Red Stew Chicken Parm recipe from Kwame Onwuachi's kitchen

Red Stew Chicken Parm sets a Nigerian pepper stew on top of a crisp, Italian-American fried cutlet, the kind of cross-cultural mash-up chef Kwame Onwuachi built his new cookbook, All Hours, around. The technique that matters most is patience with the stew: it needs to fry down, not simmer, until the oil separates and the flavor concentrates.

Onwuachi grew up between the Bronx, Louisiana and Nigeria, and his cooking rarely stays inside one tradition for long. This version keeps that instinct: a base sauce rooted in West African technique, finished the way a New York-Italian kitchen finishes a parm, under melted mozzarella and a shower of parmesan.

Ingredients

Two kitchens, one skillet: the stew does the talking, the crumb does the crunch.

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to 1cm thick
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 120g plain flour
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 150g panko breadcrumbs
• 50g grated parmesan, plus extra to finish
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• 3 tbsp red palm oil
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 3 red bell peppers, roughly chopped
• 2 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1-2 scotch bonnet peppers, to taste
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp ground crayfish (optional)
• 200g fresh mozzarella, sliced
• A handful of fresh basil leaves

Method

1. Blend the onion, bell peppers, tomatoes, scotch bonnet and garlic into a coarse purée, not a smooth one. The texture matters: a Nigerian stew keeps some bite, unlike a passata.
2. Heat the red palm oil in a wide pan until it turns from deep red to a lighter orange. This step cooks out the oil's raw edge, which otherwise carries through the whole stew.
3. Add the purée and fry it down over medium heat for 20-25 minutes, stirring often, until it darkens and the oil visibly separates at the edges. This reduction, not a quick simmer, is what concentrates the pepper and tomato into something worth spooning over fried chicken. Season with salt and the crayfish, if using.
4. Season the chicken, then dredge each piece in flour, dip in egg, and press into the panko mixed with the 50g of parmesan.
5. Shallow-fry the cutlets in vegetable oil over medium-high heat, 3-4 minutes a side, until golden and cooked through. Drain briefly on paper.
6. Spoon the red stew generously over each cutlet, lay mozzarella slices on top, and cover the pan for 2-3 minutes off the heat, or run under a hot grill, until the cheese melts.
7. Finish with basil, a final grating of parmesan, and serve straight from the pan.

Serve it the way the book intends: any hour

All Hours, out September 22 from Knopf, shares its premise with Onwuachi's own cookbook launch: a good recipe doesn't need to wait for dinner. This Red Stew Chicken Parm recipe holds up over rice as easily as pasta, and the stew keeps well enough in the fridge to fry a single cutlet at midnight rather than a full batch for four.