Jollof rice, or Jollof, also known as Benachin in Wolof, it's a one-pot rice dish popular in many West African countries like Gambia, Senegal 🇸🇳, Ghana 🇬ðŸ‡, Nigeria 🇳🇬, Benin 🇧🇯, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia 🇱🇷, and Togo 🇹🇬. It is also called a 'reddish one-pot dish' and varies in these countries.
Jollof Rice is a classic Nigerian rice dish flavored with tomatoes, peppers, and lots of seasonings.
For those of you who don’t know, rice is my favorite! I can eat rice 20 times a day and still not be satisfied. One of my all-time favorite rice dishes is a classic Nigerian dish that I grew up eating called Jollof rice. I am going to be sharing with you how to make Jollof Rice in just 5 easy steps.
There are many different ways to cook Jollof Rice. It is a dish made with rice, tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, scotch bonnet peppers, salt, and spices. If it doesn’t have the above-mentioned ingredients, then it’s not Jollof. I make it the way my mom taught me, and I call it Nigerian Jollof because of the type of rice that is used. Nigerians use the long grain rice that has been parboiled.
Ingredients
- Eight cups of pre-cooked long-grain rice.
- 1/4 cup of groundnut oil.
- A cup of Tin Tomato.
- 5 Tbs of grounded pepper.
- 4 big cubes of Maggie.
- Scallion onions (both the bulbs and vegetables)
- 1 sachet of Nutmeg
- 4 Tbs of Butter (Simax) Water.
- Curry powder
- Tyme powder
- Bay leaf
- Blended Ginger & Garlic
How to Cook Nigerian Jollof rice
I don't have all the full ingredients here, but the unmentioned ingredients are optional e.g. Carrots and Beef. But trust me, I am going to be using the vital ingredients I got to prepare the Jollof Rice.
I am going to be using a parboiling method to parboil the rice. Put clean water on the heat then after it's boiled, turn the water into the rice and cover it for ten minutes, use a sieve to separate the rice from the water then leave it apart. Mind you, if you are parboiling the rice like this don't use a plastic bowl to parboil it, instead use a stainless or a stockpot like the one you see here.
When cooking Jollof rice, building a flavor base is very important. Don’t be in haste to dump your ingredients in the pot otherwise, you will end up with what we call a concoction. Each step counts so try to do each of the steps in detail.
Place a clean pot on heat and allow it to hot, pour the groundnut oil and allow it to heat up for about 2 minutes then pour the sliced onions into the hot groundnut oil, stir it very well and turn the Tin Tomato into it, stir it very well to fry for 2 minutes, pour the 5 Tbs of the grounded pepper into it, stir it and cover it for 5 minutes.
Add the Ginger and Garlic and cook along with the Tomato paste for another two minutes; By the time it's done, you will notice it in the smell. If you keep it cooking any longer you might risk burning the mixtures.
Finally, in building the Jollof Rice flavor, add the Thyme, Curry powder, Salt, and seasoning cubes. Adjust the seasoning at this point if there is a need to. Once the flavor is on point, then, you can then stir it with the Rice. Make sure you stir the rice properly until you cover each grain of rice with the sauce. Now, cover it up with a tight-fitting lid. If your lid is not fitting enough, simply cover the rice with foil paper before covering it with the lid. This is because Jollof needs a lot of steam to turn out well.
Once, the rice comes to boil, reduce the heat to medium-low immediately, and continue to cook until the rice is done for about 20-25 minutes.
You can now serve it with a Spicy Grilled Chicken, Grilled Tilapia Fish, or Gizzard and Plantains.
