Nigerian jollof rice

Jollof rice is one of the most simple and easy to make Nigerian food, you’d want to start from here if you are new to Nigerian cooking.

Are you married to a Nigerian person and probably looking for an easy recipe to try out first?

Jollof rice is the most popular food in Africa and, the required ingredients are abundant in most countries of the world.

This is how we serve it in Nigeria. You can add fried meat, fried plantain or even vegetable salad.

Jollof Rice Recipe

In the last 5 years, I have tried my hands on over 14 different rice recipes and even made an ebook about them.

What you find above is a delicious plate of jollof rice plus fried beef.

I made this some weeks back and will be giving you a step by step recipe.

Ingredients for Jollof Rice

4 cups of rice
1kg Chicken/beef
1000ml of Ground Fresh tomatoes.
50ml Ground Fresh peppers
1 Teaspoon Curry powder
1 teaspoon Thyme
1 teaspoon Nutmeg powder
2 seasoning cubes
1 cup of sliced onions
300ml vegetable
salt to taste.
2 cloves of garlic
2 fingers of ginger

Just wash, squeeze out water inside the tomatoes, blend as is, and set aside.

You need around, 1000ml  of ground tomatoes for 4 cups of rice.

Step by Step Preparation

Step 1
Season the chicken/beef with a teaspoon of salt, one seasoning cubes, half a teaspoon each of curry and thyme, half a cup of sliced onions then let it sit for some minutes.

Set on heat and let it boil for 10-15 minutes, would take more time to cook the beef.

Step 2
Set aside the meat and the stock in fresh bowls.

Peel off the outer back of the ginger/garlic, pound, or grind.

Step 3
Parboil rice the normal way, boil about 7 cups of water in a pot, add the four cups of rice and allow boiling for 3 minutes. Then pour out and wash thoroughly with clean water, then set aside in a bowl or plastic sieve.

Step 4
Pick out the parboiled tasty meat and deep-fry, set aside.
Step 5
Once you are done with frying the chicken, reduce the oil to 250ml (1 cup) just add the remaining one cup of sliced onions, stir for 1-2 minutes, add the ground tomatoes. I like to cook jollof rice with the same oil I used while frying the meat.

Using a fresh oil is just the same as cooking without the beef stock (meat water) which actually holds over 70 percent of the ingredient that is used in making most Nigerian foods.

The end result is not the same.

How to Make Nigerian Jollof Rice.

Step 6
Frying the tomatoes would take about 20 minutes.

Fry until when you lift a portion with your frying spoon, you will notice the oil continues to boil in the spoon.

You also notice the tomatoes turning dark.

Step 7
Once the tomato is well fried, add the meat water (chicken/beef stock) to the fried tomato in the pot, the ground ginger/garlic, half a teaspoon each of curry and thyme, salt to taste, add 4 cups of water.

Add another seasoning cube. Stir and taste, it should taste overly spiced. Don’t worry, once the rice is added the taste would balance.

Step 8

Add the rice.

cooking jollof rice

Then cover and allow the rice to cook on low heat for 30-45 minutes. Remember that you can add water occasionally.

Voila!!!

Turn and serve with the fried meat.

Pot of Jollof rice

This is just how to make jollof rice, you can serve with the fried meat, salad and maybe a bottle of your favorite drink

Wondering why my meat is red? I dipped them in tomato sauce

Add 4 tbsp. of tomato sauce in a pot, while still on heat add the fried meat, allow it to heat for few minutes while you continue to turn. Serve chicken and jollof rice as you can see above.

Jollof Rice Recipe

Jollof Rice Recipe

Chef Chidi
Jollof rice double as the most popular Nigeria food and also as Nigeria's national food. Almost every Nigerian will readily accept a plate of jollof rice since most of the ethnic groups in Nigeria consider rice as a major staple food.
5 from 5 votes
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Dinner, Lunch
Cuisine Nigerian Cuisine
Servings 8 People
Calories 539 kcal

Equipment

  • Cooker
  • Pots
  • Blender

Ingredients
  

  • 4 cups of rice
  • 1 kg meat
  • 1000 ml of Ground Fresh tomatoes your blender is calibrated, 1000ml = 1 liter
  • 50 ml Ground Fresh peppers
  • Spices Curry, Thyme, Delice, Nutmeg, Chicken spice
  • 3 Seasoning cubes
  • 2 cups of sliced onions
  • 300 ml Vegetable oil
  • Salt to taste.
  • 2 Cloves of garlic and
  • 2 Fingers of ginger

Instructions
 

  • Start by precooking your meat with the listed spices (a teaspoon each of thyme, curry, and salt; two seasoning cubes and sliced onion) Allow the meat to cook till tender.
  • Peel of the outer back of the ginger/garlic, pound or grind.
  • Parboil 4 cups of rice, wash and set aside in a plastic bowl.
  • Once the meat is tender, seperate from the stock and deep fry.
  • Fry the ground tomatoes until it is turning day (about 20-25 minutes) stir continously to avoid burning it.
  • When the tomato is well fried, add the chicken stock (meat water).
  • Add the blended ginger/garlic, a teaspoon each of curry and thyme, two teaspoons of salt
  • Add 4 cups of water also, taste, add salt to taste.
  • Add one seasoning cube. Stir and taste, you want it overly spiced. The rice will take some of it away.
  • Allow to boil before adding the parboiled rice, stir.
  • Then just cook with the pot covered till the rice is soft.
  • Turn evenly and serve with the fried chicken.
  • NOTE: If you don't want your jollof rice to start burning before it is well cooked, you need to remove some of the fried tomatoes before adding the rice. Then add it later.
Keyword Jollof rice recipe, Nigerian rice recipe, Step by step recipe

Video For Nigerian Jollof Rice

The jollof rice video above was made just some days back. The method is straight and easy to follow, You will also get a visual of all the ingredients that I used.

While jollof rice is the most popular food in Nigeria and also considered the national food of Nigeria, fried rice is number two on the list.

Other Nigerian Rice Recipes

I have written a detailed recipe for fried rice and also made a video for it – Fried Rice Recipe

I love Ofada rice and sauce, you can try it this weekend.
Ofada Sauce and Rice

Tomato stew is a winner any day, you can serve it with white boiled rice.
How to make Tomato Stew

87 Comments

Eniola
Reply

Thanks 👍

August 20, 2023
Mary
Reply

God bless u for all these recipes

July 8, 2020
maryjane
Reply

intresting………..thanks so much

May 4, 2020
Ughele blessing Abosede
Reply

5 stars
God will continue to bless you ma….

March 13, 2020
Progress
Reply

5 stars
Thanks so much @ Chidi I love this, just joined your blog newly and I love what am seeing. More grace dear

February 14, 2020
Gloria Lewis
Reply

Also what peppers do you use to grind? Does using a blender give you the same texture as grinding?

January 16, 2020
Chidi Anegbu
Reply

Sure, you could blend or grind, as long you get a smooth paste at the end of the day, you will be ok. I used scotch bonnet peppers. I have edited the jollof rice recipe to include an image. Thanks for your feedback

January 17, 2020
Gloria Lewis
Reply

5 stars
What do you mean by ‘Ground tomatoes’? Can you use canned tomatoes? If not, what type of tomato should you use? Do you seed the tomato or take the skin off?

January 16, 2020
Tamar
Reply

You are just a blessing to me,keep it up,God will continues to strengthen you with wisdom,much love

August 8, 2019
Ify
Reply

Wow!!! This is nice. Pls l want to know what gives party rice its unique aroma?

June 11, 2019
Isabella
Reply

I love ❤ Jollof rice alot I prefer it than fried rice. It is nicely prepared

May 29, 2019
Juliet
Reply

Thank you so much ma

May 22, 2019
Florence
Reply

You gave confident of cooking my jollof rice
Thank u for helping me out and I also thank u for being there for me
Thank u

May 2, 2019
Damola
Reply

Thanks a lot for this

April 27, 2019
Amara
Reply

Nice one. I’m definitely going to try this method. Keep up the good work Ma.

March 27, 2019
Nona
Reply

Please use measurements are user friendly to most Americans .

January 22, 2019
Calista
Reply

Thank you very much atalest l have lean how to cook jelof rice now. This is wonderful Thank you ma.

January 9, 2019
Charity
Reply

Pls can we use purple onions to cook fried rice???i couldnt find white onions

December 24, 2018
Gabriel
Reply

So you just made me a big boy… Followed your instructions n my wife thinks I’ve been cooking for years…kudos

December 12, 2018
Chidi Anegbu
Reply

Lol, thanks man.

December 15, 2018
Dammy
Reply

Hi pls ow many derica is that four cup

October 31, 2018
Glory
Reply

Thanks, keep up the good work. God bless you.

August 3, 2018
Toyosi
Reply

Wow! That was great. Keep it up

November 24, 2017
Echeme mercy
Reply

Wooow you are doing a lovely job not being selfish with what you know but rather helping homes that would have been broken because the ability of not knowing how to cook, you will always have your reward… And your recipes are lovely thanks so much for them.

November 9, 2017
Ojinaid
Reply

Thanks so much for this. God will continue to bless those hands of yours and it will never go sour. i thought the tin tomato brings out the reddish colour. Pls, is it bad to use tin tomato together with fresh one. and do we fry the paste along side the fresh tomoto. i await ur response. Thanks.

August 9, 2017
Chidi Anegbu
Reply

You can use a combination of fresh and canned tomatoes and yes, you can fry both together when making jollof rice.

August 10, 2017

Nice one. Admin can u please give the quantity of ingredients for one to cook jellof rice for 50 people? From ( rice, meat/chicken, Maggi g/oil, tomato, etc) have leant a whole lot here I must say.
Thanks

March 15, 2017
Chidi Anegbu
Reply

The ingredients above can cook jollof rice for about 6 persons. You just need to do the math to know how much of it would make rice for 50

March 19, 2017
samuel
Reply

I love the way you cook, I always swallow saliva when looking at your stuff, please me some

March 4, 2017
Amaka
Reply

Pls can I use green bean when preparing jollof rice?

December 31, 2016
Dave Anegbu
Reply

Yes, sure.

January 3, 2017
Nwabuno
Reply

Chidi! You are a friend indeed!
You are such a nice woman. I thought i can cook jellof rice before without knowing that i am missing alot till i discover Chidi. Bravo!

September 10, 2016
tholarh
Reply

Thank thank you so much for this jollof rice I cooked mine this morning and it was excellent. Everyone in the house ate a second round. I was so happy God bless you real good

July 27, 2016
udoka onwuka
Reply

I love Nigerian jollof rice, thanks for showing me how to make jollof rice.

July 23, 2016
Moyeni F
Reply

Wow… never knew cooking could be this interesting ( cause as a 16 year old I hate it ) lol. I will try each and every recipe on this site. Thank you so much may you go from glory to glory.

June 3, 2016
Fredrick
Reply

Wow…it looks great thank you very much. Pls i wnt 2 try it with tin tomatoes, how do i go abuh it?

May 31, 2016
embassy
Reply

Hello, but in party jollof u don’t need to parboil the rice, I mean yoruba method

March 31, 2016
Okafor Arinze
Reply

This is informative, never thought something like this could be online. most helpful to me in terms of knowing the names of spices used frequently.

November 23, 2015
Vera
Reply

It looks good in my eyes. I will try it thank u so much I love what u are doing. God bless u

October 12, 2015
Babatunde tayo
Reply

I am mrs babatunde. Should I use tomato paste in my jollof rice pls help me

October 5, 2015
Chidi Anegbu
Reply

sure you can, but it is better to use the fresh one if you can find them.

October 13, 2015
franca nd
Reply

Hi am Mrs franca I blend tomatoes + pepper + onion and I fry it after 15min I add tin tomatoes and I still have tasteless jollofrice wat can I do pls tell me or I should cook without tin tomatoes

September 26, 2015
Esther
Reply

Hello Chidi. I looked at the recipe now and I want to try it but if I use canned tomatoes instead of fresh ones,how do I go about it? Will it be possible to fry the canned tomato like the fresh one? Thank you

September 8, 2015
Sonia
Reply

yea!!! dis method is great. i tried it and it worked perfectly well

August 28, 2015
Omo
Reply

Jollof rice is my best, I luv it. I luv the great work you are doing. Thumbs’ up.

August 20, 2015
Rashidat
Reply

Pls do i need to fried carrot, green peas when prepared jollof rice

August 14, 2015
Chidi Anegbu
Reply

Nope, just add them to the cooking rice – 4-5 minutes before you turn off the heat.

August 14, 2015
chiomachizo
Reply

can I get the recipe for jollof rice for a wedding or other big occasion

August 4, 2015
moshood muyideen
Reply

Ma Mr muyideen yes you can get en big event.

September 17, 2016
chichi
Reply

This looks beautiful in the eyes and sweet in the mouth.

July 30, 2015
jackxman
Reply

Thanks for the guidelines God bless

July 20, 2015
Noble Amy
Reply

one word for the recipe.. And stand d chance of winning my love

April 16, 2015
suprise
Reply

Am in love with jollof rice thanx so much am defenetly you going to try it for my family thank u

April 15, 2015
Tammy Houston
Reply

My son is Nigerian and African American. I want to make this for a heritage event where I live. I’m trying to make different foods for him. He will be one on the day of the event. I will have to add some spices to my grocery list. I’m happy that I found your site. 🙂

March 14, 2015
ChrisMARY
Reply

thanks alot, what if i want to add carrot to my jollof rice, please how do igo about it

January 31, 2015
Chidi Anegbu
Reply

just add it three minutes before you turn off the heat, Thanks for commenting.

January 31, 2015
millie Enabosi
Reply

Awesome…….keep up d gud work.

January 4, 2015
Sameer Khushi
Reply

Its gud! I’m nt a woman… I’m a man but I still lv it! Gud Work Chidi! Keep it up!

January 3, 2015
Grace Olaniyi
Reply

chy, can one use can tomato in place of fresh ones and get the same good and tasty jollof rice?

December 26, 2014
Chidi Anegbu
Reply

Sure, you can. Most restaurants use canned tomatoes, it largely depend on other ingredients and how you fried the tomato.

December 27, 2014
anony
Reply

You are saving women and aspiring cooks’ lives!!
Thank you 🙂 :*

November 3, 2014
Bolanle
Reply

Interesting……………………………..
tanks so much

October 22, 2014
Diamond
Reply

Well cooked jellof rice is always wonderful, I love this

May 16, 2020
omotayo
Reply

Infact I cooked the fried rice it was very delicious unbelivable ,my husband enjoyed it nd I enjoyed It tooo ,sweet sensation can not withstand me again , u are great thnks joooooooo

September 21, 2014
Eliz
Reply

hello, i need ur assistance. Please tell me how can i prepare jollof rice for 20 people? what are the quantites involved in the ingredients? Thank you

September 6, 2014
teresa lyn
Reply

woooow….m xo impressed,i hope it turns owt well for mhe cuz im to present et n an examination practical…ma….f i am to produce dis to an hypertensive patient,wat re d thingz i ought to add,or reduce…plz enlighten mhe

August 30, 2014
Ella
Reply

Chidi,your recipes are very nice. You r really good at what you do. However,I do normally boil my fresh tomatoes after grinding or slicing till it dries,that way I wont hv to deep fry. I really avoid too much fries dats why.

August 29, 2014
Chidi Anegbu
Reply

That is cool, I mean the part where you boil your tomato after grinding. There are just so many ways of doing everything, keep making tasty foods.

September 3, 2014
seun Erinle
Reply

i tried out the procedure for the jollof, and i must tell u, i had a great meal. it is the best i have cooked forfour years since i entered university of ibadan. thumbs up to chy anegbu

May 30, 2014
Christie A
Reply

Pls i would like to learn more about ofada stew. i want to prepare it this weekend. Thanks

May 6, 2014
vanessa celaire
Reply

loving your cooking am not a nigerian though i just love your jollof rice.

March 28, 2014
Chidi Anegbu
Reply

Cee, You don’t ever need to boil the tomatoes, just grind and fry, you can also slice and fry. Whatever you do, even if you boiled it, you will still need to fry the tomato before commencing with the rest of the cooking. It would be nice if you look up the embeded video

March 12, 2014
Cee
Reply

If you boil the tomato till it becomes dry, do you still fry it with the onions for a while or do you just add your stock to it and continue from there?. I tried it and the rice came out funny. Please give a detailed step by step method

March 9, 2014
temi
Reply

you must select your tomatoes right.look for the hard red colored type.it dries well without soury taste.

October 12, 2017
divine williams
Reply

I like a nice prepared jollof rice n fried rice. but I don’t know how to prepare one, I’m glad I will learn 4rm ur site. U are doing a good work here keep it up God will Blss u abundantly

February 13, 2014
christie
Reply

hi, I really don’t understand that part of seiving ur fresh tomatoes and pepper, i thought the normal thing to be done is to boil the grinded tomatoes until it becomes dry thereby also reducing the sour taste? besides, from ur illustrations, I dint see where u boiled it. Are u saying we can still achieve the same result with just filtering and frying? enlighten me pls. thanks

February 2, 2014
Chidi Anegbu
Reply

Christie, yes, you can just filter and fry, it is faster and better that way. However, you can also boil instead of filtering.

February 6, 2014
Lahonda Olumide
Reply

I am an African- American woman married to a Nigerian man and I love jollof rice when he prepared it for me I fell in love I like the spices and put goat meat in the rice it is so delicious. I am a big fan of Nigerian cuisine . P.S. Iy is othing better than pounded yam!!

January 12, 2014

U LIKE FOOD

March 5, 2017
blessing
Reply

it look sweet i will try it

October 17, 2013
pamela
Reply

Thanks so much….I love ur work!

August 28, 2013
Gininwa
Reply

Pamela WHY???

November 25, 2018
GLORY
Reply

THIS LOOK DELICIOUS.

August 16, 2013
Enny Ijezie
Reply

You are doing well Peace the rice seems a lot delicious! *thumbs up*

August 12, 2013
blessing
Reply

Yes! I have tried this rice recipe and it turned out perfectly well but there seemed to be a little difference with the one I ate at a friends birthday party, there was a slight difference in taste and color, maybe I probably didn’t get it right. I will have to try again and keep trying till I get that particular taste

July 26, 2013
Nelo
Reply

Party jollof rice is on another level. Usually cooked with lots of chicken stock and seasonings.

November 25, 2018
Chidera
Reply

Jollof rice is my favorite Nigerian food, I like when it is spiced up with green pees and then fried plantain. I like a whole lot of other Nigerian foods but this happens to be my best, thanks for helping out

July 25, 2013

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