Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Koklo Meme
Charcoal-grilled chicken marinated with ginger, garlic and chili, Togo's most famous dish, served with a fiery tomato-pepper sauce.
Togolese · easy · serves 4
prep 20 min · cook 40 min
~700 cal · 87g protein · 11g carbs · 31g fat · 2g fiber · 3g sugars · 7g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Koklo meme means grilled chicken in Ewe, and it is Togo's most famous dish, the star of gatherings, weddings and festivals across the south of the country and into neighbouring Ghana. Whole chicken pieces are marinated in a paste of ginger, garlic and , then grilled over charcoal until the skin chars and smokes.
Red or a little vegetable oil in the marinade helps the chicken colour and gives it a West African depth, and the marinade is worked under the skin and into every cut so the flavour reaches the meat. The essential companion is a spicy, tangy tomato-pepper sauce served on the side.
It is eaten with the hands, with grilled onion, fried or a mound of akume, and it is above all celebration food.
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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
1 (about 3 lb) whole chicken, cut in pieces
2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 peppers, blended
1 lime, juiced
3 tbsp red (or )
1 onion, in thick rings
to taste salt and pepper
Instructions
1
Blend the ginger, garlic, half the scotch bonnet, the lime juice, oil, salt and pepper into a marinade.
2
Rub it all over the chicken (or mushrooms), working it under the skin and into the cuts, and marinate at least 2 hours, ideally overnight.
✎ Chef’s note
Get the marinade under the skin and into slashes in the meat, or only the surface tastes of it.
3
Grill over medium charcoal, turning regularly, for 30 to 40 minutes until charred and the juices run clear.
4
Char the onion rings alongside for the last few minutes.
5
Rest 5 minutes and serve with a fiery tomato-pepper sauce and fried plantains or akume.
Lomé Ewe cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Lomé. Lome is a beachfront capital fond of gboma dessi, spinach stewed down with tomato, palm oil, and fish or beef. Togolese cooking shares West African staples of fufu, akple cornmeal, and groundnut sauces with a strong coastal seafood habit.
🗺️
Togo. Gboma is the leaf of Solanum macrocarpon, the African eggplant, and spinach is a working substitute rather than the same plant; the stew made from it, gboma dessi, is Ghana's and Benin's shoko under another name. The dough beside it is akoume, also called to, the same word used for the millet and sorghum staples further north in the Sahel.
🌍
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 Togo
Gboma DessiA rich Togolese spinach stew simmered with tomato, red palm oil, and beef or fish.
AyimolouA one-pot of rice and beans cooked together and served with a spicy pepper sauce, Togo's breakfast.
DjenkouméA savory red maize-meal paste cooked with tomato and palm oil, served with grilled chicken, a Togolese celebration favorite.
Browse all Togo recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Grill or barbecue, Blender.
Storing it: Best straight off the heat. Leftovers keep 2 to 3 days refrigerated and reheat well in a hot oven rather than the microwave.
Make it a Togo meal
Galidossi (Gari and Milk Dessert)Dessert
Akume with Ademe SauceLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Koklo Meme?
Charcoal-grilled chicken marinated with ginger, garlic and chili, Togo's most famous dish, served with a fiery tomato-pepper sauce.
Where does Koklo Meme come from?
Koklo Meme is a Togolese dish from Lomé, Togo.
Can Koklo Meme be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Koklo Meme 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 Koklo Meme 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 Koklo Meme take to make?
About 60 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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