Nigerian Coconut Rice Recipe-

Ingredients:

• Rice – 3 cups uncooked long grain white rice
• 500 ml (17 oz) Tomato Stew (see Nigerian Fried Tomato Stew recipe above)
• 600 ml (20 oz) coconut milk
• Chicken (whole chicken or thighs and drumsticks)
• Pepper (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• 2 Medium Sized Onions, rough chopped
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• Nigerian Seasoning – 3 Maggi cubes (you have to have this seasoning for authentic results and flavor)

Prep Cook Instructions:

1. If you don’t have any Nigerian Tomato Stew already prepared or stored in the freezer, see “Nigerian Fried Tomato Stew” recipe above, and make up a batch. And if you are going to do this, make a large batch, if you enjoy preparing traditional Nigerian foods recipes. This stew is a key ingredient in many of the classic Nigerian foods, as you will soon learn, so having a lot of it on hand really cuts down on the time of meal preparation.
2. If you are using a whole chicken, wash it well and it into pieces. Put the cut up chicken in a pot and add in just enough water to cover the chicken pieces. Now add in your chopped onions, your Maggi or Knorr bullion cubes, and the dried thyme and bring the water to a boil.
3. Continue to boil the chicken until well done, and then add in salt as per your tastes. Drain the pieces of chicken in a sieve suspended over a bowl – you want to reserve the chicken stock for use later.
4. The next step is optional, but preferred especially when entertaining dinner guests. Either pan fry, or oven broil, or grill your chicken. This “extra” step gives your chicken that wonderful, warm, golden brown look, that makes it so enticing in appearance at the dinner table.
5. Parboil the rice. If you are not sure what “parboiling” means, it is merely partially boiling the rice, to the point where it is about halfway cooked – still very chewy, and a little tough to bite down on. Once the rice is at this point, drain it in a sieve and keep it ready to use in a bowl.

Cooking Directions:

1. Use a larger pot than you needed to parboil your rice to prepare the complete dish. Your parboiled rice will typically rise about 25% in size by the time it is fully cooked. Place the pot on the stove and turn the heat up high.
2. Now pour the chicken stock you saved, also the tomato stew and coconut milk, into the pot, and stir until well mixed together. Bring the combined liquid mixture to a boil. Now add in the parboiled, drained rice, and salt and pepper to taste. The combined liquid in the pot should be level with the top of the rice. If it is not, add in just enough water to make it so. This is the proper proportion necessary to make sure the rice will be done and perfectly cooked once all the liquid elements have cooked out and dried up.
3. Put a tight fitting lid on the pot and leave it to cook on medium or medium low heat, depending on your burner. You want the dish to cook at just a lively simmer, not so hot that it cooks out all the liquid and burns the rice before it is thoroughly cooked.
4. When you can tilt the pot to the side, and no liquid comes seeping down the side, your rice should be done. Do a taste test, if the rice is still not tender enough, add a small amount of water and continue to simmer until you are satisfied with the softness and texture of your rice.

And that’s it! Serve and enjoy some scrumptious Nigerian Coconut Rice!

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