[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":405},["ShallowReactive",2],{"recipe:dibi":3,"recipe:country:senegal":179},{"slug":4,"title":5,"nativeName":6,"pronunciation":7,"countrySlug":8,"region":9,"emoji":10,"summary":11,"intro":12,"story":13,"whyThis":14,"tips":19,"substitutions":26,"variations":39,"serveWith":49,"storage":51,"faq":52,"equipment":68,"baseServings":72,"prepMinutes":73,"cookMinutes":74,"restMinutes":75,"difficulty":76,"course":77,"diet":80,"mainIngredients":83,"ingredients":87,"instructions":133,"nutrition":160,"images":166,"keywords":170,"publishedAt":177,"updatedAt":177,"authorSlug":178},"dibi","Dibi (Senegalese Charcoal-Grilled Lamb with Onions)","Dibi","DEE-bee","senegal","Dakar","🔥","Lamb ribs and shoulder grilled hard over charcoal, chopped on the board and buried under warm mustard-and-lemon onions, eaten with bread and nothing else.","Dibi is grilled lamb, chopped rather than carved, served under a heap of onions cooked down with mustard and lemon until they are soft and tart. There is no sauce beyond that and no side beyond bread. The lamb is seasoned simply — oil, garlic, pepper, a smear of mustard — because the flavour is supposed to come from fat dripping onto coals and smoke coming back up. What arrives at the table is a paper-lined tray of dark, crisp-edged meat, sharp onions and a torn baguette, and the whole thing is eaten with your hands while it is still spitting hot.","A dibiterie is a specific kind of place: a small grill house, often no more than a doorway, a charcoal pit and a chopping block, that opens in the late afternoon and works until the lamb runs out. They cluster along the busy streets of Dakar and every other Senegalese town, and the smoke drifting into the road is the advertising. You point at what you want, it is weighed, grilled and chopped, and it comes back wrapped in paper with onions on top and bread on the side.\n\nThe format is shared across the Sahel — Nigerien and Malian dibi, and the closely related suya of Nigeria and Niger, which uses a groundnut and spice rub rather than onions — and the shared thread is sheep. Livestock herding across the dry belt of West Africa makes lamb and mutton the celebratory meat, and Senegal in particular eats it heavily around Tabaski, when families slaughter a ram and grilling continues for days.\n\nThe onions deserve more attention than they usually get. They are not raw and not caramelised: they are cooked in a covered pan with mustard, lemon juice and a little water until they collapse but stay pale and keep their acidity, which makes them function as sauce, salad and condiment simultaneously. It is the same principle that drives yassa, applied to grilled meat instead of braised chicken, and it explains why dibi tastes lighter than a plate of grilled lamb has any right to.",[15,16,17,18],"Keeps the meat seasoning deliberately plain, because smoke and fat are meant to be the flavour rather than a spice rub.","Cooks the onions to the exact stage a dibiterie uses — collapsed but pale and still sharp — instead of caramelising them.","Gives a working oven-grill method for anyone without charcoal, and says plainly what it costs you.","Uses ribs and shoulder together, so there is both crisp fat and meat that stays juicy.",[20,21,22,23,24,25],"Ask for lamb ribs and shoulder chops on the bone. Boneless cubes dry out over direct heat, and the fat around the ribs is what makes dibi taste like dibi.","Bring the meat to room temperature before it hits the grill. Cold lamb burns on the outside while the centre is still cool.","Build a two-zone fire with the coals banked to one side. Sear over the hot side, then move the meat across to finish, or you will be putting out flare-ups all evening.","The lamb is ready when the fat has rendered and crisped at the edges and the meat springs back with a little give when pressed — pink at the bone is right, grey all the way through is not.","Chop the meat on a board rather than serving it whole. The mix of bone, crisp fat and pink centre in every mouthful is the whole idea, and it also lets the onions get in among it.","Rest the chopped lamb under the hot onions for a minute before eating. The juices and the lemon meet in the bottom of the tray, and that is what you mop up with the bread.",[27,31,35],{"original":28,"swap":29,"note":30},"Charcoal grill","Oven grill on its highest setting, meat 10 cm from the element","You will get browning and rendered fat but no smoke. Add a quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika to the rub to compensate — imperfect, but better than pretending.",{"original":32,"swap":33,"note":34},"Lamb ribs and shoulder","Mutton, goat, or thick-cut lamb leg steaks","Goat is common at dibiteries and needs slightly gentler heat and a few minutes longer, since it carries less fat.",{"original":36,"swap":37,"note":38},"Dijon mustard","English mustard, halved in quantity","English mustard is much hotter, so use half and taste before adding more, or the onions will overwhelm the lamb.",[40,43,46],{"name":41,"description":42},"Dibi hausa","The version rubbed with a groundnut and chilli powder before grilling, closer to Nigerian suya. Drier, spicier, and often served with the same onions on the side.",{"name":44,"description":45},"Dibi with kaani","Skip the cooked onions and serve with the raw lime-and-chilli onion sauce instead. Sharper and much hotter, and the standard choice for anyone who wants the meat to lead.",{"name":47,"description":48},"Chicken dibi","The same treatment applied to bone-in chicken thighs, grilled skin side down until the skin blisters. Cheaper, faster, and common at smaller dibiteries.",[50],"Torn baguette, a bowl of chilli sauce, and cold bissap or a bottle of ginger juice.","Grilled lamb is at its best within minutes of leaving the coals and does not improve with keeping, but leftovers refrigerate for 2 days and are very good chopped into a baguette cold. Reheat in a hot dry pan for 2 minutes rather than in a microwave, which turns the crisp fat rubbery. The onions keep 4 days in a jar in the fridge and are worth making a double batch of, since they suit roast chicken and grilled fish just as well.",[53,56,59,62,65],{"question":54,"answer":55},"What cut of lamb should I buy for dibi?","Ribs and shoulder on the bone, ideally both. Ribs give crisp rendered fat and shoulder gives meat that stays juicy over high heat. Ask a butcher to cut the shoulder into thick chops rather than cubes — bone and fat are what protect the meat from drying out over live fire.",{"question":57,"answer":58},"Can I make dibi without a charcoal grill?","You can get close under a very hot oven grill or on a ridged cast-iron pan, and the onions carry a lot of the dish. What you lose is smoke, which is genuinely part of the flavour rather than a nice extra. A quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika in the rub is a partial substitute and no one will mistake it for the real thing.",{"question":60,"answer":61},"Should the onions be caramelised?","No. Dibiterie onions are cooked covered with mustard, lemon and a splash of water until they slump but stay pale, so they keep their acidity and act as a sauce. Browning them makes them sweet, which fights the lamb rather than cutting it. Keep the heat moderate and the lid on for most of the cooking.",{"question":63,"answer":64},"How do I know when the lamb is done?","The fat should be visibly rendered and crisping at the edges, the surface deeply browned in patches, and the meat should spring back with slight give when pressed. Ribs take around 12 minutes over a two-zone fire, thick shoulder chops a few minutes longer. A little pink at the bone is correct and expected.",{"question":66,"answer":67},"What is served with dibi in Senegal?","Bread and nothing else, most of the time. A dibiterie hands over the chopped meat and onions in paper with a baguette, sometimes a bowl of chilli sauce, and that is the meal. Rice or chips appear in sit-down restaurants but are not part of the street version.",[69,70,71],"Charcoal grill with a lid, or an oven grill","Heavy pan with a lid for the onions","Large chopping board and a heavy knife or cleaver",4,20,30,120,"easy",[78,79],"street-food","main",[81,82],"dairy-free","halal-friendly",[84,85,86],"lamb","onion","lemon",[88,93,97,99,103,107,110,115,116,117,120,123,127,130],{"ref":84,"qty":89,"unit":90,"name":91,"group":92},1.3,"kg","lamb ribs and shoulder chops, on the bone","For the lamb",{"qty":94,"unit":95,"name":96,"group":92},3,"tbsp","groundnut oil",{"qty":98,"unit":95,"name":36,"group":92},1,{"ref":100,"qty":72,"unit":101,"name":102,"group":92},"garlic","clove","garlic, crushed to a paste with salt",{"ref":104,"qty":98,"unit":105,"name":106,"group":92},"black-pepper","tsp","coarsely ground black pepper",{"qty":108,"unit":105,"name":109,"group":92},2,"fine salt",{"ref":85,"qty":111,"unit":112,"name":113,"group":114},700,"g","onions, sliced lengthways","For the onions",{"qty":108,"unit":95,"name":96,"group":114},{"qty":108,"unit":95,"name":36,"group":114},{"ref":86,"qty":108,"unit":118,"name":119,"group":114},"piece","lemons, juiced",{"ref":121,"qty":98,"unit":95,"name":122,"group":114},"vinegar","white vinegar",{"ref":124,"qty":98,"unit":118,"name":125,"optional":126,"group":114},"scotch-bonnet","scotch bonnet, finely chopped",true,{"ref":128,"qty":98,"unit":118,"name":129,"group":114},"bay-leaf","bay leaf",{"qty":108,"unit":118,"name":131,"group":132},"baguettes, torn into lengths","To serve",[134,139,144,148,152,157],{"title":135,"text":136,"timerSeconds":137,"tip":138},"Rub the lamb and leave it","Mix the oil, mustard, garlic paste, pepper and salt into a loose rub and work it over every surface of the lamb, pushing it between the ribs. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, then take the meat out 30 minutes before grilling.",7200,"Keep the rub thin. A thick coating burns before the fat underneath has a chance to render.",{"title":140,"text":141,"timerSeconds":142,"tip":143},"Cook the onions soft and sharp","Warm the oil in a heavy pan over medium heat, add the onions, bay leaf and a good pinch of salt, cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring twice, until they have collapsed and gone translucent without taking on colour.",900,"If they start to brown at the edges, drop the heat and add a splash of water. Pale is the target here.",{"title":145,"text":146,"timerSeconds":147},"Finish the onions with mustard and lemon","Stir in the mustard, lemon juice, vinegar and chopped chilli with 100 ml water and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes, until the liquid has reduced to a slick coating and the onions taste bracingly sour with a mustard bite behind it. Keep them warm.",300,{"title":149,"text":150,"tip":151},"Set up a two-zone fire","Light the charcoal and, when the coals are covered in grey ash, rake them to one side of the grill so you have a hot zone and a cooler one. Set the grate over the top and let it heat for 5 minutes before the meat goes on.","You should be able to hold a hand 10 cm above the hot side for only 2 or 3 seconds.",{"title":153,"text":154,"timerSeconds":155,"tip":156},"Grill the lamb hard, then finish gently","Sear the lamb over the hot coals for 3 minutes a side, until the surface is browned in patches and the fat crackles, then move it to the cooler zone, cover and cook for 8 to 12 minutes more, turning once, until the fat has rendered and crisped and the meat springs back with slight give.",720,"Flare-ups mean the fat is dripping onto live coals. Move the piece across rather than dousing the fire.",{"title":158,"text":159,"timerSeconds":147},"Chop and bury under the onions","Rest the lamb for 5 minutes, then chop it on a board straight through the bone into rough bite-sized pieces. Pile it onto a paper-lined tray, spoon the hot onions over until the meat is barely visible, and serve immediately with torn bread.",{"calories":161,"protein":162,"carbs":163,"fat":164,"fiber":72,"sodium":165,"estimated":126},660,44,34,38,940,[167],{"src":168,"alt":169},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fdibi\u002Fhero.svg","Chopped charred lamb pieces on paper covered with pale softened onions, torn baguette beside the tray",[4,171,172,173,174,175,176],"dibiterie","grilled lamb","senegalese barbecue","charcoal lamb","mustard onions","street food","2026-08-20","dishroute-kitchen",{"items":180,"total":186,"page":98,"limit":403,"hasMore":404},[181,210,217,240,267,288,311,334,357,381],{"slug":182,"title":183,"nativeName":184,"countrySlug":8,"region":9,"baseServings":185,"prepMinutes":186,"cookMinutes":187,"restMinutes":188,"difficulty":76,"course":189,"diet":191,"mainIngredients":196,"images":199,"keywords":203,"publishedAt":177,"updatedAt":177,"authorSlug":178},"bissap","Bissap (Senegalese Hibiscus Iced Drink)","Bissap",6,10,15,90,[190],"drink",[192,193,194,81,195],"vegetarian","vegan","gluten-free","nut-free",[197,198],"mint","lime",[200],{"src":201,"alt":202},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fbissap\u002Fhero.svg","Tall glass of deep ruby hibiscus drink over ice with a mint sprig, jug of the same drink behind it",[182,204,205,206,207,208,209],"hibiscus drink","sorrel","flor de jamaica","senegalese drink","iced 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african",{"slug":289,"title":290,"nativeName":291,"countrySlug":8,"region":292,"baseServings":72,"prepMinutes":245,"cookMinutes":293,"restMinutes":294,"difficulty":76,"course":295,"diet":296,"mainIngredients":297,"images":299,"keywords":303,"publishedAt":177,"updatedAt":177,"authorSlug":178},"senegalese-poulet-yassa","Poulet Yassa (Senegalese Lemon and Onion Chicken)","Yassa ginaar","Casamance",55,240,[79],[81,82],[298,85,86],"chicken",[300],{"src":301,"alt":302},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fsenegalese-poulet-yassa\u002Fhero.svg","Browned chicken pieces buried in a tangle of softened golden onions with lemon wedges and white rice alongside",[304,305,306,307,308,309,310],"poulet yassa","yassa chicken","lemon chicken","onion sauce","senegalese","casamance","west african braise",{"slug":312,"title":313,"nativeName":314,"countrySlug":8,"region":292,"baseServings":185,"prepMinutes":74,"cookMinutes":315,"difficulty":222,"course":316,"diet":318,"mainIngredients":319,"images":323,"keywords":327,"publishedAt":177,"updatedAt":177,"authorSlug":178},"soupou-kandia","Soupou Kandia (Senegalese Okra and Palm Oil Stew)","Soupu kanja",50,[317,79],"soup",[226,81,194],[320,228,321,322],"okra","shrimp","rice",[324],{"src":325,"alt":326},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fsoupou-kandia\u002Fhero.svg","Deep orange okra and palm oil stew with fish pieces and shrimp, ladled over a mound of white rice in a bowl",[328,329,330,331,332,333],"soupou kandia","okra stew","palm oil","senegalese seafood","west african okra","soupu 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sweet","no-bake",{"slug":358,"title":359,"nativeName":360,"romanized":361,"countrySlug":8,"region":362,"baseServings":185,"prepMinutes":363,"cookMinutes":246,"difficulty":364,"course":365,"diet":366,"mainIngredients":367,"images":370,"keywords":374,"publishedAt":177,"updatedAt":177,"authorSlug":178},"senegalese-thieboudienne","Thieboudienne (Senegalese Fish and Broken Rice)","Ceebu jën","Ceebu jen","Saint-Louis",40,"hard",[79],[226,81],[228,322,252,368,369],"cabbage","tamarind",[371],{"src":372,"alt":373},"\u002Fimages\u002Frecipes\u002Fsenegalese-thieboudienne\u002Fhero.svg","Platter of orange broken rice topped with fish steaks, cassava, carrot and cabbage wedges with a whole red chilli",[375,376,377,378,266,379,380],"thieboudienne","ceebu jen","senegalese fish rice","broken rice","national dish","one 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