut butter (or peanuts ground to a paste)
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 large onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
2 medium sweet potato, cubed
1 cup , sliced
1 whole hot chili (left whole)
2 tbsp neutral or
5 cups chicken or vegetable
1 tbsp lime juice
as needed white rice, to serve
Instructions
1
Season the chicken with salt and pepper and brown it in the oil in a large pot, then set aside.
2
In the same pot, soften the onions, garlic and ginger, then add the tomatoes and cook down to a thick base.
3
Whisk the peanut butter with a cup of the warm stock until smooth, then stir it into the pot with the rest of the stock, the chicken, sweet potato and the whole chili.
✎ Chef’s note
Whisking the peanut paste with warm stock first stops it seizing into lumps.
4
Simmer gently, uncovered, until the chicken is tender and the sweet potato soft, about 40 minutes, stirring now and then so the peanut does not catch.
5
Add the okra and cook 10 minutes more until the broth thickens and oil rises to the top. Stir in the lime juice, adjust salt, and serve over white rice.
Guinea-Bissau national dish.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Bissau. Rice is grown here rather than only imported, in tidal paddies worked along the coastal creeks and out in the Bijagos islands, and it is the base of nearly every meal. The Portuguese left bread and the habit of a caldo; the cassava, okra and smoked fish keep it firmly West African.
🗺️
Guinea-Bissau. Caldo de mancarra is the peanut stew and caldo de chabeu the one built on palm fruit, both poured over rice, which is the staple here in a way cassava is not. The country is a coast of mangrove creeks and a scatter of low islands, the Bijagos, so rice is grown in tidal paddies behind dykes and fish is what most sauces are built on.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Guinea-Bissau
Caldo de PeixeA Guinea-Bissau fish-and-rice pot simmered with palm oil, tomato, and greens in one dish.
FidjósBissau breakfast fritters: a mashed-banana and flour batter fried into small golden puffs, sold in paper cones on the morning streets.
ChabéuFish simmered in a thick red palm-nut sauce with onion, tomato, and chili, served over rice, a signature dish of Guinea-Bissau.
Browse all Guinea-Bissau recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Whisk.
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 Guinea-Bissau meal
Doce de Papaia (Papaya Sweet)Dessert
ChabéuLunch
Similar dishes from around the world
Moamba de Ginguba (Peanut Chicken Stew)Angola
Poulet à la MoambeRepublic of the Congo
Pollo con Salsa de CacahueteEquatorial Guinea
Granat Stew (Groundnut Stew)Sierra Leone
Dovi (Chicken Peanut Stew)Zimbabwe
Muamba de GalinhaAngola
Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Caldo de Mancarra?
Guinea-Bissau’s beloved peanut stew: chicken browned and simmered in a creamy groundnut and tomato broth with sweet potato and okra, ladled over white rice.
Where does Caldo de Mancarra come from?
Caldo de Mancarra is a Bissau-Guinean dish from Bissau, Guinea-Bissau.
Can Caldo de Mancarra be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Caldo de Mancarra 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 Caldo de Mancarra 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 Caldo de Mancarra take to make?
About 75 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 55 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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