Haitian Bouillon is somewhere between a soup and a stew. Usually made with beef, in our house it is only made with chicken. The meat is stewed with herbs and spices, similar to Poul ak Nwa (a traditional Haitian dish with stewed chicken and cashews), and served with vegetables and viv (called “clause” in the English-speaking Caribbean, often referred to as starchy vegetables) simmered together. This is the recipe I made for me most of the time after I gave birth to my daughter. While I usually prefer to keep the process as simple as possible, I’ll acknowledge tradition here: It’s best to cook the food separately, letting the chicken create a rich broth that is then enhanced by the starch in the food’s cooking liquid.
yellow yams, Dioscorea– nothing like the stuff you use at Thanksgiving – will start to change color once exposed to air, so place the cut pieces in a bowl of cold water and bring to a boil. Potato slices also color immediately and break easily, so it’s best to cook them separately and add them at the end. Other effective foods are cassava, taro or malanga. If you don’t have access to these tubers, which can be found in Caribbean, African, and sometimes even Asian grocery stores, regular potatoes (such as Russets and Yukon Golds) and Japanese sweet potatoes are good substitutes. Any green plant will work well in addition to or in place of watercress. Try spinach, shredded kale, collard greens or Swiss chard. If you are using hardier greens, boil them for a few minutes before serving. This recipe uses chef and cookbook author Gregory Gourdet’s Epis recipe for his bean-and-rice dish Diri Kole ak Pwa, which appears in the February 2022 issue of Bon Appétit; you can also use the recipe I wrote for the site version.
Some helpful tips: To peel a plantain, cut off the ends, then cut the skin lengthwise, being careful not to cut into the flesh. Place your thumb (or small spoon) under the skin and pull up along the slit. The skin will fall off in large strips.
To cut bone-in chicken thighs, place them skin side down on a cutting board. Using a heavy-duty chef’s knife, make an slit where you want to cut the meat. Focus on this area (like you would in a yoga class), hold the knife tightly, pull back, and land firmly on the spot you marked. You may need to do this a few times, but the knife will cut through the bone and you’ll be surprised at how well you can hit the same spot over and over again.
Read more: Bouyon, who took me to Haiti after giving birth
