So, Jollof rice. Where do I start, with Jollof rice? In the average Nigerian’s lifetime, Jollof rice would have been eaten in thousands of portions. Whatever number you can think of in your head, if you happen to live in Nigeria, double that number. Would you believe that Jollof rice did not originally come from Nigeria? No, it didn’t. Jollof rice actually has its origins in Senegal, from the Wolof ethnic group and it spread across West Africa. So, shout out to the people of the Senegambia region for giving us this dish.
Now, we have Jollof rice, then we have Party Jollof rice. Make no mistake, those two are not the same thing and their meaning can be transcribed from their tags. Party Jollof rice tends to be much more delicious with the added smokey burnt flavour. Fried rice (another party favourite) is usually not on par with Jollof rice, so when I attend parties I ask for only Jollof rice because I am sure of what I will get. That orange coloured rice cooked in a delicious tangy tomato sauce. I can smell Jollof rice cooking from a mile away, because its aroma is very distinct and oh so yummy. I have seen soooooooo many recipes for Jollof rice, some have updated my knowledge and some have made me downright mad. I saw a recipe on BBC Good Food and it included okra. You must be kidding me, I said to myself. Okro in Jollof rice? Who wrote that? On a BBC site for that matter. With the teeming population of West Africans in the UK, no one could be found to write an authentic recipe for Jollof rice. I have also seen recipes using leafy greens, cabbage, carrots, green beans, all sorts. Sacrilege in my personal opinion. Jollof rice is a legend, an establishment of its own, you don’t need to mess with it. Lol…
There are two schools of thought regarding cooking Jollof rice. Whichever camp you are in, I’ll like to let you know now that there is only one camp if you want to re-create Party Jollof rice in your home. Camp 1 will suggest, frying the sauce, dilute it to make a stock and pour in the uncooked rice. Let it boil in that stock till the rice is soft. Sure, this method works fine but I’m on Camp 2 which is pre-boil the rice – which already starts the cooking process and gets rid of the starch that causes the rice grains to clump together. Then you fry the sauce till it is thick, and combine both together with water and beef stock. You gauge the volume of liquid that you use and top up if necessary, so as to allow the Jollof rice burn a little to achieve that smokey flavour. There is also one last hint involving the use of plastic wraps which I will discuss below.
Jollof rice is rice cooked with a fried tomato sauce. My Aunt told me that if you want that party flavour, you have to use lots of tomato paste. No two ways about it. When you cook Jollof rice at home, most people blend pepper made up of tomatoes, onions and tatashe (red bell pepper). Some people even add ginger and/or garlic. A lot of people leave out the tomato paste and when they use it, only a small quantity is used. Stop that now. Lol……You know I always tell you readers the secret behind these dishes. You see, the food budget for a party is no small amount, and ingredients to make pepper doesn’t come cheap. So to augment, tomato paste is used, which also gives party Jollof rice a deep orange colour. To cook Jollof rice at home you would use pepper generously because hey it is only for a few people. When you want to cook for 500 – 1000 strong, you have to cut corners somewhere. I am the eldest child and my mum is from a region of Nigeria who love to throw parties so much, the tribe is synonymous for that – The Ijebus. So, I have watched Party Jollof rice being cooked more times than I can count. On the list of ingredients for Jollof rice are huge cans of tomato paste and it is used to fry a rich sauce. The composition of this sauce also leaves out ginger, garlic and all those extras that we use at home. Believe it or not, party Jollof rice is very basic and therein lies its awesomeness. The simplicity of the ingredients is key, and they are:
- Long grain rice
- Tomatoes
- Red Onions
- Tatashe (red bell pepper)
- Ata Rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
- Tomato Paste
- Olive oil
- Curry Powder
- Dried Thyme
- Salt
- Seasoning cube
- Beef Stock
- Ginger
- White Pepper
How to
1. Blend the tomatoes, onions, tatashe (red bell pepper) and ata rodo (scotch bonnet/habanero pepper) to a smooth paste. Heat it in a pot to reduce the volume till you see small dots (bubbles) in the pepper. It is very important to achieve this, to boil out the water content.
2. Pre-boil the rice first. Remember I wrote above that the rice is combined with a fried tomato sauce. To do this, you have to pre-boil the rice to start the cooking process. To pre-boil the rice, pour the rice unwashed into a pot with a lot of water. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: I will explain later why unwashed. Let the rice come to a boil till you can see the creamy starch floating on top of the water and the rice has now the white colour of boiled rice. Taste the rice and make sure it is al dente before taking it off the heat. Al dente is Italian for cooked to be firm but not hard. Be careful now, any more cooking and you will make baby food Jollof rice and not Party Jollof rice.
3. Once the rice is al dente, pour out all the water and then proceed to wash the rice. By washing the rice at this point with cold water you are stopping the cooking process. Many times I watched the women hired to cook for the party do this and I didn’t understand why. I found out the reason why when I got older and I watched a cooking show, on how to blanch tomatoes. This is a very common process with cooking vegetables, especially green veggies such as asparagus, runner beans and even corn. As they are larger food items, you pour into a bowl filled with ice cubes but with rice, simply decant the hot water into the sink and open the tap to maximum flooding the pot with cold water to stop the cooking process so the rice retains its al denteness (pardon my french, lol).
4. While the rice is pre-cooking, fry the tomato sauce with 4 – 5 cooking spoons of olive oil. You need this much to fry the pepper properly. To fry the tomato sauce chop at least 1 red onion, (2 if you are making a large quantity of jollof rice) and fry lightly in your choice of oil. Once the onions are translucent add the reduced pepper from step 1. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: If you have boiled the pepper properly, the frying process will start immediately. If not the pepper will boil instead and prolong the cooking time. Add curry powder and dried thyme in tablespoon increments, and taste every few minutes. Let your taste buds and personal preference decide if you want to add more. Be careful though you don’t want the spices to overpower the sauce.
5. At the beginning the oil will combine well with the pepper. You will know it has fried when the oil floats to the top and the colour has changed from golden to deep orange. Now add the tomato paste. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: You don’t want to add the tomato paste at the beginning because it will thicken the reduced pepper and burn. Add the tomato paste – lots of it (a ratio of 60% mixed pepper – 40% tomato paste) and add beef stock.
Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: The stock is to help thin out the paste to reduce the chance of burning and to also provide salt and seasoning. If you add the paste straight from the can it will definitely burn.
6. Let the tomato paste fry with the pepper till it thickens and small bubbles form in the pepper which gives it a curdled look. Taste for salt and seasoning. If it needs more, add more. Now it is time to add the pre-cooked rice to the pot followed by more beef stock and then stir.
Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: Old wives tale alert – the hired party cooks say stir with a wooden spoon and not a metal spoon to prevent the rice from clumping. How true this is, I don’t know but erm, I do it. Lol. Keep adding the stock till it just slightly covers the rice. Cover the pot midway and watch the rice closely. Once it has absorbed the stock, tear the seams of a supermarket plastic bag to make it flat or use a large piece of foil paper, place on top of the rice and seal the edges where the plastic bag/foil touches the pot. it is important that you seal the edges so no steam escapes. Then you cover the pot properly.
Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: this is to enable the rice cook in its own steam, so you will not need additional stock or water which is the main reason behind soggy jollof rice which ironically also burns. This is a tip I learnt from those hired party cooks. It will burn a little for sure, and you want that anyway to create a smokey flavour.
7. After a few minutes, check the rice and stir. If some bits have burnt, no problem, just try not to scrape the bottom of the pot harshly while you stir. Taste the rice for softness. If it is still too firm, add a little stock, and I mean a little. You may never need to top up. If you do, you will probably need to do this only once. Cover again with the plastic or foil wrap and let it cook till the rice is totally soft. Stir, again to allow the sauce to combine with all the bits of the rice.
The chief guest of honour – the one and only Party Jollof rice
……….and that’s it. Party Jollof rice served with Dodo Gizzard and Fried Chicken tossed in a rich tomato sauce. Bon Appetite………….
I put this up because I was cooking for my friend’s party this past weekend. Unfortunately when you are cooking for a party, there are no opportunities to take pictures, so please pardon me this time for the lack of step by step pictures. I hope I have been descriptive enough.
Dooney’s Kitchen Extra Hints and Tips
Don’t cook this in a non stick pot or heavy metal based pots that prevent food from burning. This is party Jollof rice people, you want it to burn a little.
Keep some of that rich fried tomato sauce. You will need it for your fried/grilled chicken, meats and fish plus dodo gizzard which I will discuss in another post.
Hello Dooney,
I’m hosting my colleagues this weekend and even though i’ve made JR uncountable times in the past, I want to have a total DooneyRooney experience this time (pity i’m stuck in Germany else I would have simply placed an order). Anyway, please i need some clarification of your description….particularly Step 7. Is the rice still on the cooker at this point? If yes, would that be lower heat or same as before? Looking forward to your reply. Thanks so much and keep up the excellent job!!
Yes it is still on the cooker, and you can lower the heat a little if you wish
Hi pls wld luv a video of how u prepared d meal d step by step tingi really doesn’t play well wit me!tinkin aloud! Winks
hello mrs dunni…indeed you’re dun ni. i’m your latest fan. kudos to you for bringing this together .
I want to say a big thank you to u Dooney this method is the best method ever. Now I can boldly cook jollof rice
Thank you so much for this. Please at what point is the ginger added?
Dooney!!!!!!! You are a life saver….been “cooking” jollof rice for ages but it always turn out like “concortion” I even add bay leaf oo but na lie so I followed your recipe this morning & viola I got it…smells & tastes exactly like party jollof. Will definitely try it again to be sure it wasn’t a fluke. BTW I didn’t even have stock o & it still turned out PERFECTLY….God bless you sis
Yaaaaaaaay. Up you. Really pleased to read this
Thanks dooney. But pls I tried your method but the sour taste still came up because of the tinned tomatoes paste. Really don’t know what to do
which brand of tin tomatoes are you using and what quantity are you using in relation to fresh pepper?
I decided to check out if there are other ideas on cooking this special dish and I saw quite a few interesting recipes. I also saw that BBC recipe and remember showing it to my colleague who said ‘ Olorun maje'(a way to say, she won’t try such…lol). I must confess that your recipe is outstanding. I like your thoughtfulness in writing as you make us experience it your way and those tips you give create the unique you. I will definitely try this at Christmas.
Thank you!!!
Hi could you give the exact quantities for each ingredient please. I’m a learner cook and have no idea how much of everything I need.
hi, how much of a learner cook are you, because giving you exact measurements gives you my personal recipe, which i’m afraid isn’t available to be handed out due to its commercial value
Hi Dunni,
I’m a big fan of your cooking, in fact whenever I’m cooking for parties, I come first to your site. I would order instead but I live in Canada. Jollof Rice is my lowest point for cooking because whenever I cook it in small quantities it comes out perfect but whenever I cook it in big quantities I have to throw it all away. Anyways I am cooking for my church tomorrow and I decided to give your recipe a try however there are no quantities and I don’t want to mess up. Can you possibly give me rough estimates of what i should be using?
Funnily enough Dooney….when you run out of Tatashe, you come up with creative methods to substitute. I often susbtitute Tatashe for dried red chili (Shombo) and Dried New Mexican red chili peppers (not sure of the Yoruba name).
You have to remove the seeds, soak in hot water to soften before blending, and must be blended with tomato so it doesn’t over power. I found I have to reduce the amount of ata rodo because it may come out too spicy. It even tastes better at times in the right proportion, and gives more of the red color. Also gives it a smokier flavor.
I still use paste but I typically add it after the rice is almost dried, stir with wooden spoon, and allow it to finish steaming with foil as you taught. Mine never has a sour taste but I like using Hunt’s brand which is what my mom always used growing up. It just taste better to me. Jollof game has drastically improved since reading this blog.
Hi, my own version of party jollof rice with same ingredients as Dooney is dt I fry the tomato paste with slice onions with moderate Vegetable oil until a bit brown, then I pour my blended pepper and fry, then d meat stock and spices. This gives it a party flavour and then that burnt flavour too and a rich tomatoe colour rice.
Hi Dunni,
I’m South African, sitting in South Africa and salivating over this recipe. My parents are hosting Christmas for my extended family (60 strong) and I offered to cook jollof rice (what was I thinking, eek!). The problem is, I have only ever cooked jollof rice twice and the jury is out on whether it was a success or not (my hubby, who is Nigerian, said “it’s very tasty!”which isn’t a complete vote of confidence. Haha). Anyway, i think this is the recipe I’d like to use, BUT understandably, there aren’t any quantities, so now i’m stuck. I completely understand the commercial value of your personal recipe but is there ANY way you can give an idea?
hi, i am so so sorry i can’t give you an idea but the second post about party jollof rice gives you a pretty good idea about how to work out the measurement. i hope that helps
excuse me maam does this indirectly mean that you dont use fresh tomatoes or its not necessary?
hi, you need fresh tomatoes. the recipe says so. please check again
Oh Dooney you’re the best!! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and passion.Jollof rice has never been my strength it’s always a struggle! I used your recipe on Christmas Day , followed it step by step and Voila jollof rice on point, I was so excited even my 4 year old says “mummy I like this orange rice you cooked”( so you have an idea how off color my previous jollof used to be).
God Bless you!
Thank you Dooney. This is our new year’s lunch and I must say it’s a bang!!! Added my own twist to it by placing a sprig of rosemary and some basil leaves in the rice and covering after I’d turned off the heat. The aroma is amaze balls!!!!
Finally I can cook jollof rice right! Thank you.
My jollof rice is embarrassing, I just never seemed to get it right. My boyfriend suggested YouTube, and I decided to go for a recipe because I didn’t have a lot of data at the time. I googled and found on your blog and voila! Your steps are so easy to follow! The rice turned out perfectly I tell you. I’m so proud of myself. Made it again today (just in case last time was a fluke) and it was really good too, although I think I did it better the last time. I was a bit heavy handed with the sauce and oil so it thickened at the bottom a bit, but it still turned out super.
Thank you Dunni. Seriously.
Dooney you’re my very own rockstar! I made Jollof rice for my mother-in-law. You should have seen her face when she took the first ‘base’ ??
The first question she asked was who made the rice for me, I smiled and told her I cooked it.
Then, she was like this is nice, it is sweet, it is very very sweet.
PS My MiL is a renowned bad-ass cook. But when she ate my swaggalicious jollof rice, she had to agree that surely I’m a badder-ass cook than she is???
All thanks to Dooney the rockstar?
aaaaaaaaaw, very happy to help. you did all the cooking. you are the rockstar
Hi dooney, love all the tips you showcase on ur blog and instagram. thanks for not being stingy (lol).
Ginger is listed as an ingredient for this recipe but did you actually use it (you said to leave out all the extras like ginger and garlic) and for what?
ps: Im poised to get my party jolly rice on this weekend :). I’m sure ur recipe will do justice.
oh, this is an updated recipe. thanks to my mum i now add ginger to jollof rice. just a little though, for flavour, and not overpowering
Is it possible to update this recipe with actual or even approximate measurements? It’s rather difficult to scale how much of each ingredient to add for the dish.