Hey Guys! What’s the crack? The time has finally come for me to share a Jollof rice recipe with you guys. For the longest time, I refrained from doing so because Jollof rice is such a big deal in fact it’s probably my favourite food to cook as well as eat and I never wanted to share a recipe that I wasn’t totally happy with or that wouldn’t stand the test of time. So, after careful experimentation and thorough trial and error I came up with this recipe and I hope you guys try it and get to savour the goodness of it. Let’s get cooking!

Note: There are several ways to make Jollof Rice and even myself from time to time I tend to change methods depending on how I’m feeling. Also, with Jollof Rice, almost anything goes beef, chicken, pork, mutton etc even just vegetarian is perfect. For the purpose of this recipe, I have chosen chicken.

Ingredients for the Chicken:

• 6 Chicken legs (i.e. Thighs and drumsticks together) or 1.5kg of Chicken
• 1 whole red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic (roughly chopped)
• 1 thumb-size of ginger (roughly chopped)
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 2 knorr cubes
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1 cup of water to boil

Boil chicken over medium heat for about 15-20 mins and let it soak in the stock for a further 15-30 mins to marinate, then drain the stock and set aside. You may choose to grill or fry the chicken afterwards.

About 2.5 -3 cups of chicken stock should be gotten from boiling the chicken.

Ingredients for the Jollof Rice:

• 1kg Long grain parboiled rice / Easy cook rice
• 350g of tomato puree/paste or 5 tins of 70g tomato puree /paste
• 4 red paprika peppers (seeds removed)
• 2 red onions (1 chopped + 1 blended)
• 1 habanero/scotch bonnet pepper (seeds removed) or (to taste)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 thumb-size of ginger
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 2 knorr seasoning cubes
• 2 teaspoons white pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda/ bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tablespoons margarine (for garnish)
• 1/2 of a green bell pepper (for garnish)

Method:

• Soak the rice in hot boiling water for 10 minutes, rinse completely until the water becomes clear, drain and set aside.

• Blend the paprika peppers, onion, ginger, garlic and habanero pepper together with 1/2 cup of water, boil the pepper mix up until all the water evaporates and set aside.

• To a large pot over medium heat, heat up the oil and fry the chopped onions until translucent (5 mins).
• Once translucent, add the tomato paste and fry over medium-low heat for 15 mins or until it develops a dark rich colour and loses its sour taste.

• Once fried, add the blended pepper mix from earlier, stir to combine and continue to fry for a further 10 minutes.
• Add all the spices and baking soda along with 2 cups of water and fry on medium heat for 10 minutes covered. This is to properly fry the stew before the rice goes in.

• Add the washed rice, stir to combine and then cook on low heat covered for 45 minutes to steam; stirring every 15 minutes until it’s done.
• Add a little water only if absolutely necessary as you cook at this stage this is to avoid the rice losing flavour and becoming soggy.
• In the last 10 minutes of cooking add the margarine and green pepper for garnish.
• Check for salt and seasoning to your taste.

• After 45 minutes of cooking on low heat, crank the heat up to high and cook for 5 minutes. This is to finish the cooking process and to smoke the rice a bit.
• Allow to cool slightly before serving.

There you go, guys! Amazing Jollof rice. Please do try this recipe because it’s amazing I’ll tell you that much. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask me below and I’ll be sure to answer. Drop a like for me if you’re feeling kind. Au revoir!

For visual representation to this recipe click the LINK