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Now open: Boxochops Modern African Kitchen in Plano offers Nigerian snacks and finger foods

Don’t miss the meat pies or the puff puff, the Nigerian doughnut, in flavors like butterscotch and Heath bar.

Recently opened in Plano, Boxochops Modern African Kitchen is a new fast casual restaurant selling Nigerian snacks, pastries, and entrees of spicy-hot peppered meats and jollof rice.

Named after the Nigerian term for finger foods — “chops” — the restaurant is owned by the Anuolam family, led by founder and head chef Vivian Anuolam. It’s the family’s first foray into a permanent food business after catering and pop-up orders escalated during the pandemic.

“We said, ‘If everyone likes it so much, maybe we should open something,” Vivian’s sister Prisca Anuolam says. The sisters and their mother, Evelyn Anuolam, saw a surge in orders last year for their traditional Nigerian dishes and chops.

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After taking a leap that was followed by months of delays renovating the former bakery of neighboring Peacock Elite Fine Indian Cuisine on Ohio Drive, Boxochops opened on Aug. 14.

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The best-selling snack box is a sweet and savory gateway to Nigerian street foods. It contains freshly fried puff puff, a deep-fried mackerel fish roll, a beef roll, a Nigerian spring roll with deep fried cabbage mix, along with the choice of a gizzard, chicken, beef or goat mini-kebab, for around $8.

Unlike Evelyn, who has been catering for 40 years, Boxochops founder Vivian baked as a hobby while working in her previous career in medical technology. At Boxochops, she riffs on puff puff, the Nigerian doughnut, with flavors like butterscotch, Heath bar, and a seasonal red velvet. She also makes puff puff fried Oreos, where the ever popular sandwich cookie is fried in puff puff batter. “It’s our version of fair food,” Prisca says.

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And don’t miss Mama Evelyn’s meat pies. Only she prepares the handheld pies of seasoned chicken or beef baked in a thick and sturdy buttery crust. They’re better than a Hot Pocket could ever dream of being, and only available Thursday through Saturday.

Boxochops in Plano offers classic African puff puff in a variety of flavors.
Boxochops in Plano offers classic African puff puff in a variety of flavors.(Stephanie Rose / Stephanie Rose)
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Those craving heartier, traditional African dishes can find an assortment of peppered meats — like turkey, goat, snails, hen, and chicken wings — made in the Anuolams’ scotch bonnet pepper sauce. For reference, scotch bonnets are a West African pepper rated as spicy as the habanero with 100,000 to 350,000 Scoville units. Prisca says finding quality scotch bonnets is difficult here, so they have them delivered directly from Nigeria.

By far the most spicy dish is the asun — grilled goat with peppers and onions. Vivian says it’s named for the sound someone makes when eating spicy food: “Ahhh-sun!”

The only traditional dish they’ve decided to dial back the heat on is the jollof bowl, a beloved West African tomato-based rice that comes with mildly seasoned beef, chicken or turkey, and plantain. It’s spiced, but not spicy, and provides a balanced bowl of West African comfort.

Boxochops aims for quick service, but to avoid a wait, Prisca recommends placing orders online or by phone call first since they are making everything by hand.

Boxochops Modern African Kitchen is located at 8500 Ohio Drive, Suite 200, Plano. toasttab.com/boxochops.

Boxochops in Plano offers African snacks and meals such as chin chin, puffs and kebabs.
Boxochops in Plano offers African snacks and meals such as chin chin, puffs and kebabs.(Stephanie Rose / Stephanie Rose)