How to cook Rice and Beans

If you do not like beans when it is cooked alone like in Beans Porridge, then you need to try the rice and beans recipe.
How to cook Nigerian Rice & Beans [Video Activity]
One way to reduce the flatulence or indigestion associated with beans is to cook it with another staple and the rice and beans recipe is one of such recipes.

Ingredients

• 2 cigar cups (500g) long grain parboiled rice
• 1 cigar cup (250g) brown/black-eyed beans
• 500 mls Tomato Stew
• Chicken or Fish
• Pepper and salt (to taste)
• 2 medium onions
• 2 stock cubes
• 1 teaspoon thyme

Before you cook Rice and Beans

1. Wash and soak the beans for about 5 hours. Discard the water and rinse the beans.
2. Put the beans in a pot, pour some water and set to boil.
3. Once the beans starts boiling, turn off the heat, throw away the water and wash again. These steps will help minimize the indigestion associated with beans for most people.
4. Prepare the tomato stew. Visit the Tomato Stew page for details on how to do that.
5. Parboil the rice using the method detailed in Parboiling Rice for Cooking Rice and Beans.
6. Meanwhile, cook the chicken till tender with the chopped onions, thyme and stock cubes. If you will rather use fish, boil the fish for 5 minutes using the same amount of seasoning. Fry or grill the chicken or the fish and set aside.

Cooking Directions

1. Cook the beans till tender and set aside.
2. Pour the chicken/fish stock into a pot big enough to accommodate the rice and beans, bearing in mind that the rice will rise some more.
3. Add the tomato stew, the parboiled rice and the cooked beans. Check that the water level is just less than the level of the rice and beans.
4. Add pepper and salt to taste.
5. Stir, cover the pot and cook at low to medium heat till the water is dry.

Serve with the fried chicken or fish and Fried Plantain.

Mixed Vegetables Jollof Rice

This Nigerian food is very similar to the basic Nigerian Jollof Rice. But it looks better and has a slightly different aroma and taste to it due to the added vegetables. Why not try something different for dinner by adding just 2 well-known vegetables?
Mixed Vegetables Jollof Rice [Video Activity]

Ingredients

• 3 cigar cups (750g) long grain parboiled rice
• 500mls Tomato Stew
• 5 medium carrots
• 1 big green bell pepper
• 1 whole chicken (hen)
• Chilli pepper (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• 2 medium onions
• 3 stock cubes
• 2 teaspoons curry powder (Nigerian curry powder)
• 1 tablespoon thyme

Notes on the ingredients

1. You can use only drumsticks or chicken breast.
2. You can use rooster or cockerel (male chicken) but hen (female chicken) tastes better.

Before you prepare Mixed Vegetables 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. Follow the cooking directions for the classic Nigerian Jollof Rice till Step 3.
2. When the water is almost dry, add the diced carrots, cover the pot and continue cooking.
3. When the water is completely dry, turn off the heat. Add the diced green pepper and stir the rice with a wooden spoon.

Why can't we add the green pepper when we added the carrots? This is because green pepper is a soft vegetable so even the slightest heat is enough to get it done. If added at the same time as the carrots (which are harder) they will become dull and unappetizing by the time the water is completely dry. So to keep the green pepper green and looking fresh, we need to add them when we have turned off the heat.
Do you see the change in your Jollof Rice? This we achieved by adding just 2 vegetables. Isn't it interesting?

Turmeric Rice a.k.a Yellow Rice

Turmeric Rice is one of the most basic yet delicious rice recipes to prepare in your kitchen. There's no tomato stew to make in this recipe so what can stop you from preparing this rice dish?
How to Cook Turmeric Rice [Video Activity]
Also check out:

Nigerian Party Jollof Rice

Nigerian Fried Rice

Coconut Rice

Mixed Vegetable Jollof Rice

Rice and Beans

Ingredients

• Long grain parboiled rice
  • If you are in the USA/UK, use 2 cups.
  • If you are in Nigeria, use ½ De Rica cup.
  • If you have a weighing scale, use 350g or 0.8lbs.
• 2 teaspoons turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon Nigerian curry powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper powder
• 1 small red onion
• 2-3 cups chicken stock
• A small quantity of red pepper
• A handful green peas
• Salt (to taste)

Notes on the ingredients

This following image shows the quantities of some of the ingredients used.

1. Use enough turmeric powder to colour the rice. Please note that the rice may not look so yellow when you add the parboiled rice to the turmeric mix in the pot but when the rice is done, it will become very yellow.
2. Turmeric is known as yellow ginger in Nigeria. It is known as ajo or ata ile pupa in Yoruba and kurkum in Hausa. You can buy turmeric powder in big supermarkets eg Shoprite in Nigeria.
3. I used chicken stock for this recipe because I served the rice with Onion Baked Chicken. I used soft chicken which I baked from raw so no boiling of the chicken done to get some chicken stock. This means that for taste, I added chicken stock which I always have in my freezer. I get this chicken stock when I prepare side dishes like Peppered Chicken.
   
   If you want to prepare this with Fried Chicken or Grilled Chicken, cook the chicken with thyme, onions, stock cubes and whatever else you use to season your chicken. Then add the water from cooking that chicken (chicken stock) to the rice during Step 1 in the cooking directions.
4. If you are in Nigeria, red bell peppers are available in big foreign supermarkets. Use tatashe as alternative to the red pepper. The quantity of red pepper you need is so small, see the video below.

Before you cook Turmeric Rice or Yellow Rice

1. Rinse and cut the red onions into small pieces.
2. Rinse, remove the seeds and cut the red pepper into small pieces.
3. Prepare the chicken you will serve it with. You can serve with Peppered Chicken or Onion Baked Chicken.
4. Parboil the long grain parboiled rice. For the quantity of rice stated above, add to boiling water, stir, cover the pot and once it boils again, leave to boil for 10 minutes or till you can easily cut the grain of rice with your finger nails.

Cooking Directions

1. Pour the chicken stock into a sizeable pot.
2. Add the turmeric powder, Nigerian curry powder and black pepper.
3. Cover and cook till it boils.
4. Add the parboiled rice, stir and make sure that the liquid in the pot is at the same level as the rice. If not, top it up.
5. Taste for salt and add some if necessary. Stir, cover again and start cooking on medium heat.
6. If you parboiled the rice correctly as described above, the rice should be done by the time the water dries up. Taste to confirm. If not, you will need to add more water and reduce the heat to prevent burning. Continue cooking.
7. When you can no longer see the water in the rice, add the diced red pepper, onions and green peas. Stir only the top of the rice, cover and continue cooking.
8. The rice is done when all the water dries up.
9. Stir with a spatula till the vegetables and the rice are well combined.
10. That's it!

For meat, serve with Peppered Chicken or Onion Baked Chicken. For side dishes, serve with Fried Plantain, Nigerian Moi Moi, Nigerian Salad or Coleslaw.

How to cook Coconut Rice (Jollof)

This Nigerian food is called the Jollof Rice with a twist! It feels good to see the looks on your guests' or friends' faces when they think you are serving them the good old Jollof Rice but bam, the moment the first spoon enters the mouth, you are sure to get the looks of pleasure! It makes you feel good, doesn't it?
How to Cook Coconut Rice [in Video Activity]

White Coconut Rice
Yes, it looks the same as the Jollof Rice you know but the aroma and taste is different. Why don't you surprise your guests tonight by preparing this easy dinner recipe?
This recipe is for Jollof Coconut Rice, there's another version of coconut rice known as the White Coconut Rice.

Ingredients

• 3 cigar cups | 750g long grain parboiled rice
• 500mls Tomato Stew
• 600 mls Coconut Milk
• Chicken (whole chicken or drumsticks)
• Chilli pepper (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• 1 medium onions
• 3 stock cubes
• 1 tablespoon thyme

Before you cook Coconut Rice

1. Prepare the tomato stew if you don't have some in the freezer. 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, wash and cut the whole chicken into pieces. Place the pieces in a pot; add water till it just covers the pieces of chicken, add the chopped onions, stock cubes and thyme and start cooking. The cooking time depends on the type of chicken. The rooster or cockerel cooks much faster than the hen but the hen is tastier.
   
   Cooking till done and add salt to taste. Put the pieces of chicken in a sieve to drain, then fry with vegetable oil. You can also grill it in an oven. This is to give it a golden look which is more presentable especially if you have guests for dinner. Read how to season and grill chicken for more one this.
3. Now is the time to extract the coconut milk. This is quite an easy task if you follow the procedure detailed in How to Extract Coconut Milk. Set the coconut milk aside.
4. Parboil the rice using the method detailed in parboiling rice for cooking coconut rice. Wash the parboiled rice and put in a sieve to drain.

Cooking Directions

1. Now we need a pot big enough to accommodate the rice till it is done. Bear in mind that the rice will normally rise by at least one quarter of its quantity from the parboiled state to the done state.
2. Pour the chicken stock, coconut milk and the tomato stew into the selected pot. Set on the stove to boil. Add the drained parboiled rice, salt and pepper to taste. If necessary, top up with water to bring the water level to the same level as 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 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 coconut rice, the rice should be done by the time the water is dry. Confirm that the rice is done by tasting it. That's the way coconut rice is cooked.

Serve with Fried Plantain, Nigerian Moi Moi, Nigerian Salad or Coleslaw.

White Coconut Rice

We have seen the Jollof Coconut Rice, this page is for the White Coconut Rice.
check video sections
There's always a war about how best to prepare Nigerian Coconut Rice with team White Coconut Rice always fighting with team Jollof Coconut Rice. You don't have to fight for these two meals because they are both delicious. Prepare the two of them and decide which is best for you and continue with that one. ;)

Ingredients for White Coconut Rice

The following quantities of ingredients served 4 people.

• 420g (~1 lb) long grain parboiled rice
• 400 mls Coconut Milk
• 400 ml chicken stock/broth
• 20 small shrimps
• 1 tatashe pepper (alternative: Tribelli peppers)
• 1 red onion
• A handful of diced sausage
• 1 big seasoning cube (optional)
• Habanero peppers (Atarodo: to taste)
• Black pepper (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• Green peas (quantity shown in video)
• Green beans (quantity shown in video)

Notes about the ingredients

1. I recommend the long grain parboiled rice because it is the rice that works best with the recipe detailed on this page. It is the best rice for all Nigerian one-pot rice recipes.
2. You can use tinned coconut milk but I prefer coconut milk that I extract from the coconuts myself: How to Extract Coconut Milk.
3. You get chicken stock by cooking chicken with seasoning cubes, thyme and onions and any other seasoning of your choice. Sometimes, I prepare Peppered Chicken or Grilled/Broiled Chicken for snacking on and I save the liquid (chicken stock) from boiling the chicken for recipes like this White Coconut Rice.
4. We do not like shellfish in my home but those shrimps work well with the coconut taste.
5. I recommend red onions for this meal because it adds some colour. Apart from that, any onions will work.
6. The sausage I used here is the Spanish tasty sausage known as chorizo (hard pork sausage). You can use any other type of dense sausage including hotdogs (Satis) which are more common in Nigeria. Chorizo really adds a delicious flavour to this meal. Use it if you can.
7. The seasoning cube is optional because I already used seasoning cubes when cooking the chicken from where I got the chicken stock/broth.
8. The green ingredients (peas and beans) are for colour. Feel free to use your favourite similar ingredients.
9. If you want the coconut rice to be completely white with no single tint of colour like the one in the image above, do not use any ingredient that transfers colour. In that case, skip the tatashe peppers and hard port sausage. You can use pale looking sausages and hotdogs because they do not transfer colour.
10. If you can, prepare the White Coconut Rice with all these ingredients listed above, please do so. It is so delicious!

Before you cook White Coconut Rice

1. Get some chicken stock from cooking chicken.
2. Extract the coconut milk.
3. Parboil/Precook the long grain parboiled rice. Add it to a pot of a generous quantity of boiling water and cook on medium heat for 8-10 minutes. This time is for the quantity of rice stated in the list of ingredients. If yours is more, you will need more time. When done with the parboiling, you should be able to cut the grain of rice with your finger nails: no resistance or rubbery feel.
   
   The science of parboiling long grain parboiled rice:
   • Long grain parboiled rice contains lots of starch and is hard. When you cook this rice as is without first of all parboiling it (especially with rice recipes where ingredients are cooked in the same pot as the rice (one-pot rice recipes), the starch content will make the rice sticky and soggy. The hard nature will hamper its absorption of water, again leading to sticky, soggy and burnt rice when you are done.
   • When we parboil/precook the rice, we reduce the starch content as some of it is poured away.
   • Precooking also softens the rice to enable it absorb water easily.
   • If parboiled correctly, the long grain parboiled rice will completely absorb the quantity of water that is at the same level as the parboiled rice. This is science. A practical example is when you want to use a bone dry rag to mop up water; what quantity of water can it absorb compared to when you are trying to mop up the water with a damp rag?
4. When happy with the rice, pour in a sieve/colander and rinse with plenty of cool water to cool it down. Leave in the sieve/colander to drain.
5. Cut the sausage into small cubes.
6. Dice the peppers and cut the green beans into about 1 inch long pieces.
7. Chop the onions.
8. Precook the shrimps and peel them or not depending on how you like them.

Cooking Directions

1. Pour the chicken stock and coconut milk into a sizeable pot. Bear in mind that the rice will normally rise by at least one quarter of its quantity from the parboiled state to the done state.
2. Add the black pepper and seasoning cube. Cover the pot and start cooking till it boils.
3. Add the precooked rice, Stir and add salt to taste. At this point the liquid should be at the same level as the rice. If not, top it up with water. If the liquid is much more than the rice, you will end up with soggy coconut rice. If you used long grain parboiled rice and you parboiled/precooked it correctly, the Coconut Rice will be done by the time the level of water dries up. There will be no need to add more water.
4. Cover the pot and start cooking on medium heat.
5. Once it boils, add the hard pork sausage. The hard pork sausage needs to be cooked but if you are using another type of sausage that does not need much cooking, add it in step 6.
6. When the water dries to exactly the same level as the rice (see video below), add the shrimps and continue cooking.
7. When the water is almost dry, add the soft ingredients: onions, green beans and green peas and the tatashe and habanero peppers.
8. Cover and continue cooking till all the water dries up. If you parboiled the rice correctly, it should be doen by now.
9. Stir with a spatula till all the ingredients are well combined. That's it!

The White Coconut Rice is best served on its own but feel free to serve it with Steamed Leafy Veggies or any other Nigerian Rice Accessory you like.

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.
Check Video Activity for Video
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 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.