Jollof rice accompanied with of suya spiced grilled chicken – so flavourful and crispy! Here’s the recipe from Dream Africa, enjoy!
Ingredients For Jollof Rice
- Uncooked rice (desired quantity, and rice of choice)
- Large onion, sliced
- Minced garlic
- Coriander powder
- Fresh tomatoes
- Canned tomato puree
- Seasoning cubes (Maggi/Knorr)
- Fresh hot pepper
- Veggies (green peas, yellow sweet pepper, sliced and chopped)
- Vegetable oil
- Salt
Ingredients For Suya Spiced Grilled Chicken
- Chicken thighs (desired quantity)
- Roasted peanuts, finely ground
- Ground ginger and garlic
- Hot pepper, powder
- Onion powder
- Seasoning cubes
- Salt
Tip: for best taste, spice, season, and pre-cook chicken thighs. This helps to absorb marinate spices for the grilling. Save the chicken stock for making the jollof.
Method
Preparing The Jollof Rice
- Parboil the rice: wash the rice in cold water, place in a pot, add water and bring to boil. Cook until rice is semi-cooked (half-done). Rinse the parboiled rice and put in a sieve to drain.
- Making tomato stew: roughly blend onion with fresh tomatoes. Pour the fresh tomato blend into a pot and cook at high heat till almost all the water has dried. Add the vegetable oil, sliced onions and the tomato puree. Stir very well and fry at very low heat and stir at short intervals till the oil has completely separated from the tomato puree.
- Pour chicken stock and the tomato stew into a cooking pot and leave to boil.
- Add the drained parboiled rice, coriander, seasoning cubes, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Stir and combine well, cover the pot and leave to cook on low to medium heat. When the water is almost dried up, then throw in the veggies, and cook for about 4 minutes.
To ensure that the rice does not burn before the water dries up, the water level should be the same level of the rice. That way, all the water dries up by the time the rice is cooked.
Preparing The Chicken Thighs
- Making yaji (suya) spice: finely blend peanuts to powder. Use a clean cloth to squeeze out excess oil from peanut blended mixture. Mix peanuts with all other ingredients, add seasoning cubes for extra flavour.
- Rub and marinate the pre-cooked chicken thighs with the spice mixture. Allow to marinate for about 30 minutes.
- Bake or grill chicken until tender and thoroughly cooked.
Serve jollof rice with grilled chicken, and vegetable salad tossed in cream. Enjoy with your favorite drink!
