“Berbere” literally translates to “hot” in Amharic. It is a staple ingredient in Ethiopian cooking, and one of its most well-known uses is in a stewed chicken dish called doro wat. It is a stick-to-your-bones dish, filled with chunks of deeply caramelized onions, chicken so tender it falls off the bone, creamy hard-boiled eggs floating about, and a spicy berbere sauce that melts into a finger-licking gravy during the nearly two hours of cooking time—ideal for sopping up with sour injera flat bread.

Here, I used the spices of doro wat as inspiration for a far simpler and quicker meal. Sometimes I swap out some chicken for butternut squash or sweet potatoes, a nice addition to mellow the heat of the berbere. Other times I go all the way and add in a few cups of tomatoes and red wine, and allow the dish to simmer for even longer, adding the hard-boiled eggs at the very end. But no matter how this dish is prepared—in its simple version as written below, or in its full-fledged doro wat expression—the spices of berbere lift the mundane chicken thighs to a level of absolute bliss.