Baked African Sweet Potato Chicken

by Sabrina Snyder

Last Update:

4 Comments

5 from 3 votes
6 Servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
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Baked African Sweet Potato Chicken is made with sweet and spicy flavors, chicken, mangoes, peanut butter, sweet potatoes, and cayenne.

This amazing Dinner Recipe combines Baked Chicken Thighs, sweet potatoes, and mangoes all cooked together in a flavorful West African-style peanut sauce.

Sabrina’s Baked African Sweet Potato Chicken

This chicken thigh recipe makes a hearty meal with lots of delicious spices, veggies, and crispy chicken. It’s the perfect not-too-spicy chicken dish that everyone is sure to love. The meat bakes along with other fresh ingredients like sweet potatoes, mangoes, tomatoes, and onions. Baking with the juicy and rich ingredients makes the perfect fall-apart tender chicken thighs with deliciously crispy skin.

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Baked African Sweet Potato Chicken Recipe

Baked African Sweet Potato Chicken is made with sweet and spicy flavors, chicken, mangoes, peanut butter, sweet potatoes, and cayenne.
Yield 6 Servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine African
Author Sabrina Snyder
chicken and sweet potatoes on a serving spoon.
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Ingredients
 

  • 6 chicken thighs , bone-in, and skin on
  • 2 teaspoons coriander
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
  • 4 tablespoons vegetable oil , divided
  • 1/2 red onion , diced
  • 2 sweet potatoes , peeled and diced (about 1 pound)
  • 1 cup diced mango , frozen is fine
  • 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 14 ounces diced tomatoes , do not drain
  • 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.
  • Season the chicken with coriander, salt, turmeric, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
  • Add the vegetable oil to a large skillet on medium-high heat.
  • Add onions to the skillet and cook for 3-4 minutes until softened.
  • Add in the sweet potatoes, mango, peanut butter, diced tomatoes (with liquids), and soy sauce.
  • Cook for 4-5 minutes until the sauce is simmering.
  • Pour the vegetable mixture into the bottom of the baking dish.
  • Place chicken thighs, skin side up, into the baking dish.
  • Cook, uncovered for 45-50 minutes until skin is browned and crispy.

Nutrition

Calories: 694kcal | Carbohydrates: 53g | Protein: 31g | Fat: 41g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 12g | Monounsaturated Fat: 16g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 142mg | Sodium: 706mg | Potassium: 814mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 15233IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 99mg | Iron: 5mg

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About this Recipe

There’s a little bit of hands-on time in this recipe while you prep the sweet potatoes and sauce in a skillet. Then that mixture just goes into the oven along with the chicken to finish. It’s as simple as it is delicious!

Chef’s Note: Make It Into A Stew

It’s hard to think of more comforting food to enjoy during the winter than a hearty, warm stew, like Vegetable Beef Stew. If you have leftovers of Baked African Sweet Potato Chicken, you can repurpose it to make an equally comforting chicken stew. 

To make the Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew, add ¼ cup white wine and 4 cups chicken broth to a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Whisk together a cornstarch slurry and mix it into the broth to thicken. Slice leftover chicken off the bone, then add the leftovers to the pot. Continue to simmer until warmed through. You can add any spices or extra veggies that you’d like. 

Pairing Ideas

During the oven time, you can prep easy side dishes for the meal. Thanks to the sweet potatoes, fruits, and vegetables already in the recipe, you don’t have to worry too much about sides. It’s already filling and has a variety of flavors and textures. But the Chicken Thigh recipe would go great with something simple like rice. Brown rice or cauliflower rice would all work well. You could also serve the meal up with your favorite veggies, like Roasted Root Vegetables.

How to Store

  • Serve: After cooking, Baked African Sweet Potato Chicken can stay at room temperature for up to 2 hours. 
  • Store: Let the dish cool down completely before you transfer the chicken and potatoes to a ziplock bag or another airtight container to store in the fridge for 3-4 days. 
  • Freeze: You can also make this dish ahead of time and freeze it for easy meal prep. As long as you carefully seal the dish, it will stay good frozen for up to 4 months.

Variations

  • Spicy sauce: To add some extra heat to the recipe, you can mix a little sriracha sauce into the peanut sauce. Remember that a little hot sauce goes a long way, so add it slowly according to your taste.
  • Vegetables: For more additional ingredients, add some extra veggies like bell peppers, carrots, or corn.
  • Flavor add-ins: To give the recipe extra flavorful ingredients, grate some ginger root for a fresh ginger flavor. You could also add fresh cilantro, cumin, red pepper flakes, onion powder, and oregano.
  • Garlic: For some bold garlicky flavor add 2-4 minced garlic cloves in with the onion, and cook until fragrant.

More Delicious Baked Chicken Recipes

Baked African Sweet Potatoes and Chicken collage

Photos used in previous versions of the post:

Baked chicken thighs and sweet potatoes in a white pan
Chopped sweet potatoes, red onions, and mangoes
White dish of chicken and sweet potatoes
Spoon scooping chicken thigh
Plated chicken, potatoes, and mangoes
African chicken dish shown from above on a white plate

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. I have made multiple dishes that use similar flavors to this one, but this recipe is FAR superior!! One of the most delicious meals I have ever made. Thank you!!!

    Reply

  3. So good! African dishes are tasty. Looking for African stew,-3 meats, quartered corn on cob, carrots, potatos, string beans, and Pecos degallo topper! Wooo! Lost my recipe a long time ago.

    Reply