Chicken first grilled then long-stewed in a sea of caramelized onions, tangy with lemon and spiked with mustard and chili. A golden, melting, lively sauce, ladled over hot white rice.

Why this dish? Originally from Casamance, yassa has become the quintessential Senegalese family dish, simpler and more everyday than thiéboudiène. For Senghor, torn between Dakar and Paris, it was the accessible taste of home, those onions melted with lemon acidity that recall the everyday table back home.

Do not be fooled by its simplicity: yassa is a lesson in patience. You must let the onions die slowly in the lemon until they become a salty jam, almost translucent. At home we would first sear the poultry over the embers, so it would keep the memory of the fire, before marrying it to this sauce. Taste how the acid awakens everything: it is the weekday dish, the one a mother prepares without ceremony but with all her heart. That, in my opinion, is true elegance — the kind hidden in the ordinary.

How it was made : The word "yassa" comes from the Diola language of Casamance. Traditionally, the long cooking of the onions also served to preserve them, and the lemon played a dual role as tenderizer and preservative in the hot climate. Mustard, a legacy of colonial contact, was incorporated into the recipe in the 20th century.

The contemporary twist : Create a "poet's yassa" with onions reduced almost to marmalade and a few candied lemon zest pieces as a finish.

Léopold Sédar Senghor · Charactorium