A Hausa grilled-meat specialty in the suya family, but where suya leans on its peanut-spice crust, balangu is lamb or beef grilled naked over fire so the flavor is pure meat, fat, and smoke. Yaji spice mix is served on the side for dipping rather than baked on.
Also known as: balangu, labule, Hausa grilled meat, Nigerian balangu
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 800 g fatty beef or lamb (rump cap or shoulder), in broad 1 cm slabs
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp ground kuli-kuli or roasted peanut powder
- 2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 stock cube, crushed
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 2 tomatoes and 1/2 cucumber, chopped
How to make it
- 1
Season the meat slabs with salt only — no oil, no marinade — and let the grill flames climb high.
- 2
Lay the slabs over direct flame and cook 10-12 minutes, turning often, letting the fat catch and blister at the edges.
- 3
Rest 5 minutes, then snip into bite-size pieces with kitchen shears.
- 4
Stir the peanut powder, cayenne, ginger, garlic powder and stock cube into a dry yaji and serve it as a dip beside the meat, onion, tomato and cucumber.
Pro tip: Balangu is suya's minimalist cousin: the spice never touches the fire, so keep the yaji as a table dip where its peanut base stays fresh instead of scorched.
