**Jollof Rice and Chicken Stew: A Traditional West African Dish**

In this article, we will explore the preparation and cooking techniques for two quintessential West African dishes: Jollof Rice and Chicken Stew. These dishes are staples of the region's cuisine and are loved by people all over the world. We will delve into the ingredients, cooking methods, and tips to help you prepare these delicious dishes at home.

**Jollof Rice**

To start, let's talk about Jollof Rice. This dish is a classic West African recipe that originated in Ghana and has since spread throughout the region. The key ingredient is rice, which is parched or toasted to bring out its natural flavors. Parching the rice is an important step in cooking it, as it helps to remove excess moisture and creates a nutty flavor. To parch the rice, we add a generous amount of oil to the pot and heat it until it's hot and smoking.

Next, we add the tomato paste, which gives the dish its signature flavor. The tomato paste is cooked for just a few minutes until it reaches a dark, almost rusty color. This adds depth and richness to the dish. We then add the parched rice to the pot, stirring well to coat each grain with oil. The rice is cooked in water, but not too much – we want to preserve some of the liquid's natural flavor.

To complete the Jollof Rice, we add a generous amount of salt and let it come to a boil before transferring it to the oven. The heat of the oven helps to cook the rice evenly and adds a tender texture to each grain. We check on the dish after 20-30 minutes and adjust the seasoning as needed.

**Chicken Stew**

Now, let's move on to Chicken Stew, another beloved West African dish. This recipe is similar to Jollof Rice, but with some key differences. We start by browning the chicken in a hot pot, which adds a rich flavor to the dish. We season the chicken aggressively with salt and pepper, as this helps to bring out its natural flavors.

We then add oil to the pot and cook it until it's hot and smoking, just like we did for the Jollof Rice. However, we turn down the heat so that the chicken doesn't splatter in the pot. We carefully add the chicken to the pot and let it cook slowly for 30 minutes to an hour, allowing the flavors to meld together.

The key to a good Chicken Stew is patience – it's essential to let the dish simmer slowly, allowing the flavors to deepen and the chicken to break down. This results in a tender and flavorful stew that's perfect for serving with rice or other West African dishes.

**Fried Plantains**

Finally, we'll talk about Fried Plantains, a delicious side dish that pairs perfectly with Jollof Rice and Chicken Stew. To make fried plantains, we need to cook them until they're golden brown on the outside and tender on the inside. We start by heating oil in a deep pan over medium-high heat.

Next, we cut the plantains into thin rounds and fry them until they're golden brown. The key is to not overcrowd the pan – we want each plantain to have enough room to cook evenly. We also need to be careful when flipping the plantains, as they can burn easily.

Once the plantains are cooked, we remove them from the oil and let them cool for a few minutes. We then season them with salt and serve them hot alongside Jollof Rice and Chicken Stew. The combination of flavors is unbeatable – sweet, spicy, and savory all at once.

**Conclusion**

In this article, we explored two beloved West African dishes: Jollof Rice and Chicken Stew. These recipes are rich in flavor and history, and they're perfect for serving at family gatherings or special occasions. By following our tips and techniques, you can create these delicious dishes at home and experience the authentic flavors of West Africa.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ennow there's a lot of debate he makes the best jollof rice and we all know it's Nigerian people that's why I'm here about to have a banging ass meal very very soon my name is Kwame and Watchi and I'm from the Bronx to New York and today we're gonna make gel off rice red stew and fried plantain red stew is kind of like the mother sauce of West Africa we put it in a lot of different things it starts with that base it's really very similar to a sofrito if you cut it properly you should just get the whole top off beautifully DC this pepper real quick and then just let your knife do the work and roll this bad boy out we are going to chop these tomatoes once again rough chop it has so many aromatic qualities as well as that you know nice acidic sweet tomato flavor and my restaurant I usually use this in lieu of tomatoes in any recipe so by making a Veracruz sauce I'll use this instead of tomatoes I'll use the the finished paste so we have the onions chopped here I'm gonna add some curry powder to bullion cubes gosh bonnet peppers throw that in there this garlic and we're not we're not even gonna cut these up we're gonna throw them right in there blenders gonna do all the work for us so I always like to appeal my ginger with the spoon because you get the least amount of flesh off of it and you get the maximum amount of yield don't feel the need to mince this just slice it into manageable pieces now that it's almost ready to blend I'm gonna heat this pan up so we're not waiting for it you're gonna want to add more oil than you really think necessary it's removing the water content from this vegetable puree but it's also caramelizing the vegetables at the same time sure you get some tomatoes in there it'll help bust this baby up so you're really looking before it's a nice pace so continue that process until it's all blended up all right so you want to control your heats you're gonna want to turn it down or it'll splatter a lot gonna caramelize in this oil it's going to remove a lot of the moisture from the sauce and it's gonna cook out these aromatics all at the same time constant stirring and you can see this as like intensified so much in color and richness and flavor it smells so good and the oil is starting to separate you can just put this over rice you can cook whatever protein you want in it or you can make rice later so we're gonna make you love rice and we're also going to stew some chicken Oh throw it there was off-camera how's the coolest I've ever did in my life ha so for the gel off rice I like mine really spicy so I'm gonna add a little bit more sauteed scotch bonnet peppers to it so we're gonna start by just chopping this now if you want it more spicy put another one in if you want it less spicy only use half of the pepper so we're adding a lot more oil than you usually would because we're gonna parch the rice and parching the rice is cooking the rice and oil and coating each individual grain with fat that way when it's cooked and you have the finished product it's all separate and beautiful I'm just gonna add this the pot I'm gonna add the tomato paste just gonna let this cook for a little bit honestly like three minutes very very quick so now that the tomato paste is has like a rusty color it's a little bit more darker we're gonna add the rice so I'm just gonna parch the rice and it's gonna toast a little bit and really get a nice nutty flavor that's why I like cooking my rice like this and now I'm gonna add that sooo back that red stew that we made and this is gonna give it that signature flavor of jollof rice now I'm gonna add my water and we'll salt it when we fluff it but we do want to get some seasoning into the core of the rice so I have a generous amount of salt now we're gonna let this come to a boil before we put in together I think it's ready to go in the oven so we're just gonna put a lid on it don't rush this process it's really really important that the liquid is really hot when you put it in so make sure your ovens at 350 degrees fully before you put it in there so this is going to here for about twenty to thirty minutes we'll check it in 20 and see how it looks all right so we're gonna make chicken stew now so chicken stew is once again a quintessential West African dish we have this pot it's heating up we're gonna add some oil to it and right now we're just gonna Brown the chicken and that's gonna add a really nice flavor to it I'm just gonna season it very aggressively with salt they see the oil of smoking that's the pot telling you it's ready to go now we're not looking to cook the chicken we're only looking to brown it on the outside always seasoned high so it coats it like snow all right we're gonna go right into this pot because we want to get all those caramelized bits on the bottom but we'll turn it down a little bit so this isn't splatter on us it's a lot of flavor from that caramelized chicken skin we're gonna add the chicken right to this student I'm gonna add the rest of the stew on top of here so this is like a dried smoked shrimp powder it adds a mommy to a lot of dishes in West Africa cook it for about 30 minutes to an hour and let it stew nice and slowly let that chicken break down and seep in all of those delicious flavors now this is one of those dishes that you can cook it today and it's gonna taste better tomorrow and the next day so we're just gonna simply do fried plantain it should be almost black you know the darker the outside with these nice little yellow spots it lets you know that it's really really sweet and it's ready to go I'm just gonna cut these into like nice rounds on a bias you know cook pretty quickly so you're just looking for them to be golden brown on the outside and you want your oil at about 350 degrees get the nice crispy outside golden brown while cooking all the way through on the inside it's too hot it'll burn all the way on the outside before it's even cooked so it's been 20 minutes let's check on this rice and check to see if this is so yep the rice looks done I'm gonna pour off a little bit of the excess oil I'm just gonna fluff this rice want to flip your plantains over so they're nice and golden-brown all the way around plantains are definitely ready to come out you see the number thought as soon as they come out the oil for the salt can stick to them using this with a little bit more salt I think we're ready to go so we will put a little bit of the rice down with that this just reminds me of my childhood so much shape it a little bit of the stew there a couple pieces Boston wrote this is a quintessential West African gel off rice and chicken stew I have slaved away at this it's time to eat it and this chicken should just fall off the bone like that mmm people needs to eat more West Africans who can we do that this year can y'all promise me to eat more West African food mmm plantains just like cut through that that heat so well dipping this and the Stube outside mmm check out the link you want the recipe or come on down and get them kidnow there's a lot of debate he makes the best jollof rice and we all know it's Nigerian people that's why I'm here about to have a banging ass meal very very soon my name is Kwame and Watchi and I'm from the Bronx to New York and today we're gonna make gel off rice red stew and fried plantain red stew is kind of like the mother sauce of West Africa we put it in a lot of different things it starts with that base it's really very similar to a sofrito if you cut it properly you should just get the whole top off beautifully DC this pepper real quick and then just let your knife do the work and roll this bad boy out we are going to chop these tomatoes once again rough chop it has so many aromatic qualities as well as that you know nice acidic sweet tomato flavor and my restaurant I usually use this in lieu of tomatoes in any recipe so by making a Veracruz sauce I'll use this instead of tomatoes I'll use the the finished paste so we have the onions chopped here I'm gonna add some curry powder to bullion cubes gosh bonnet peppers throw that in there this garlic and we're not we're not even gonna cut these up we're gonna throw them right in there blenders gonna do all the work for us so I always like to appeal my ginger with the spoon because you get the least amount of flesh off of it and you get the maximum amount of yield don't feel the need to mince this just slice it into manageable pieces now that it's almost ready to blend I'm gonna heat this pan up so we're not waiting for it you're gonna want to add more oil than you really think necessary it's removing the water content from this vegetable puree but it's also caramelizing the vegetables at the same time sure you get some tomatoes in there it'll help bust this baby up so you're really looking before it's a nice pace so continue that process until it's all blended up all right so you want to control your heats you're gonna want to turn it down or it'll splatter a lot gonna caramelize in this oil it's going to remove a lot of the moisture from the sauce and it's gonna cook out these aromatics all at the same time constant stirring and you can see this as like intensified so much in color and richness and flavor it smells so good and the oil is starting to separate you can just put this over rice you can cook whatever protein you want in it or you can make rice later so we're gonna make you love rice and we're also going to stew some chicken Oh throw it there was off-camera how's the coolest I've ever did in my life ha so for the gel off rice I like mine really spicy so I'm gonna add a little bit more sauteed scotch bonnet peppers to it so we're gonna start by just chopping this now if you want it more spicy put another one in if you want it less spicy only use half of the pepper so we're adding a lot more oil than you usually would because we're gonna parch the rice and parching the rice is cooking the rice and oil and coating each individual grain with fat that way when it's cooked and you have the finished product it's all separate and beautiful I'm just gonna add this the pot I'm gonna add the tomato paste just gonna let this cook for a little bit honestly like three minutes very very quick so now that the tomato paste is has like a rusty color it's a little bit more darker we're gonna add the rice so I'm just gonna parch the rice and it's gonna toast a little bit and really get a nice nutty flavor that's why I like cooking my rice like this and now I'm gonna add that sooo back that red stew that we made and this is gonna give it that signature flavor of jollof rice now I'm gonna add my water and we'll salt it when we fluff it but we do want to get some seasoning into the core of the rice so I have a generous amount of salt now we're gonna let this come to a boil before we put in together I think it's ready to go in the oven so we're just gonna put a lid on it don't rush this process it's really really important that the liquid is really hot when you put it in so make sure your ovens at 350 degrees fully before you put it in there so this is going to here for about twenty to thirty minutes we'll check it in 20 and see how it looks all right so we're gonna make chicken stew now so chicken stew is once again a quintessential West African dish we have this pot it's heating up we're gonna add some oil to it and right now we're just gonna Brown the chicken and that's gonna add a really nice flavor to it I'm just gonna season it very aggressively with salt they see the oil of smoking that's the pot telling you it's ready to go now we're not looking to cook the chicken we're only looking to brown it on the outside always seasoned high so it coats it like snow all right we're gonna go right into this pot because we want to get all those caramelized bits on the bottom but we'll turn it down a little bit so this isn't splatter on us it's a lot of flavor from that caramelized chicken skin we're gonna add the chicken right to this student I'm gonna add the rest of the stew on top of here so this is like a dried smoked shrimp powder it adds a mommy to a lot of dishes in West Africa cook it for about 30 minutes to an hour and let it stew nice and slowly let that chicken break down and seep in all of those delicious flavors now this is one of those dishes that you can cook it today and it's gonna taste better tomorrow and the next day so we're just gonna simply do fried plantain it should be almost black you know the darker the outside with these nice little yellow spots it lets you know that it's really really sweet and it's ready to go I'm just gonna cut these into like nice rounds on a bias you know cook pretty quickly so you're just looking for them to be golden brown on the outside and you want your oil at about 350 degrees get the nice crispy outside golden brown while cooking all the way through on the inside it's too hot it'll burn all the way on the outside before it's even cooked so it's been 20 minutes let's check on this rice and check to see if this is so yep the rice looks done I'm gonna pour off a little bit of the excess oil I'm just gonna fluff this rice want to flip your plantains over so they're nice and golden-brown all the way around plantains are definitely ready to come out you see the number thought as soon as they come out the oil for the salt can stick to them using this with a little bit more salt I think we're ready to go so we will put a little bit of the rice down with that this just reminds me of my childhood so much shape it a little bit of the stew there a couple pieces Boston wrote this is a quintessential West African gel off rice and chicken stew I have slaved away at this it's time to eat it and this chicken should just fall off the bone like that mmm people needs to eat more West Africans who can we do that this year can y'all promise me to eat more West African food mmm plantains just like cut through that that heat so well dipping this and the Stube outside mmm check out the link you want the recipe or come on down and get them kid\n"