The story
Doro wat is the festive centrepiece of Ethiopian cooking, made above all to break the long Orthodox fasts before Easter and Christmas. Chicken is simmered for hours with slowly cooked onions, fiery berbere and niter kibbeh, a spiced clarified butter, then finished with whole hard-boiled eggs. Most accounts trace it to the Amhara highlands of the north, where chicken was once a luxury fit for royal tables, and Eritreans cook the same dish as tsebhi derho. It has no single birthplace, so the capital, Addis Ababa, stands in for the whole country.
Rival claims
No town claims doro wat. Food writers trace it to the Amhara people of the northern highlands (the old royal court at Gondar is sometimes mentioned), and Eritrea shares the same dish as tsebhi derho. Addis Ababa, founded only in 1886, is a representative national pin rather than a birthplace.
Also known as doro wot, doro wet, tsebhi derho, Ethiopian chicken stew.
On the Meridish menu
Doro wat was the main course on menu No. 7 on October 7, 2026. Its clue in the game, which hints at the place without naming it:
A deep-red chicken stew with berbere spice and hard-boiled eggs, scooped up with spongy injera.
In Meridish, every dish is pinned to the town or city most widely credited with creating it. A guess within 25 km scores all 100 points. How scoring works.
Sources
- tastingtable.com/1312903/hard-boiled-eggs-key-ingredient-national-dish-ethiopia
- afrifoodnetwork.com/recipes/chicken-beef-recipes/doro-wat
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_(food)
Food history is often disputed. Think we've pinned it in the wrong place? Tell us at hello@meridish.com, ideally with a source.
