Doro Wat

Method

1. marinate20 min
   room temperature
   chicken + lemon juice + 0.5 tsp salt, slashed to the bone so the acid and later the sauce reach the interior — the skin is pulled off first because doro wat has no browning stage for the meat and skin left on turns to slack rubber in the stew
2. caramelize50 min
   dry pot, no fat, medium-low, stirring every few minutes
   onion alone, past soft, past golden, until the pile has shrunk by two-thirds and gone jam-brown and sticky. Salt and fat both stall this: fat seals the cell walls so the onion fries instead of collapsing, so the pot stays dry. When the bottom starts to catch, add a splash of water and scrape — that fond dissolved back in is most of the color of the finished dish. Most cooks stop here twenty minutes early; that is the difference between doro wat and chicken in red sauce
3. saute6 min
   medium-low
   + niter kibbeh + garlic + ginger, stirring, until the butter separates out around the onion and the raw garlic smell is gone
4. toast5 min
   low, constant stirring
   + berbere + black pepper + cardamom + fenugreek, worked into the fat until the paste darkens and smells sweet rather than dusty. Berbere is mostly chili and it scorches in seconds on high heat, turning the whole pot bitter with no way back — keep the flame low and the spoon moving
5. stew45 min
   bare simmer, partially covered
   + chicken + warm water added a half cup at a time as the sauce tightens, turning the pieces twice. The sauce should stay thick enough to coat the meat; water added all at once dilutes the onion base and it never re-thickens into the same texture
6. score2 min
   eggs, cut shallow lengthwise slits around each one so the sauce penetrates instead of sliding off the sealed white
7. simmer10 min
   low, uncovered
   + scored eggs nestled into the sauce + remaining salt to taste, until the eggs stain red through the slits and a film of spiced butter pools on the surface = the sign the wat has reduced far enough