Nigerian Jollof Rice

By 1/25/2016 , , ,

On the menu today is the delicious Nigerian Jollof rice, this is an amazing dish and a special crowd pleaser, and there is no Nigerian party without the ever famous party jollof! It is favorited by so many people who naturally reach out for a serving or two; thus making this dish one of the most sort after party food in Nigeria, it is on every menu!

Making this dish in the past was such a daunting task for me, I would worry if it would come out right in terms of the colour and texture, and if my finished delicacy would have the same rich redness of the delicious party jollof. I just never did feel up to the task and I am from a home of excellent cooks who never show mercy if ones dish didn’t come out right; You would be nicknamed in relation to the way your dish came out and I didn’t want that at all!

Fast forward now to the present and with many years of practice under my belt, I have got this recipe locked down! Oh yes, I got the hang of it from making delicious stews. In my head I will tell myself I am making stews but with the addition of the rice, delectable aromatic spices and garnishing. It is so easy to recreate, the secret to achieving that perfect Nigerian party jollof rice recipe is in using the right blend of spices. These spices are actually what gives the jollof its popular party taste, colour and texture and not the popular belief that the rice needs to be burnt! You want to use the right measurements for all your ingredients so that they are just enough to give that glorious deliciousness to your dish!

It is of popular believe that Jollof rice originated from rice dishes eaten by the Wolof people of Senegal, it is in fact considered as their national dish! The fun part is that this dish is eaten in most West African regions such as Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leon Cameroon, Mali, the Gambia even the Bahamas . (It is called Benachin in the Gambia). I have said it before and I will say it again, we as Africans we are connected one way or another! Its main ingredients are of course rice with tomatoes and peppers blend, it however has variations in its preparations base on people’s preferences of either adding or taking out extra ingredients. I am however making the perfect Nigerian party jollof today. As you already know, we are in love with colourful food here at Mariellasmenu so based this fact, our jollof will be colourful and enticing as well. It is after all a crowd pleaser so it has to be awesome!

Let’s cook!


1) Long grain rice (4 Cups) 800g

2) Tomatoes 300g

3) Scotch bonnet peppers

4) Red bell peppers 100g

5) Tomato paste 50g

6) Beef 400g

7) Garlic a whole bulb

8) Ginger 3g

9) 2 large onions

10) Curry powder

11) Seasoning 20g

12) Salt 2g


1) Prep all the ingredients first by peeling and washing them as appropriate

2) Blend the ginger and garlic together with enough water to make a running paste, set this aside

3) Blend the Fresh tomatoes, scotch bonnet peppers, red bell peppers and onions, with half a cup of water, set this aside too

4) Parboil the rice, drain and set aside

5) In a clean pot, add in the fresh beef, all of the seasoning, salt, sliced onions, curry powder and the ginger and garlic paste. Allow to steam first for about 3 minutes, stir and make sure the meat has been well coated in the spices before adding 3 cups of water because we need stock for the jollof

Cooks tip: I prefer to use all the seasoning I need for this dish in the meat ( whether you are using chicken or beef), I season it heavily so that the meat comes out really tasty and you have a wonderful stock to flavour your rice with. To be honest, this is the part that gives the wonderful party rice aroma. Your stock has to be on point! And what better way to achieve that than to season the meat, this packs in a lot of flavour to your dish

6) Allow the meat to parboil for another twenty minutes or until tender

7) Quickly grease your pan and add in the parboiled meat, pop this into the oven for 20 minutes at gas mark 240

8) While the meat is in the oven, you want to start making the jollof so that they are both ready at the same time and you can serve both together piping hot, so quickly take a clean pot and add in olive oil, allow to heat for 3 minutes and add in some sliced onions

9) Fry the onions for a minute then quickly add in the tomato paste and allow this to fry while stirring for two minutes

10) Quickly add in your peppers and tomato blend and stir fry for 15 minutes or as long as possible until it forms a deep red colour

Cooks tip: this sauce needs to be really fried so let it fry for 15 minutes or more while you continuously stir. In all honesty the redness also has a lot to do with the quality of the tomato paste you use. There are some tried and tested ones in the market that will surely give you that outstanding redness while others give a blackish hue to the rice and you don’t want that, so be careful with the ones you pick

11) Once the sauce has been well fried, add in the beef stock and stir well

12) Then gently pour in the parboiled rice, mix well and taste for salt, but I am very sure there won’t be any need since our stock has been heavily spiced

13) Allow to cook for 5 minutes or until the stock has dried up and garnish with your choice of fresh vegetables at the end, you do not want to over cook your vegetables, the crunchier the better

14) By this time, am sure your timer for the grilled beef would have gone off! Serve very hot with fried plantain or any accompaniments (side dishes) of your choice

So there you have it, your Nigerian party jollof rice, give your family the party feel in the comfort of your own home, recreate this today and put a smile on their faces!please drop your comments below, we are blessed by them.

 Be Inspired!


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