KILISHI: NIGERIAN JERKY BEEF SNACK

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TRADITIONAL SUN DRIED KILISHI FROM NORTH NIGERIA
Kilishi is a dried beef snack ( a form of jerky (suya) meat) that originated from North Nigeria (Hausaland). The wafer thin sheets of lean meat is sun-dried then coated with spices (labu, pepper soup spices,honey etc) which are left to dry before being slow roasted on a wire mesh over glowing charcoal. The preserved meat can be kept for upto 6 months. Although the meat is traditional sun dried, you can 'somewhat' replicate the dish oven drying it in the comfort of your own home!

INGREDIENTS: 
  • Beef steak (lean meat) - ask your butcher to cut it into thin slices (about 1-3mm thick)
  • Ground Groundnut 
  • Ground Tiger nut
  • Ground ginger
  • Ground Garlic or garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp Ground cloves
  • Ground hot pepper 
  • Dried cayenne pepper seeds
  • Onion
  • Salt (optional)
  • Honey (optional)

METHOD

  • Grind the onion and garlic cloves (if using fresh) into a paste 
  • Put onion/garlic paste and all the ingredients into a bowl (apart from the pepper seeds, honey and meat). Add some water, stir and and mix thoroughly.
  • Sieve the mixture to get the liquid only (discard any lumpy pieces).
  • Then add the pepper seeds to the solution and keep aside. ​
  • Preheat your oven to the highest temperature setting.
  • ​Lightly grease the oven tray or line with baking sheet. Layer the meat flat onto a flat (spongecake) tray.
  • Put the tray with the meat into the oven and dry for about 10-15 minutes. Flip midway. 
  • When the meat is partially dry/cooked, remove from the oven. Using a pastry brush, stir the marinade and then apply the spice mix all over the dried meat, coating both sides. (Alternatively, if cooking a big batch, put all the marinade in a big bucket and just dip he whole piece of meat in it and remove after its been coated all over).
  • Return the meat back into the oven and grill for 2-3 minutes on one side, then flip over and grill on the next side for another 2-3 minutes before removing from the oven. The oven made one will be darker colour tone than the traditional sun dried one.
  • Remove and let it cool, ready to be served.

More information & tips

1) Using any other part of the meat apart from the lean part results in a hard to chew Kilishi.
2) All the spices mentioned here can be replaced by use of crushed Kuli kuli.
​3)The traditional process of making Kiliishi is a very tedious 3 step process and I have to admit, it is never fully replicated in the kitchen! In the first process, the wafer thin meat is sun dried in the hot sun for a whole day (about 5-7 hours depending how hot it is). In the second stage, the partially dried meat is then smothered with the combination of herbs and sometimes, honey, and then sun dried again for another day (another 5-7 hours dependng on the sun) . The final stage is the meat gets roasted over glowing ambers for 5-10 minutes to bring out the full kick of the spices and seasoning that will eventually burst and dance in your mouth. If you ever get to visit North parts of Nigeria, make sure to taste the real thing! The taste is never the same compared to the authentic sun dried one from Kanu! 

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CATEGORIES
MEAT
SNACKS & BITES
​​WEST AFRICA CUISINE