Nyama Choma
Goat or beef rubbed with salt and grilled slowly over low coals for an hour or more, then chopped on a board and eaten with kachumbari and ugali.
Photograph credit: Grilled goat meat, The Bali Cafe, Nairobi, 2025 (01) by Bahnfrend · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Nyama choma is grilled low and slow rather than seared, over coals that have burned down, so the connective tissue in cheaper cuts has time to soften while the outside dries into a crust. Salt is genuinely the only seasoning in the traditional version — everything else happens on the plate with kachumbari.
Questions About Nyama Choma
How long does Nyama Choma take to make?
20 minutes of preparation and 1 hour of cooking, plus 1 hour 15 minutes of resting, so allow 2 hours 35 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 6.
Nyama Choma: Step by Step
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Rub the meat all over with the salt and oil and leave at room temperature for 1 hour.
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Build a charcoal fire and let it burn down until the coals are grey and the heat is moderate — you should be able to hold a hand 15 cm above the grill for five seconds.
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Set the meat on the grill away from the hottest area. Cook slowly, turning every 10 minutes, for 60 to 90 minutes.
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If flames flare, move the meat rather than dousing the fire.
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For the kachumbari, soak the sliced onion in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain and mix with the tomato, chilli, coriander, lime juice and salt. Leave 15 minutes.
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The meat is ready when the outside is dark and dry and a knife slides in easily at the thickest part.
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Squeeze the lemon over and rest it on a board for 10 minutes.
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Chop into rough bite-sized pieces with a heavy knife, bone and all.
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Serve on the board with kachumbari, ugali and pili pili, eaten with the hands.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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A Few Pointers
- Coals burned down, not flaming. This is an hour of cooking, not fifteen minutes.
- Salt only. The kachumbari does the rest.
- Chop it on the board at the table — that is part of the meal.
If You're Missing Something
- Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the chilli. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
- Lemon is the everyday swap for limes in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
Serve It With
Kachumbari and ugali · A cold Tusker · Pili pili sauce
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Mukimo.
Keeping and Reheating
Refrigerate up to 3 days. Reheat wrapped in foil at 180°C / 356°F fan.
The Numbers per Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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