Kenya and Tanzania's 'roast meat' tradition: goat or beef grilled slowly over charcoal with little more than salt, carved at the table, and eaten by hand with kachumbari salsa and ugali. Skewered and chopped variants are sold everywhere from roadside jikos to dedicated choma zones.
Also known as: nyama choma, choma meat, Kenyan grilled goat, nyama choma kebab
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 1 kg goat or beef with some bone and fat, in 5 cm chunks
- 2 tsp coarse salt
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 1 red onion, finely sliced
- 1 green chili, minced
- juice of 1 lime
- handful fresh coriander, chopped
- ugali or bread, to serve
How to make it
- 1
Salt the meat generously and thread the big chunks onto sturdy skewers — nothing else touches it.
- 2
Cook well away from moderate coals, 25-35 minutes, turning every 5; the goal is a slowly rendered crust, not a quick sear.
- 3
While it cooks, mix tomatoes, onion, chili, lime and coriander into kachumbari and let it sit so the onion mellows.
- 4
Rest the meat 5 minutes, chop into bite-size pieces on a board, re-season with a pinch of salt and serve beside the kachumbari.
Pro tip: Kenyan choma is eaten closer to well-done than medium — judge it by rendered fat and a mahogany crust, not by pinkness.
