How to cook Jollof rice for beginners ~Make Nigerian party Jollof at home ~ SHOP AND COOK WITH ME

Hey , everyone .

Welcome to my channel .

Today's video is all about mastering the art of jello rice .

If you're planning to make jello for the first time or you're looking to your jello game , then this video is for you .

I'm going to take you through the step by step process from selecting the right ingredients , my favorite cooking technique and I'll be sharing with you you loads and loads of tips on how to get your jello perfect every time , no matter your skill level , this is a cook with me video .

So let's dive in and get started .

So just a heads up .

This video is going to be a bit lengthy simply because I'm trying to make it as detailed as possible .

So you get your perfect jell of rice on the first try .

If you want to show a video on jello fries , I do have that on my channel and I'm going to add the link here .

So I'm shopping at my local heb .

The ingredients for Jollof are really simple and you can get this from any store in any part of the world you're currently in .

I'm going to get started with the vegetables , which is the closest thing to me .

So first I'm going to pick out the tomatoes .

They have a whole lot of different varieties here in the US .

Anyone would work .

But I find the other types to be very watery .

So you wanna look for Roma tomatoes , which is best for Nigerian soups and perfect for jello rice .

Selecting your tomatoes is very key .

So I'm gonna go ahead to pick out the very red ones which are the ripest right next to the tomatoes .

I found the red pepper .

If you can find the red at your local store , you can always get the yellow as a substitute .

You don't wanna take too much of this because it's very , very spicy .

Next , I'm going to get the red bell peppers just like the tomatoes .

I'm going to pick out the reddest ones .

I can find these were also priced by Pepe .

So I just looked for the biggest ones , the biggest reddest ones I could find , I think I'm done here .

So I'm going to go to the root vegetable section so I can get the onions , garlic and ginger .

Like I said earlier , everything on this list is easy to find any part of the world you're in .

But if for any reason you can find anything , please check the recipe um description .

I'm going to put lots and lots of substitution for most of the items on the list , picking up some red onion and I'm going to go find the ginger and we're going to be done with this section .

Next , I'm going to go to the other side of the store to find the rice .

There are lots of different options when you're looking for rice for Jollof .

If you want to do Basmati Jollof , this is the brand I usually use .

I've used this for this recipe and a couple of other recipes on my page .

But for this recipe , we're going to go with the classic rice .

This is the regular basmati rice you don't want to use is for jello rice .

Um Another option they have is the Jasmine .

Jasmine is perfect for Ghana Jollof but not for Nigerian Jello Frice for Nigerian Jollof .

You want to look for the one that says purple rice .

You can see the color is usually a bit different .

It's more golden .

This brand I really like .

You see , it still says long grain pub boiled rice or enriched , pub boiled rice .

This is the one I'm going to get today .

You can also use this brand .

This brand is pretty popular if you can find the other one .

So next I'm going to go to the canned food section to find the tomato paste .

So for the tomato paste , you can really use any brand .

You like some are sweeter than others .

I know some brands add sugar to theirs .

So you wanna avoid anyone that has sugar added and please do not confuse this with tomato sauce .

So there are two different things .

This is the favorite brand I like to use , which is hot .

So this is the one I'm gonna be taking today for the spices .

You can pretty much use the spice .

You're used to , to kind of make the dishes .

But if you want to keep it authentic , we typically use curry and thyme .

Those are the two main spices for jello rice and you can substitute dry thyme with fresh thyme .

If that's easier for you to find , I'm also going to grab a pack of bay leaf and I'm going to try to find salt .

Only two items left to get for the oil .

You can use any type of oil usually use at home .

I know some people only like to use olive oil or avocado oil .

Maybe for health reasons , you can use whatever oil you prefer for jello fries .

I usually use vegetable oil .

So that's what I'm going to get living here .

I found a little space for Nigerian food .

I'd never seen this before .

They had so many Nigerian ingredients .

I found a goose or crayfish .

I even saw pounded yam and I was really just so happy to find Nigerian ingredients here .

I saw Gary , I even saw stockfish .

I don't believe it .

So if you're ever in Texas and you want to shop , you should probably check out heb , this post is not sponsored by HEB .

I was just super excited to find a Nigerian ingredients at a regular grocery store in America .

I even found nokia , which I didn't think I was gonna find .

So I was really excited about that .

I'm going to go get the final item on the list , which is the meat .

Um I saw plantain as I was walking by and I couldn't help myself .

I know this is not on the list , but um Nigerian Jollof is usually eaten with plantain .

So if you find this , definitely grab some , sadly , they did not have the really ripe ones .

So I just picked out some of the yellow ones I could find .

Now that's done .

I'm going to go get the final item on the list , which is the meat for jea rice .

You can use any meat .

You like , you can use beef , turkey , goat meat depending on what you prefer for this recipe .

I'm going to be using chicken and you can use any part of the chicken .

Be fair .

I usually like to get the whole cut up chicken , which is this one and I like this one because you get like most of the part of the chicken in one package .

Now off to the checkout line to pay for these items .

I initially planned to show the exact amounts that the dish would cost , but I couldn't achieve that today because I added some extra items and I got bulk or some things like the oil .

Of course , I'm gonna use that multiple times .

The main dish would cost about 20 to $25 depending on where you're shopping from .

And that should be enough to feed about 5 to 6 people .

I'm done shopping .

I'm gonna go home now , wash my hands and get ready to start cooking back home now and I'm gonna get started on making the jello fries .

One of the main ingredients of jello fries , especially good jello fries is a really rich meat broth .

And I'm going to get my meat broth by boiling the meat first .

But before that , I'm going to give this a good rinse here .

I'm just cutting the bigger pieces so the meat can cook evenly .

You can also get meat brought or meat stock from the store .

I personally do not like the prepackaged ones , especially when you're making a Nigerian dish .

We usually make meat brought from scratch .

So I would always advise for you to make yours yourself .

And just a little reminder if you want to keep the meat completely .

I do have a Nigerian vegetarian Jollof rice recipe on my youtube channel and I'm going to add the link to this video .

Now that's done .

I'm going to prep the ingredients .

I'll be boiling the meat with , I'm going to be using a full onion part of the onion .

I will use to boil the meat and the other part I'm going to use for the main dish for the meat I also need garlic and ginger .

Here .

I have three garlic cloves .

I'm just gonna smash this with a knife and I'll cut the ginger .

I'm using about a thumb size ginger .

Transfer your meat to the pot and I'm going to season this with parts of the onion , sliced the garlic and the ginger .

I'll also season with dried thyme curry powder salt and the chicken boon cubes .

I'll give this a good mix .

I won't be adding any water at this point because I want the chicken to simmer in its juices and there was a little bit of water left from washing the meat .

So I'll cover this , allow to simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes .

Check on the chicken from time to time .

So it doesn't burn after about 10 minutes .

I'll add a little bit of water and I'll allow this cooked for an additional 10 minutes until the chicken is about 80% cooked while that's cooking .

I'll go ahead and sanitize my kitchen sink before prepping the vegetables to avoid any cross contamination .

Next , I'll start prepping the stew base for this .

I'm going to be using two large bell peppers .

If your bell peppers aren't as large , you can make it three or even four .

I'm going to be using some tomatoes and one habanero pepper .

I find that the American habanero pepper is very spicy in comparison to Nigerian tara .

So I only use one of this .

If you have a very low spice tolerance .

I would advise you to use half or even a quarter .

And if you're using the tata or red bell pepper , please don't forget to take out the seeds and the stems on the inside to avoid a bitter taste .

I'm going to go ahead and transfer this to the blender .

I always add my tomato fest when blending because it has the most water quantity so I can blend this easily with liu or no water added .

Our blend is until completely smooth .

I'll check on the chicken by now .

It should be ready .

I'll turn this off and I'm going to separate the chicken from the chicken broth .

The chicken is not fully cooked .

I only cooked it to about 80% because we're still gonna fry this and I don't want the chicken to be tough or overcooked .

Next , I'm going to filter the chicken broth just to remove the big chunks of ginger and any bone from the chicken that may have fallen off while cooking .

Please make sure you don't skip this step .

Especially if you use goat meat or turkey meat .

Those can have really hard bones and can be very unpleasant and even dangerous when eating next , I'll transfer the blended peppers and tomatoes to the pot and I'm going to let this reduce for about 40 minutes after transferring your pepper mix to the pot , do not stir or mix , stirring the mixture at any point .

Is most likely gonna make it start to splash , which can be very messy and be sure to check on it from time to time to make sure it doesn't burn .

The goal is to reduce the water quantity as much as we can while that's cooking .

I'm going to go ahead and fry the chicken until it's golden brown .

Now , if you want to ditch the extra calories from frying , you can opt for the f fryer , your grill or even an oven for the air fryer .

I usually just put it in a medium setting and air fry until it's golden brown for the oven .

I usually use the low broil setting to get it brown and crispy and the same thing applies for the grill because we're keeping things simple and original .

I'm going to be frying this the traditional way , which is with vegetable oil .

Another reason I like to fry is that the fried chicken gives the oil a really nice flavor .

And I'm going to be using parts of the oil to make the jello frice .

After frying the first batch , wait for about 1 to 2 minutes for the oil to get back to the right temperature before frying the second batch .

This really helps prevent the chicken from being too oily .

Now , keep the chicken in a very secured location and don't forget to reward yourself with a piece of chicken for doing all this work .

Moving on .

I'm going to go ahead and wash the rice .

I'm using the entire pack , which is 32 oz , which I believe is exactly four cups .

This should be enough to feed about 4 to 6 people .

But of course , you're welcome to double or even triple this recipe .

I'll wash the rice until the water runs clear or almost clear .

You can use hot water to wash your rice .

But if you're using hot water , make sure the last wash is with cold water .

So the rice doesn't start cooking .

And a lot of people really seem to like this rice washing bowl on Instagram .

So I'm going to go ahead and link it in the description box .

I repeated this process six or seven times .

I think I lost count somewhere .

So now I'm just gonna drain it and I'll leave it here while I get started on the cooking , checking on the pepper blend .

All the water is almost out .

It doesn't have to be completely dry .

I'm just going to take this off and set it aside .

Now we have all the components for the Jell off , prepped and ready to go .

Let's make it .

I'm going to use parts of the oil I used in frying the meat .

This is about a quarter cup .

You can use less .

I'll add the leftover chopped onion and I'm going to fry this for a about 2 to 3 minutes .

Next , I'll add the tomato paste .

I'm using one can of tomato paste and I am going to fry this for 7 to 8 minutes .

It's very important to fry your tomato paste really well to get rid of the raw taste .

And also to give your dish that depth of the tomato paste can burn really fast .

So make sure you pay attention to it and you're stirring it from time to time .

So it doesn't burn after about seven minutes .

This is what it looks like .

This is what we're aiming for .

So now I'm going to add the tomato sauce .

I'll go ahead and season this with salt , chicken , seasoning cube or chicken bullion cubes , some dry thyme curry powder and bay leaf .

I never use more than two bay leaves for four cups of rice as I find it to be sometimes overpowering .

I'll give this a mix and just fry for about 1 to 2 minutes .

No need to fry this for too long .

Since the tomato pepper mix already cooked really well .

While it was reducing next , I'll go in with the meat broth and I'll add the water .

I'll give this a proper mix and make sure you scrap the sides and the bottom thoroughly .

And finally , I'll add the washed rice .

After adding the rice , I'll give it one final mix .

And as you can see , the water is just slightly above the rice , which is perfect .

I'll cover this and allow to cook on medium stroke , high heat for about 30 to 35 minutes .

If you notice that before the 35 minutes , the rice is burning , that's perfectly fine .

Jello rice is supposed to burn .

That is what gives it its signature smoky flavor .

After about 35 minutes , the rice should be fully cooked .

I'll mix this up .

You'll notice at first it may be a bit clumpy .

That is perfectly normal .

The more you make , the more you let out the steam and in no time it's going to start to separate one important tip .

I forgot to add is that when you're making original Nigerian Party Jollof , you want to avoid using a non stick pot .

And the reason for this is if you want that signature smoky Jollof rice flavor , it's very hard to achieve this using a non stick pot .

So you want to opt instead for a regular cast iron pot , which is what I'm using right now or a stainless steel pot or a traditional or local iron pot .

I'll add the link to some good jello frice pots .

If you're interested , you can check the link out in the description box .

If at this point , you notice your jello rice is still sticky or very mushy .

It may be because you added a liter , too much water .

Sometimes it can also be as a result of the type of rice you used .

Aside from the one we picked up in store , I'll provide you with some good recommendations of great rice brands that will give you a really nice jello .

So be sure to check that out in the description box .

I'm going to go ahead and serve the rice .

It smells amazing and it looks amazing .

It tastes absolutely delicious .

I have no doubt in my mind that yours will come out this perfect when you use this recipe .

I really hope you enjoyed watching this video .

If you found any parts of it .

Helpful , please let me know by leaving me a tomato emoji in the comments section .

If you have any additional questions about this recipe , please feel free to leave me a comment or send me ad m on my Instagram .

My Instagram name is Kiki foodies .

I'm going to enjoy this the original way which is with fried plantains and chicken .

Thanks for watching .

Please subscribe to my youtube channel if you haven't done so already and if you have thank you so much for subscribing and I'll see you in the next one .

Just .

Mhm .