Sunday Roast Chicken With Lemongrass & Coconut Rice

This is something that has become a Sunday tradition for me and my family in Brooklyn. Even the herb seasoning arrives with my mother on her visits, and it gives me an enormous sense of joy to share it with you. Serve this with any of the condiments and sauces from the previous chapters.

With coconut rice

Manshanu is a clarified fat made from fresh unpasteurized cow’s milk. It is used in northern Nigerian cuisine to add creaminess and gloss to a variety of dishes. Its silky texture make it ideal for sautéing ingredients or finishing sauces. A locally made ingredient, manshanu is sometimes bulked up by combining it with raw animal fat. Pure clarified milk fat versions are available but more expensive. Since fresh unpasteurized cow’s milk can be difficult to come by in Brooklyn, this recipe starts with a pound of butter and slightly browns the milk solids to give the butter a gentle, nutty fragrance. Manshanu, like other clarified butters such as ghee, has a high smoke point and will keep well for up to six months refrigerated. I use it generously in Móín Móị́ n, to cook Sinasir, and to finish Dan Wake

This blend of dried herbs and spices is named after my mother, Omotunde Rhoda Komolafe, who never travels without it. She sprinkles it on everything from eggs to chicken, and rubs it on whole fish and vegetables. It reminds me of her garden—an extraordinary plot of flowers, herbs, ferns, fruit trees, and leafy greens that surrounds the house. The care she takes in drying and milling these ingredients means you probably won’t find anything like this in the markets of Lagos, but I want you to know it as closely as I do. Herbs and flower petals are crushed to give it a coarse consistency, which makes it ideal for both low- and medium-temperature baking and roasting.\

Reprinted with permission from My Everyday Lagos by Yewande Komolafe copyright © 2023. Photographs by Kelly Marshall. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.