Suya Recipe: How to Make Suya at Home

How is suya made?

Suya is made by slicing beef very thin, coating it in oil and yaji, a dry spice built on ground peanuts, and threading it tightly onto wooden skewers. The skewers go over hot charcoal and are turned often until the edges char. The meat is then sliced and served with onion, tomato and extra spice.

At many roadside stalls the work starts hours before the grill is lit. Saveur describes the slices drizzled with groundnut oil, rubbed with yaji and left for three to four hours before they meet the fire. Serious Eats adds that many sellers grill the meat twice: once to cook it, then again just before serving, after a rest of a few hours that deepens the flavour.

At home one grilling is enough. The method below follows Ozoz Sokoh's Nigerian Beef Suya at Serious Eats, with our own amounts for four people. You need a sharp knife, a freezer, wooden skewers and, ideally, a charcoal grill outdoors; an oven grill or a griddle pan also works.

What do you need to make beef suya?

For four people you need about 800 g of lean beef, a little groundnut oil and a batch of yaji made from roasted peanuts, paprika, ginger, onion and garlic powder, chilli and salt. To serve, add red onion, tomatoes and cabbage. You also need about twelve wooden skewers and a hot charcoal grill.

Which cut is best for beef suya at home?

Choose a lean, tender cut with little connective tissue, such as sirloin, rump or flank; Serious Eats uses flank or sirloin. Trim off thick fat and any silvery sinew, because the slices are too thin and the cooking too quick for either to soften. Stewing cuts stay chewy on a fast grill.

The amounts in the table make about 100 g of yaji, a little under a cup: roughly three quarters coats the meat and the rest goes on the table. Cup measures are approximate; weigh the spices if you can.

What is in yaji spice?

Yaji is a dry, hot spice blend whose base is peanut: ground roasted peanuts, or kuli-kuli, a fried snack made from peanut paste with the oil pressed out. Chilli, ginger, garlic and onion go in with it, usually with salt and other spices. Recipes vary by cook, and there is no single standard version.

The Nigerian food writer Abi Olayiwola puts it plainly on her site Eat Well Abi: the one ingredient yaji must have is peanut, whether as whole peanuts, kuli-kuli or peanut powder. Wikipedia compares yaji to curry in having no standard recipe, and lists hot dried chillies, ginger, dried onion, kuli-kuli and salt among its usual parts.

Serious Eats explains how kuli-kuli is made: roasted groundnuts are ground almost to a butter, kneaded with water until the oil runs out, then shaped and deep-fried, which lets them keep at room temperature. Grains of selim, a smoked dried pod, are a common extra that adds a smoky note; ground black pepper stands in if you cannot find them.

A simple yaji spice recipe

Pulse 60 g of roasted unsalted peanuts, or broken kuli-kuli, in a spice grinder or food processor in short bursts until fine and sandy. Stop before it turns into paste: ground too long, peanuts release their oil and the spice clumps. If you can find neither, use the same weight of peanut powder, toasted in a dry pan until it turns from beige to light brown, then cooled.

Stir in 10 g paprika, 8 g ground ginger, 8 g onion powder, 4 g garlic powder, 3 g chilli powder and 6 g salt. Taste a pinch and add chilli a little at a time if you want more heat. Spoon it into a clean, dry, airtight jar, and set aside about a quarter for serving before you start on the meat.

What should you know before you cook suya?

Three things. Yaji is made from peanuts, so suya is not safe for anyone with a peanut allergy. Burn charcoal only outdoors, because it gives off carbon monoxide, a gas you cannot see or smell. And if you swap the beef for chicken, cook it all the way through before anyone eats it.

• Peanut allergy: the peanut is in the spice coat itself, so it cannot be scraped off. Tell guests before they eat, and keep the yaji jar and its spoon apart from other food. For an allergic guest you can make a coat without peanuts (see the questions below), using sunflower or another neutral oil in place of the groundnut oil, since unrefined groundnut oil can carry peanut protein. It is not traditional suya, and it is only safe if nothing on the grill, board or knife has touched peanuts.
• Charcoal outdoors only: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says never to burn charcoal indoors, and that burning charcoal gives off carbon monoxide whatever its colour, red, grey, black or white. Grill in the open air, never in a house, garage, tent or other enclosed space, and leave the coals outside until they are cold.
• Poultry cooked through: the US Department of Agriculture's safe minimum for all poultry is 74°C (165°F). Check the thickest piece with a food thermometer before serving.
• Raw meat: keep it in the fridge while it marinates, and put the cooked skewers on a clean plate, never back on the one that held them raw.

How do you make suya at home, step by step?

Firm the beef in the freezer, slice it thin against the grain, then coat it in oil and yaji and let it rest in the fridge. Thread it tightly onto soaked skewers, grill it over hot coals for about eight minutes, turning often, dust it with more spice, then rest it briefly and slice.

Allow about 1 hour 40 minutes from fridge to plate, most of it waiting while the beef firms and rests; the hands-on work is closer to 40 minutes. The timings for freezing, soaking, grilling and resting follow Serious Eats.

1. Firm and slice the beef

   Wrap the beef and freeze it for 20 to 30 minutes, until it is firm but not hard. With a sharp knife, cut it across the grain into strips about 3 mm thick, 5 cm long and 2 to 3 cm wide. Thin slices are the whole point: they cook fast and take the spice on every side.

2. Oil and season

   Put the slices in a bowl, drizzle over the groundnut oil and toss. Sprinkle over about three quarters of the yaji, roughly 75 g, and rub it in with your hands until every slice is coated. Then wash your hands before you touch the spice jar or the skewers.

3. Rest it

   Cover the bowl and leave it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, and up to a few hours, so the spice takes. Light the charcoal towards the end of this time.

4. Soak the skewers

   Soak twelve wooden skewers in cold water for 30 minutes while the meat rests, so they do not burn through on the grill.

5. Thread the meat

   Pierce each slice twice and push it down the stick, packing the slices close and folded so no bare wood shows except a handle of about 5 cm at the bottom.

6. Grill hot, turning

   Lay the skewers straight over the hottest coals and turn them every minute or so. They are done in about 8 minutes, when the edges are lightly charred and a piece cut in half is cooked through. Move them away from any flare-ups.

7. Dust with more spice

   As the skewers come off, sprinkle them with a little of the yaji you kept back, so a fresh, nutty layer sits on top of the grilled coat.

8. Rest and slice

   Rest the skewers on a clean plate for 2 to 3 minutes. Then slide the meat off and cut it into bite-size pieces, as a suya seller does, and serve it straight away.

How do you grill suya on a charcoal grill?

Light the charcoal and wait until the coals glow and are covered in grey ash. Spread them in an even bed and grill the skewers just above them, turning often. Keep one side of the grill without coals, so you can move skewers away from flare-ups. Always grill outdoors, in the open air.

Serious Eats starts with one full chimney starter of charcoal, poured out once every coal is covered with grey ash. For skewers it builds two rows of bricks either side of the coals and rests the sticks across them, so the meat hangs just above the heat with the handles overhanging the bricks nearest you. On an ordinary kettle grill, spread the coals over half the grate and keep the other half as a cooler zone.

Distance matters. Close to the coals, a few centimetres above them, the spice chars before the inside dries out. If the coat goes black within a minute, lift the grate or spread the coals; if nothing sizzles, the fire is not ready yet.

Oil and fat dripping onto the coals cause flare-ups. Do not throw water on them, which sends up ash; move the skewers to the cooler side until the flames die down, then carry on.

No charcoal grill? Use an oven grill, a gas grill or a griddle

Under a hot oven grill, set the skewers on a rack over a tray about 8 to 10 cm below the element and turn them once or twice, watching closely. On a gas grill, Serious Eats sets half the burners to high and cooks over direct heat. A ridged griddle pan, heated until it smokes lightly, works in batches. None gives the smoke of charcoal, but the spice still toasts. Never bring a charcoal grill or smouldering coals indoors to finish the job.

What do you serve suya with?

Serve suya with thinly sliced raw red onion, sliced tomatoes and shredded cabbage, plus a small dish of the yaji you kept back. At a stall it is often wrapped to take away; at home a platter works just as well, with cold drinks and, for a fuller meal, a starch on the side.

Saveur lists freshly sliced onions, tomatoes, diced cabbage and ground chillies as the usual sides. Wikipedia adds that the onion and tomato can be grilled or raw, and that suya is also eaten with rice, garri or ogi. Serious Eats suggests cucumber and now and then carrots, and its writer likes lettuce, coriander and lime, which she calls untraditional.

Drinks are a matter of taste: something cold, such as a chilled soft drink, a malt drink, water or beer, cuts through the pepper. For a gathering, slice the meat onto a board and set out the onion, tomato and spice so people can build their own plates.

Why is my suya tough or burnt?

Suya turns tough when the slices are too thick, the cut is sinewy or the meat stays on the fire too long. It burns when the coals are too close or too fierce, or when a wet, oily spice coat catches. Thin slices, a hot but steady fire and frequent turning fix most problems.

• Slices too thick: anything much over 3 mm needs longer on the fire, and the outside dries before the middle is done. Firm the meat in the freezer and use your sharpest knife.
• Cut along the grain: long muscle fibres make every bite chewy. Find the lines in the meat and slice across them.
• Heat too low: the meat stews in its own juices and turns grey instead of charring at the edges. Wait until the coals are glowing under a coat of ash.
• Heat too high or too close: the coat blackens before the meat cooks. Raise the skewers or spread the coals.
• Too much oil in the spice: peanuts ground to a paste, or extra oil poured on, make a wet coat that drips and flares. Grind the peanuts dry and sandy, and use only enough oil to make the spice stick.
• Left on too long: thin beef needs about 8 minutes in all. Take it off when a piece cut in half is just cooked through.

Can you practise the timing in a game?

Not the cooking, but the rhythm. Mai Suya is a browser game in which you run a Lagos suya stall at night: you keep the charcoal hot, flip each skewer inside a window of about 4 seconds and serve the queue. It is a game, not a cooking lesson, but turning skewers on time is its heart.

In the game, hotter coals cook faster but shrink the flip window to 2.857142857142857 seconds, much as a fierce real fire leaves less room for error. Play a night in your browser, or read what the suya game covers before you start.