West Africa · Street food
Kilishi (Thin Sun-Dried Spiced Beef Jerky)
Paper-thin sheets of beef sun-dried, saturated in a spiced peanut and chili paste, and flash-grilled over glowing acacia coals.
The story
A celebrated Hausa preserved meat delicacy enjoyed year-round across urban centers like Zinder and Niamey. Perfected centuries ago by pastoral butchers to preserve surplus beef during the dry harmattan winds, it is today a prized street food and luxury traveler snack. The central technical brilliance lies in the labu—a spiced slurry of defatted roasted peanut flour and alliums that completely infuses the dehydrated beef fibers before brief coal roasting.
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