Chef John's Jollof Rice

Servings:

This is a foolproof recipe for cooking Jollof rice, West Africa's most popular dish. I like to serve it as a side with my West African-style grilled beef (Suya), but it can also be a main course.

Prep
21 min
Cook
84 min
Servings
Difficulty
Hard

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1 Combine tomato, red bell pepper, habanero pepper, fresno chili, garlic, ginger, and water in a blender for the sauce. Blend on high until smooth and set aside.
  2. 2 Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and salt and sauté until onion starts to soften, 4 to 5 minutes. Clear space in the middle of the pan, add tomato paste, and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Season with paprika, curry powder, cumin, thyme, pepper, and turmeric; continue cooking for 1 to 2 minutes until everything is well combined.
  3. 3 Turn off the heat, and stir in the rice, making sure every grain of rice is coated with the oil-tomato mixture. Add bay leaf and chicken bouillon paste.
  4. 4 Turn heat to high, stir in tomato sauce, and bring to a vigorous simmer. Cover with a tight fitting lid, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 20 minutes. Do not remove the lid or stir rice.
  5. 5 Turn off heat after 20 minutes, and set the timer for 12 minutes. Allow rice to sit and do not remove the lid.
  6. 6 After the 12 minutes are up, remove lid, and fluff rice with a fork, separating all the grains. Serve garnished with green onions and chopped cilantro.

Nutrition per serving

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