Kedjenou! Kedjenou! Côte d'Ivoire has made round two!

Kedjenou (pronounced kay-jay-noo) is a dish for hunters, and we’re on the hunt for the Cup. The dense, verdant forests of our country are rich in game like boar and agouti. Then there’s guinea fowl, a truly African bird for an African winning team and the only foul we’ll see in this game. Densely flavored, with darkly hued flesh, guinea fowl are richer than chicken. We roast them, grill them, and when we get a particularly plump one, it’s time for a kedjenou.

We use a rounded clay pot called a canari, then add the cut-up guinea fowl, some onions, a bit of chopped fresh tomatoes and their liquid. Some add vegetables like eggplant or carrots, but they’re a flourish. Finish it with grated fresh ginger and hot chili to taste. Then close the top tightly and seal it with a banana leaf and some twine so no steam escapes. Placed it on the flame — a hunter’s wood fire if in the woods, but a heavy casserole with a top and a burner in your kitchen will do in a pinch — then cook slowly, gently shaking the pot from time to time so the kedjenou mixes well and no pieces stick and burn. Cook and shake until it stews down to an unctuous smoothness. It’s perfection when served with pounded white yam or alongside white rice. The sauce retains the sumptuous favors of the hen, the vegetables melt into a tasty slurry, and the meat is falling-off-the-bone tender. Soul-satisfying, filling, fantastic ... it’s the dish that will propel us forward into Round 3. Rice and beans. Where is that dish from again? Tasty, but too much of that will give you indigestion.