Jollof rice is one of the most common west African dishes eaten in most regions of Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Cameron, Gambia, and other African countries.

Although it’s prepared in different ways, Jollof rice is a rich and incredibly tasty west African one-pot Meal. It is a versatile dish, and it is usually made from scratch using the below ingredients.

 Rice,

Tomatoes,

 red bell peppers,

 Tomato paste,

 Scotch bonnet,

 Onion, and

other spice, including salt.

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How to Cook Jollof Rice

When cooking Jollof rice, building a flavour base is very important. Don’t be in haste to dump your ingredients in the pot. Each step counts.

  • Sautéing the onions, ginger and garlic together. This is the inevitable foundation for building up the flavour jollof rice; this step takes about 3 to 5 minutes. The next thing is to stir in the Tomato paste. This adds a deep and rich tomato flavour and fry for another five minutes.
  • Add the blended peppers, which is a mix of tomatoes, onion scotch bonnet and red bell peppers. Usually, there is no particular time frame for frying, but until the sauce becomes thick. At this point, most of the water is gone, I would maybe 20 to 25 minutes.
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  • Finally, add curry, thyme, salt to taste, and seasoning cubes then stir in your Rice. Make sure you mix the Rice properly until you cover each grain of Rice with the sauce. Now add the chicken stock mix well and cover it up with a tight-fitting lid. If your lid is not well fitted, cover the Rice with a foil paper before covering it with the lid. This is because Jollof needs a lot of steam to turn out well.
  • Once the Rice has comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking until done for about 25mins.
  •  Serve with some salad, Fish, Chicken, Turkey or Beef and fried plantain.
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