Nigeria – Kilishi

by Mimi Joseph

Nigeria is a country blessed with tastes from many places, this one comes from Northern Nigeria, it’s a beef jerky. Nigeria is a country located in the western part of Africa, being bordered with Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Kilishi is a beef jerky prepared through two main steps, including sliced beef into very thin layered pieces and then dried well but not to crispy form, the last step includes marinate it in a solution of herbs, veggies and spices to give it a taste.

Prepare the followings

• 1 kg of beef (carefully cut to 10 pieces wafer-thin)
• Nigerian suya spice 1 tbsp
• Salt
• Cayenne pepper seed
• Cloves 1 tbsp
• Garlic 2 pieves
• Ginger 1/4 tbsp

Making steps

• The Kilishi pieces are in 3 mm thin and they are extracted from the reddest part of the beef, usually no fat part is required. Before you proceed to the next step, remove any fat traces in the fillets.
• Grind ginger and garlic, then separately grind cloves.
• Mix them well with a little amount of water and sieve to have a clear solution.
• Add suya and cayenne stir well.
• Traditionally the fillets are dried in the sun fro about 2 days, but if you have an oven, this may take less minutes. Set your oven to 250°C (475F).
• Place the fillets on a plate, sprinkle a little amount of salt and spread through to both sides. If you don’t prefer salt, then no need to add any.
• Place the fillets on the baking sheet on the oven, put it inside the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Turn them side by side after every 5 minutes for well dry.
• Traditionally once dried on sun, they soak in solution followed by either grilling or sun baking again.
• After baking time, take each and brush the solution over both sides and return them in the oven for about 10 minutes. Keep turn them side by side to dry well, be careful so that they won’t go crispy. Kilishi gets dry when cool, be alerted with that.
• After all these procedures our cuisine is ready, enjoy with any drink you prefer. Some other people roast it in small pieces and consume with rice or bread.