How to Cook Nigerian Beef & Chicken Stew

 

Nigerian Beef and Chicken Stew is none other than Tomato Stew with added ingredients. Though it is called Beef & Chicken Stew, feel free to use Turkey, Fish and other forms of meat and fish for this Nigerian stew.
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It is common to prepare this stew in large quantities and store in the freezer for up to a month. This is because most Nigerian staple foods can be cooked / boiled / fried and eaten with this stew:

• Rice: Nigerian Beef & Chicken Stew is the single most popular sauce when eating boiled white rice.
• Plantain: It is not unusual for Nigerian Beef & Chicken to accompany Fried Plantain or Boiled Plantain.
• Beans: Beans can be cooked plain and eaten with this Nigerian stew.
• Yam: You can bring out the best in the yam staple by eating it with the beef and chicken stew. Boiled Yam and Fried Yam go really well with this stew.

Nigerian Beef & Chicken Stew is usually a tricky Nigerian stew to prepare. If it is not sour or tasteless, it is burnt or too oily. Not to worry, just follow the steps below and you will learn how to make the best Nigerian Beef & Chicken Stew.

Ingredients for Nigerian Beef & Chicken Stew

• Tomato Stew
• Whole Chicken (hen)
• Beef
• Onions
• Habanero Pepper & Salt (to taste)
• Stock cubes & Thyme

You should try and match the quantities of ingredients above to the quantity of the tomato stew you want to prepare. As a guide, here are the quantities of ingredients I used for the Beef & Chicken Stew in the video below:

• 1.5kg fresh Plum Tomatoes (referred to as Jos Tomatoes in Nigeria)
• 600g tinned tomato paste (or watery tinned Tomato Puree: 1.2kg)
• Vegetable Oil: a generous amount
• 1.2kg whole chicken (hen)
• 15 medium cuts of beef
• 2-3 medium onions
• Habanero Pepper & Salt (to taste)
• 3 big stock cubes
• 2 tablespoons thyme

Important notes on the ingredients

1. Chicken: Hen (female chicken) is tastier than the cockerel or rooster so it is my preferred chicken when cooking all my Nigerian recipes. And I prefer whole chicken because each of the different parts of the chicken (wings, drumsticks, hips etc) has its own unique taste and all these together makes the stew (and infact all your cooking) taste better than if you use only one part of a chicken eg all drumsticks.
2. Tomato Stew is fresh puree tomato and the tinned tomato paste that has been boiled and fried to remove all traces of water and the sour taste of tomatoes. It is the base for the Nigerian Beef & Chicken Stew.

Before you cook Nigerian Beef & Chicken Stew

1. Grind / Blend the chilli pepper and cut the onions into small pieces.
2. Start preparing the tomato stew by following the steps at: How to Prepare Tomato Stew
3. Cut up the chicken and cook with half of the chopped onions, stock cubes and thyme. When the chicken is almost done, add the beef and cook till well done. Then add salt, allow to simmer for about 5 minutes, transfer to a sieve to drain. Grill or fry the chicken and beef. This is optional but it gives them a rich golden look.

   Notes about cooking the chicken:

   Add water up to the level of the contents of the pot when cooking the chicken.

   When cooking chicken, I do not add salt to the raw chicken. This is because salt closes the pores of the chicken (and infact anything you are cooking), this prevents the natural flavour of the chicken from coming out into the surrounding water and prevents the seasoning from entering the chicken to improve the taste. The result is that your chicken stock will not have a rich natural taste. It will only have an artifical taste of seasoning.
   
   Salt also hardens the chicken hence it takes longer to cook.
   
   I only add salt when the chicken is done. A lot of people think that adding salt early makes the chicken taste better but there's a big difference between a salty taste and a rich taste. I believe that what gives food a rich taste is not salt but the natural flavour of the food so allow this natural flavour to come out into your stock by NOT adding salt too early. And remember, stock cubes already contain salt so you really don't need more salt.

   I do not use curry powder to season my chicken (or beef) simply because in my opinion, curry powder overtakes the taste of any food it is cooked with (except Fried Rice) and makes the food taste so artificial. But if you don't mind it, feel free to use it as seasoning for your beef or chicken.

Cooking Directions

1. When you are happy that the tomatoes in your tomato stew are well-fried, pour out the excess oil as I did in the video below.
2. Place the pot of tomato stew back on the stove and add the chicken stock (water from cooking the chicken). There may be tiny pieces of bones at the bottom so be careful not to add those.
3. Add the chilli pepper and the grilled chicken and beef. Stir very well and add salt if necessary. You can also add some water at this point if the stew is too thick.
4. Cover the pot and cook at medium heat till the contents of the pot is well steamed. Stir again and you are done.
5. That's how to prepare the best Nigerian Beef & Chicken stew.

Use the beef and chicken stew to eat White Rice, Fried Plantain, Boiled Plantain, Fried Yam, Boiled yam and Agidi. Some people even add it to their Egusi Soup!

How to make Nigerian Salad

Nigerian Salad is so unique that there is no other place that prepares such filling and exotic salad as this recipe. It can be had as a meal on its own or as a side dish to the various Nigerian Rice Recipes.

The quantities of ingredients stated are what will give you a typical taste of the Nigerian Salad. The quantities can be halved or multiplied and the same taste will be achieved.

Ingredients

• 1 medium bunch lettuce
• 5 medium carrots
• 4 small pcs Irish potatoes
• 2 medium cucumbers
• 3 medium eggs
• 1 415g tin Baked Beans in tomato sauce
• 200g sweet corn
• 5 plum tomatoes (Jos tomatoes)
• Salad Dressing: the classic Heinz Salad Cream works best with the Nigerian Salad recipe. A close substitute is the Heinz Caesar Salad Cream. You can use mayonnaise too.

Before you prepare the Nigerian Salad

Wash and cook the Irish potatoes till done. The eggs should be hard boiled. To save time, these two can be cooked in the same pot as they need almost equal amount of time to get done.
All the vegetables need to be washed.

1. Cut the lettuce into thin shreds.
2. Scrape and shred the carrots using a grater.
3. Peel and cut the boiled potatoes into sizeable cubes.
4. Peel, remove the seeds and cut the cucumber as shown. If you want more green color in your salad, you may peel the cucumber in stripes.
5. Remove the seeds from the plum tomatoes and cut into small pieces.
6. Place all the cut vegetables in separate containers.

Open the sweet corn and drain the preservation water. Rinse the seeds and set aside. Also open the baked beans tin and set aside.
Remove the shells of the hard boiled eggs, slice thinly and set aside. An egg slicer is perfect for this job.

Preparation

1. With the exception of the egg, start putting the ingredients in small batches into a big salad bowl till all are exhausted.
2. Now, place the sliced eggs on the salad, covering the top.
3. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for at least one hour. This is to allow all the ingredients to mix well.
4. Serve with a salad dressing of your choice but the Heinz Salad Cream works best with this recipe, seconded by a caeser salad dressing.

Notes and Tips
If you prefer your Nigerian Salad crunchy, substitute the lettuce with cabbage. You can also use the two as the lettuce adds a green color to the salad.
The above are the minimum ingredients for making a Nigerian salad. More ingredients such as boiled macaroni, corned beef, green bell pepper, green peas etc can be added for varied flavour.
The Nigerian Salad is best consumed within 24 hours of preparation if no salad dressing is added to it.
If you are lucky to buy a baby cucumber, it may not be necessary to remove the seeds.

Nigerian Salad can be eaten alone or as a side dish to Jollof Rice, Coconut Rice, Fried Rice and other Nigerian rice dishes.

How to Cook Nigerian Fried Rice

How To Parboil Rice - Chef Lola's Kitchen (Video)

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How to Parboil Rice for Nigerian Jollof Rice Recipes (Video)

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How to cook Nigerian Jollof Rice (video)

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How to cook Nigerian Fried Rice

 

Nigerian Fried Rice must be the best thing that happened to birthday parties, weddings, street parties, picnics, special events and occasions.
It is so easy to prepare that you can even cook it every weekend in your own home. Eat the Nigerian Fried Rice recipe with Moi Moi, Nigerian Salad or Coleslaw and you will feel like you are in paradise island. Are you ready to go on the Nigerian fried rice cooking spree?

Ingredients

• 3 cigar cups | 750g long grain parboiled rice
• Vegetable Oil
• Chicken (whole chicken or chicken drumsticks)
• 100g cow liver
• 1 tablespoon plain yellow curry powder (NOT Indian Curry)
• 1 handful green beans
• 5 medium carrots
• Salt (to taste)
• 3 medium onions
• 3 stock cubes
• 1 tablespoon thyme

Note: I do not use woks because it is a lot of work taking care of them. If the carbon steel is not rusting, the bamboo handles are coming apart so I prefer my frying pans for fried rice. :)

Before you cook the Fried Rice

Cut the vegetables

Wash all the vegetables to be used in cooking the fried rice. Scrape and cut the carrots into tiny cubes. Cut the green beans into small pieces of about 0.7cm long. Soak these 2 vegetables separately in hot water for about 5 minutes and drain. Cut 1 bulb of onion. Set all these aside.

Prepare the liver and chicken

1. Cook the cow liver till done and cut into tiny pieces. To save time and energy, you can cook the liver with the chicken as I did in the video below.
2. Cut the whole chicken into pieces and cook with the Knorr cubes, thyme and 2 bulbs of onions (chopped). When done, grill in an oven or deepfry with vegetable oil. This gives it a golden look which is more presentable especially when you are entertaining guests.

Cooking Directions

1. Parboil the rice using the method detailed in parboiling rice for cooking fried rice. A well parboiled rice ensures that the grains of the rice will not stick together when the rice is done. Rinse the parboiled rice with cold water and put in a sieve so all the water drains out.
2. Pour the chicken stock into a sieve to remove all traces of onions, thyme etc used in cooking the chicken. Pour the stock into a pot and set to boil. Once the water boils, add the parboiled rice. Also, add 1 tablespoon of plain yellow curry powder, then add salt to taste. The plain yellow curry powder is merely for colouring so should not contain chilli.
3. The water level should be slightly less than the level of the rice; at most it should be at the same level as the rice. This is to ensure that all the water dries up by the time the rice is cooked and that the rice is not over cooked. This is the quantity of water that will cook the rice and the grains will not stick together. Stir the contents; cover the pot and leave to cook on medium heat. This way the rice does not burn before the water dries up.
4. Once the water has dried up, the rice should be cooked perfectly. Perfect fried rice is one that the grains are separated from one another, resistant to the bite but not hard.
5. Now, transfer the rice to a casserole dish or another pot to help cool it down quickly. Again, this is essential to keep the grains from sticking to each other. If left in the original hot pot, the rice will continue to cook and eventually stick together.
   
   At this point, it is advisable to divide the vegetables into say 4, 5 or even 6 equal parts. The rice will be fried in batches so this number depends on the quantity of rice you can comfortably fry in the pan or pot. Also, divide the cooked rice and the diced cow liver into the same number of equal parts.
6. Now pour a small amount of vegetable oil into a frying pan. This quantity of oil should be such that it would be absorbed by 1 part of the cooked rice and 1 part each of the vegetables. When the oil is hot, add 1 part of diced onions and stir for 10 seconds, followed by 1 part of diced cow liver, one part each of the diced vegetables, then 1 part of cooked rice.
7. Add more salt if necessary. More curry powder may also be added at this stage if you need to touch up on the colour. Stir till all the ingredients have mixed well and transfer to a dry pot. Repeat this for the remaining batches of the ingredients.

The fried rice is ready. Serve with fried chicken. You can add coleslaw, Moi Moi or Nigerian salad.

VERY IMPORTANT:

Nigerian Fried Rice can go bad very quickly. You can avoid this by spreading it to cool it then refrigerate immediately. Otherwise, eat it once you finish preparing it. If you want to serve it at a party, please cook it very close to the serving time, if not, it will go bad! If refrigerated, it can last for 48 hours without loosing its taste.

How to Parboil Rice for Cooking Jollof Rice (with video)

Jollof rice refers to all types of rice cooked with added ingredients: oil, tomato stew, vegetables, coconut milk etc. This method is applicable to Jollof Rice, Coconut Rice, Mixed Vegetables Jollof Rice, Fried Rice, Rice and Beans, etc.
With these kinds of rice recipes, you do not have the leisure of adding more water as you cook the rice. Once the first dose of water dries and you try to add another, the rice will burn and become soggy. For this reason you want to parboil the rice you will use for any jollof rice recipe a bit more. This way, you ensure that after adding the ingredients, the rice will be cooked by the time the level dose of water dries.
This is the method to follow to parboil rice meant for preparing jollof rice recipes:

1. Wash the rice in cold water (optional) and place in a pot.
2. Add some water, about 4 times the level of the rice.
3. Set on the stove and leave to cook.
4. Note when the water starts boiling and leave to cook till the rice is rubbery. One way to check this is to bite into a grain of the rice being parboiled. If the rice is hard to the bite or even makes a sound when you bite, it is not yet OK to rinse it. If you pinch it between your thumb and first finger and it practically melts, then it is over-parboiled. Somewhere between the first description and the second is the point where you want to put the rice down and cool it.
   
   Sounds confusing? No ... With experience, you will be more confident in determining the best time. You can also watch the video below to see how it is done.
5. Pour the contents of the pot in a sieve.
6. Cool down the rice rapidly by dipping the sieve in cold water, changing water often till the rice is cold.
7. Leave in the sieve to drain off all the water.
8. The rice is now ready to be cooked again.

How to Parboil Rice

There are many varieties of rice. But Nigerians love to eat the long grain white rice which is firm in nature. This variety of rice contains a lot of carbohydrates, up to 80 grams per 100 grams of cooked rice. To reduce this high amount of carbohydrates, it is normal practice to parboil the long grain rice again. 'Again' because apparently, the long grain rice we eat already comes parboiled.
Parboiling rice involves pre-cooking the rice in water and rinsing it in cold water before the main cooking. This pre-cooking ensures that your Jollof Rice does not burn before it is done, thereby eliminating the cardboard taste associated with undone Jollof Rice.
Some people say they don't want to lose all the nutrients in the rice to parboiling but I'll rather get those trace amounts of nutrients elsewhere than end up with burnt, soggy and not-well-cooked rice.
I parboil rice in two ways depending on the rice recipe that I'm making.

How to Parboil Rice for Cooking White Rice

White rice here refers to rice cooked without any additional ingredient. Salt may be added and that's it. White rice is usually a staple eaten with some kind of sauce or stew.
To parboil rice for the purpose of preparing white rice, you want to boil it for a short period of time. You get the chance to add more water as you cook white rice because it will not burn. If you prefer to remove more carbohydrates, you may want to pre-cook it for much longer. To parboil the rice, follow these steps.

1. Wash the rice in cold water (optional) and place in a pot.
2. Add some water, about twice the level of the rice.
3. Set on the stove and leave to cook.
4. Note when the water starts boiling and leave to cook for more 5 minutes.
5. Pour the contents of the pot in a sieve.
6. Place the sieve (with the rice) in a bowl of cold water.
7. Rince the rice and change the water if necessary.
8. Leave in the sieve to drain off all the water.
9. The rice is now ready to be cooked again.

How to cook Nigerian Jollof Rice

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Ingredients

• 3 cigar cups | 750g long grain parboiled rice
• Tomato Stew 500 mls
• Chicken (whole chicken, drumsticks or chicken breast)
• Pepper and salt (to taste)
• 2 medium onions
• 3 Knorr cubes
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• 2 teaspoons curry powder (Nigerian curry powder)

Before you cook Jollof Rice

1. Prepare the tomato stew. Visit the Tomato Stew page for details on how to do that. It is advisable to prepare tomato stew before hand and keep in the freezer. This is so that whenever you want to cook any jollof rice related dish, it is just a matter of adding it to your cooking.
2. If you will use whole chicken then wash and cut it into pieces. Cook with the thyme, Knorr cubes and 2 bulbs of onions (chopped). The cooking time depends on the type of chicken. The rooster or cockerel cooks much faster than the hen but the hen is definitely tastier. When done, grill it in an oven. You may also fry it. This is to give it a golden look which is more presentable especially if you have guests for dinner.
3. Parboil the rice using the method detailed in parboiling rice for cooking jollof rice. Rinse the parboiled rice and put in a sieve to drain.

Cooking Directions

1. Pour the chicken stock and the tomato stew into a sizeable pot and leave to boil.
2. Add the drained parboiled rice, curry powder, salt and pepper to taste. The water level should be the same level of the rice. This is to ensure that all the water dries up by the time the rice is cooked.
3. Cover the pot and leave to cook on low to medium heat. This way the rice does not burn before the water dries up.

If you parboiled the rice as described at parboiling rice for cooking jollof rice, the rice should be done by the time the water is dry. Taste to confirm. If not, you will need to add more water and reduce the heat to prevent burning. Keep cooking till done.
Serve with Fried Plantain, Nigerian Moi Moi, Nigerian Salad or Coleslaw.
You can spice up this recipe by adding 2 well known vegetables to arrive at what we refer to as Mixed Vegetables Jollof Rice.