Jollof Rice With Chicken
Published Dec 22, 2021
Updated Jan 17, 2023
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How to make really tasty Jollof Rice With Chicken! I love how this recipe makes a complete meal with rice, chicken and veggies! It is incredibly flavorful and works well for dinner or entertaining.
Everyone needs a good chicken and rice recipe they can make whether for dinner or for special occasions. This Jollof Rice With Chicken recipe is that kind of recipe. It is a keeper! Print it out and make it whenever you want to make a rice dish that has the wow factor.
The rice is very flavorful with the blend of spices used. No bland rice here. Also, it contains no strange ingredients so almost anyone can make this.
With added veggies, this Jollof Rice makes a balanced meal. Alternatively, you could make the rice without added veggies and serve it with a simple salad on the side.
If you love recipes like this, also check out this African Chicken Stew, Nigerian Beef Stew, and Steak Fried Rice.
What Is Jollof Rice?
Jollof Rice is a tomato and rice-based dish that is widely loved and eaten across West and Central Africa. Typically the rice is cooked in a flavorful tomatoey liquid. There are varying methods of making Jollof Rice across the countries where it is eaten.
It is a dish that is easy to fall in love with. The combination of rice, tomatoes and aromatics just works.
Jollof Rice can be made with beef, chicken or fish. It could even be made vegan. It is such a versatile dish that works well for dinner or for parties.
In Cameroon, where I come from Jollof Rice is the ever-present dish at parties. The menu is just not complete without it.
Why You’ll Love This Jollof Rice Recipe
- It is incredibly tasty.
- It is made with easy-to-find ingredients
- No unnecessary ingredients!
- One pot for cooking the rice!
- The chicken is so flavorful.
- The chicken could be fried or baked.
- It’s a meal that impresses!
Easy Jollof Rice With Chicken
Here is an Easy Jollof Rice With Chicken recipe you are guaranteed to love. If you’ve never made Jollof Rice before, I encourage you to give it ago and you’ll be amazed at the tasty results.
Rice with chicken is such a classic combo and this one right here is a crowd-pleaser.
An Authentic Jollof Rice Recipe
Also, this recipe is authentic. I have seen recipes being paraded as Jollof Rice recipes with ingredients that are so foreign to Jollof.
Also, soggy Jollof rice is not it. The rice in Jollof Rice should be fully cooked and fluffy. Not mushy.
Key Ingredients For Jollof Rice
1. Long Grain Rice: For this recipe I used Jasmine rice. Other great rice choices for Jollof Rice are Basmati rice or parboiled rice.
2. Tomatoes: A combination of fresh tomatoes and tomato sauce or paste makes excellent Jollof rice. Use roma tomatoes as they are not as acidic as other kinds of tomato. Jollof Rice should be tomatoey but the tomatoes shouldn’t make the rice tangy.
3. Onions: Use onions in Jollof Rice for flavor.
4. Oil: For sautéing onions and making the tomato sauce. Any neutral tasting oil works here. Oils like light olive oil, vegetable, peanut oil or canola oil work well in Jollof Rice.
5. Chicken or Beef Stock. This is key in adding flavor to the use. Ideally the stock used in cooking Jollof Rice should be from cooking the chicken or beef made to go with the rice.
6. Stock Cubes: Also known as bouillon cubes or Maggi, stock cubes are key in adding flavor to Jollof Rice.
7. Garlic and Ginger: The combination of garlic ginger works wonders in making Jollof Rice tasty. Do not skip it.
Other ingredients that could really take your Jollof Rice to the next level include white pepper, bay leaves, dried or fresh thyme, basil, parsley celery, fresh or dried rosemary, curry powder, habanero (or scotch bonnet pepper for heat), and smoked paprika or regular paprika.
I didn’t use every single ingredient listed above in this Jollof Rice recipe. I used the key ingredients with some added herbs and spices ingredients for a flavor boost. I want you to know of different herbs and spices you could experiment with in your Jollof Rice.
How To Cook Jollof Rice With Chicken
Here are summarized steps on how to cook Jollof Rice With Chicken:
1. Season chicken with blended garlic and ginger, onions, salt and white pepper. Cook the chicken with seasonings and water to make chicken stock.
2. Remove chicken from stock and either fry or broil in the oven until golden brown.
3. Blend tomatoes and cook down into a paste.
4. Saute onions and add in cooked down tomatoes and tomato sauce or paste. Cook until the tomatoes shrink and start sticking to the bottom of the pot.
5. To the pot add dried thyme, blended garlic and ginger, and white pepper. Stir to combine.
6. Add chicken stock and water to the pot. Add in salt and chicken bouillon powder.
7. Add washed rice to the pot, cover and cook on low heat until the rice is fluffy.
8. Add carrots and green beans to rice if so desired. Serve the Jollof Rice with the chicken.
Other Jollof Rice Recipes You Might Love
Watch How To Make Jollof Rice With Chicken
Watch me show you step-by-step how to make Jollof Rice With Chicken in the video below. If you would like to keep up with my cooking videos please subscribe to my YouTube channel and click on the notification bell.
Jollof Rice With Chicken
Ingredients
- 15-20 garlic cloves peeled
- 3 inch ginger root peeled and sliced into chunks
- 4 pounds chicken drumsticks and thighs about 2kg
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 ½ teaspoons salt
- 4 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
- 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
- Vegetable oil for frying
- 6 large roma tomatoes
- 16 -17 oz tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 cups jasmine rice or other long grain rice
- 1/2 cup diced/sliced carrots
- 1/2 cup diced/sliced green beans
Instructions
- Blend the spices. Place the garlic and ginger into a blender. Add about a quarter cup of water. Blend into a paste.
- Season the chicken. Place the chicken into a pot. Add in about one quarter of the diced onion. Add in two tablespoons of the blended garlic and ginger, half teaspoon of the white pepper, one and a half teaspoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of chicken bouillon powder. Toss everything to combine.
- Cook the chicken. Add 3 cups of water to the chicken. Bring to a boil on high heat then let it simmer on medium heat for about 18 minutes.
- Cook the tomatoes. Add fresh tomatoes to blender and blend to a paste. Do not add water while blending. Pour the blended tomatoes into a medium saucepan. Let it cook on medium heat for 20 minutes until the tomatoes shrink. Do not stir while the tomatoes cook down.
- Prep chicken for frying. Remove the chicken from its stock using a frying spoon and place in a colander to drain. Reserve the stock.
- Note: I reserved two cups of stock.
- Fry chicken. Place oil in a frying pan up to 2 inches. Let the oil heat up then add the chicken to the oil and fry until golden brown. When one side turns golden, flip to the other side.
- Remove fried chicken and place on paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Let the oil cool down then take out out one cup f oil to cook the rice.
- Make the sauce for the rice. Place one cup of the oil used in frying the chicken into a non-stick or heavy bottom pot. Let the oil heat up then add the remaining onions. Sauté for two minutes while stirring from time to time until the onions are fragrant.
- Add the cooked-down tomatoes to the pot and cook while stirring for about 5 minutes.
- Add the tomato sauce and cook while stirring from time to time until the sauce shrinks and starts sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- Add in the one teaspoon of dried thyme and stir so it releases its flavor.
- Add in the remaining blended garlic and ginger. Stir well and let it cook for about 2 minutes.
- Wash rice. Wash the rice 3-4 times to remove the excess starch.
- Add rice to pot. Add the washed rice to the pot with tomato sauce. Stir well to combine.
- Add in the reserved 2 cups of chicken stock, the remaining one teaspoon of salt, two teaspoons of chicken bouillon powder, half teaspoon of white pepper and 2 bay leaves. Stir everything to combine.
- Add in two cups of water. Cover the pot tightly with a large sheet of aluminum foil (this will help trap the steam into the pot). lace the lead on the pot and reduce the heat to low.
- Cook rice on low. Let the rice cook on low heat for 20 minutes. Open the pot and gently stir the rice being careful not to break the grains.
- Cover the rice again with aluminum foil and the place the lid of the pot on the aluminum foil. (Watch the video to see what I mean.)
- Let the rice cook on low heat for another 20 minutes.
- Add carrots and green beans. Open the pot and add the diced carrots and green beans. Cover and let the veggies cook with the rice for 5 minutes.
- Fluff and serve. Remove bay leaves, fluff rice with a fork and serve with the fried chicken. You could serve with an additional salad if you so desire.
Notes
- For this recipe I used jasmine rice but any long grain rice would work as well.
- Instead of frying the chicken you could broil it in the oven until golden brown.
Hi Precious!
I am so happy I found your blog! I am born in Sweden and one of my dads best friends is from Senegal. So in my childhood memories I cherish all the dinners that we had together. One dish that I remember especially is a chicken dish with rice. It could have been some sort of Jollof rice, with chicken. But the chicken was first brined in buttermilk over night and then slowly cooked in the oven on low temperature for hours. It is one of the yummiest things I ever had. Maybe you know of it? I would love to hear from you if you do. My dads friend is old and his memory is fading, so he can’t help me…
I have been a chef all my life, today I work as a teacher in culinary school. I am especially fascinated by African food. But there is so much to learn. So thank you for your blog and your YouTube channel.
Sincerely
Heléne
Hi Heléne!
So glad to read from you! The chicken dish you had sounds delicious! Unfortunately, I am not sure what particular recipe that is! Hope you find some answers.
Thank you so much for your kind words!
Looking delicious, I’m going to try it this week!!!!
Hi Susanna, hope you enjoy!
I’ve been searching for this recipe wanting to follow directions and enjoy the flavor of this tasty dish☝🏽 ❤️
Please let me know how it goes, Renette!
I just tried to make this, it looked so good and the flavor was awesome. I just ended up with mushy rice. Can you please update the water to stock ratio. I did not use the 6 cups of rice since it seemed a bit much. I used 4 cups rice and added the 4cups of chicken stock with maybe 1/4 more of water. I noticed the ratio of wet ingredients just looked too much mostly from the tomato paste which seems to add to the recipe as a liquid base. Anywho, the recipe seems great if the wet ingredients are tweaked a bit more better for understanding. Thank you ! I will try again in that case
Hi Ikayla, thank you for your review. This recipe calls for 6 cups of rice and 4 cups of stock and water. 2 cups of stock and 2 cups of water. You used less rice than I used and more liquid than I used. That’s why your rice turned out mushy. If you used 4 cups of rice, you ought to have scaled down the other ingredients to match the 4 cups of rice for the best results. If you check the top of the recipe card, you’ll find a button for scaling down the ingredients. I suggest you try again and cut every ingredient in half. Hope this helps.
I made this tonight and followed your recipe exactly, it was so delicious!
Thank you for the great feedback, Jenny!