Tassot Cabrit

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Tassot Cabrit (Fried Goat Meat) is one of the leading dishes in Haitian cuisine. Prepared with a few simple ingredients, the tender and juicy, crisp, and golden meat pieces are delicious alongside pikliz, Haitian Black Rice, fried plantains, or as part of your Fritay.

As the name implies, this dish features fried goat meat with other ingredients that makes the dish taste better than average fried goat meat.

Many countries in the world have exciting and appealing cuisines. One of the tastiest cuisines in the world is Caribbean cuisine, especially Haiti’s.

Origin of Tassot Cabrit

The Tassot Cabrit (Fried Goat Meat) as stated earlier is part of Haitian cuisine. It is another one of the numerous delicious dishes that have come out of the Caribbean country. 

While there is no specific history concerning tassot cabrit, we know that the whole of Haitian cuisine (of which Tassot Cabrit (Fried Goat Meat) is a part) had a lot of influences from external cultures and foreign presence. 

Cultures such as African, French, Arab, Spanish, and the Indigenous Taino culture all influenced the Haitian cuisines. 

Thus, it is difficult to know if the Tassot Cabrit (Fried Goat Meat) was adopted from one of the foreign cultures that influenced the cuisine or if it originated from the indigenous Taino culture.

Ingredients Needed for the Fried Goat Meat

Goat Meat

This is the most important ingredient needed to prepare this dish, of course. When getting the goat meat, you should get a fresh one from the butcher if you can.

If not, you may have to venture out to your favorite international store to purchase your meat. 

If you are a Muslim, you may opt for Halal meat if it is available.  Otherwise, frozen goat meat will also do for the Fried Goat Meat dish.

An average goat meat is fatty. This means that you may need to remove some fat from the meat as the ideal meat for the Tassot Cabrit dish is lean goat meat. 

However, you may have to pay higher for leaner goat meat as the price per pound for lean goat meat is higher than that of the normal goat meat. 

Leaner goat meat means that the goat was well nourished during their lifetime, and this means that you get quality meat.

After buying the meat and you need to cut the meat, ensure that the size of the meat is neither too big nor small. An average piece is supposed to be around 2 or 3 inches in size. 

Washing The Meat

As mentioned in our poulet en sauce recipe (Haitian Chicken Stew), our meat is often cleaned in a particular method.

To sum up, when it comes to cleaning poultry or fish in a Haitian household, one need patience and certain “rules” must be followed. 

All fats, blood vessels, and “gunk” must be removed. The skin (if any and depending on your meat) is sometimes removed as well.

When we clean meat, we often include vinegar; which I use the most to help clean and tenderize the meat, lime, and or sour oranges, and boiled water.

Boiled Water or Hot Water Bath: Most of the time, the final step always include a hot water bath. This will help “complete” the cleaning process prior to applying the seasoning. 

Nonetheless, when preparing a Haitian style meat, you may or will need to wash the meat with an acidic liquid such as vinegar or sour orange due to its strong taste and odor.

Applying The Seasoning

Up next, you season the meat for some hours, or overnight in some cases. This enhances the flavor of the meat and makes for good taste and aroma.

For this a few ingredients are used. The goat meat is seasoned with our Haitian Epis, shallot for extra flavor, garlic cloves, lemon juice for acidity, ground cloves and cayenne pepper to provide a small amount of heat. 

The full recipe with the exact measurement is listed in the recipe card below. 

How Long Does It Take To Fry Goat?

Frying goat by itself can and will result in a tough meat. To remedy this situation, we are using the instant pot to cook the meat first. 

You may cook the meat in a saucepan for 1 ½ hours or until tender. 

To boil the meat first, add all the ingredients in the instant pot and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. 

If cooking over the stove, add the meat and the ingredients in a saucepan with water covering the top of the meat and cook on medium high heat, half covered. 

Add more liquid as water will reduce while the meat cooks. This will help the meat to not burn. Continue cooking until the meat is tender. 

What to Eat the Fried Goat Meat With

You can enjoy the dish with Pikliz also known as “spicy coleslaw” but without the dairy added, or Haitian condiment.

You can also enjoy the dish with the Haitian black rice, fried plantain, or a side of salad, like this Salad Russe. 

Needless to mention that you can also enjoy this dish alone or as part of the fritay.

How To Prepare The Sauce

We highly recommend that you do not discard the liquid from the meat, and instead, use it to prepare a sauce to serve with your Tassot and or with rice.

Here’s how to make it:

Once the meat is cooked in the instant pot. Remove the meat and set it aside to fry. After frying the meat, in a small saucepan add the oil over medium low heat. For this, we are using olive oil but you can also use canola oil or vegetable oil.

Once the oil is heated, slice 1 small onion and add half in. Reserve the other half to add in later.

Next, add in the tomato paste. Stir well to combine. Cook for about 1 minute. Then add the liquid from the instant pot. Stir a couple times and allow it to come to a simmer over medium low heat for 8 minutes.

Then add the rest of the sliced onions and stir. Remove the sauce from the heat and serve it hot with the meat, rice, and or salad.

How to Store the Tassot Cabrit

Storing the tassot is quite easy. You can store the dish in the refrigerator if you need to store it for a few days. However, if long-term storage is your plan, it will do well in a deep freezer. 

More Haitian Recipes To Try 

If you loved this Haitian Fried Goat Meat recipe, we recommend trying our Haitian Beef Tassot next. We also recommend you try one of these recipes. 

Poulet Aux Noix

Haitian Lalo

Haitian Beignets

Haitian marinade

Haitian Patties

Haitian White Rice

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