If you are a Jollof Rice lover but you don’t eat it as much simply because you can’t make it well, just stay glued to this post because I am going to give you a recipe that will make you a Jollof Rice pro overnight. At the end of the post, you would have learned the science behind Jollof Rice and some tips and tricks to help you achieve the best all the time.

I am giving you the recipe for Goat Meat Jollof Rice and I am using Basmati rice instead. Do not bother yourself thinking what brand of Basmati will work best, because I will show the one that I used. I will now give you the ingredients and the steps will follow immediately.

Ingredients

• Goat Meat
• Ginger and garlic
• Leek and Celery
• Onions
• Fresh tomatoes and red pepper
• Shombo and tatashe
• Red capsicum
• Jollof Tomato paste
• Bay leaves
• Thyme
• Ground cury
• Ground white pepper
• Seasoning cubes
• Salt to taste
• Water of course

Instructions

The first step in this recipe is to line a baking tray with foil paper, then roast the fresh tomatoes, red capsicum, tatashe, shombo, onions and garlic in the oven. Please drizzle some oil on this, especially on the garlic.

While the roasting is going on, thoroughly wash and cook the goat meat. I cooked the meat with a blend of onions, garlic, pepper and ginger. I then added thyme, curry, celery and leek, salt and seasoning cubes.

I must tell you that this is a very important part of this recipe because the broth that will come out of this will determine how delicious your rice will be. So it is important that you build in enough flavors into this broth. Another reason why you must season this meat well is that, you are going to end up frying this meat and you will not want to eat fried meat that is tasteless without enough seasoning, if you know what I mean. You know how enjoyable fried meat can be if it has been well seasoned. I also suggest that you see this post on how to make great stock that you can use to cook

Now that the meat has cooked well and the thing going on in the oven is also ready, shall we start?

Smoothly blend all that good stuff that came out of the oven. You should add some ginger before blending and please don’t blend the garlic together with the skin. Use a cast iron skillet to fry the goat meat until it is golden brown. Before frying the meat, build in some flavors into the oil because it is this same oil you will use to fry the tomatoes. You can throw onions, leek, garlic and thyme into the oil before the start frying the meat. This will give you an early build up of flavors.

Soon as you are done frying the meat, fetch some of the oil and pour into a pot. I do not recommend you use a nonstick pot for this. If you have a dutch oven, it is your best bet. But an 18/10 Stainless Steel pot will do just fine. I used a cast iron wok to cook this, which is not even the best because the cover is a flat wood and Jollof rice needs a pot with a tight cover. But I used foil paper to get what I want.

Start by frying some onions and leek. If you love garlic like me, grate 2 cloves into this the oil. Also add thyme and and bay leaves. You can now add your tomato paste. You can use any tomato paste that you like, but I used this Gino Party Jollof tomato paste that you see in the picture.

Please don’t be in a hurry. Take your time and fry this paste until you can no longer taste the sharp sourness. Don’t be shy with the oil, you need enough oil to fry the tomatoes very well. Add that tomato mix you blended earlier and continue to fry for close to an hour. And please, do not close the pot and go and fry for the period. Stay close to it and be frying it. If you close the pot, the tomato will not fry and it will boil instead which is very bad for Jollof.

From these pictures, you can see how thick and rich this tomato sauce is already looking and this is exactly what you want. After it must have been frying for about 30-40 minutes, you should add white pepper, curry powder, seasoning cubes and salt.

It is time to add the washed rice. Please do not use parboiled Basmati rice. Use Golden Sella Basmati rice. The one I used is called KTC and I absolutely recommend to you. Before pouring the rice, wash it several times until the water is clear. If you don’t wash it well, the rice will stick and you will hate it.

Give it nice and gentle mix until well combined, then introduce the broth you got from the goat meat. Please make sure you strain the broth before using it, don’t pour it inside the rice with the particles. This part is very crucial, pour the broth slowly and in small batches because you want the rice and liquid to be at about the same level. If you put too much liquid, the rice will cook and you will hate it. You need the rice to steam and cook. The keyword here is STEAM.

After adding the broth, look at the level of liquid I have. That is how yours should too if you are using Basmati rice. Unless you are using stubborn local rice that cooks for hours. But it is Basmati rice, please that is how it should be. Then cover the pot and let it steam for 20-30 minutes without interruption. If you are using a dutch oven with a tight lid, you have no problem. Otherwise, please use foil paper to wrap the pot to avoid steam from escaping, because that steam is what make Jollof special.

After a good 30 minutes of steaming, this is what you will get. You see that I did not disturb the rice throughout the steaming period. You can fresh tomatoes and some onions for some extra colors. You should also add some butter for some moisture in the rice. If you don’t add butter, the rice will be dry without any moisture. The butter makes it kind of moist and more enjoyable.

I am not trying to brag, but I tell you that if you make this rice for your family, they will be so so happy. You can serve it with fried plantain and the goat meat of course. Please enjoy!

Alright friends… I hope you feel more confident when making Jollof rice after now. If you have issues trying to make this, you can always personally reach out to me for help. And also, if there are more Jollof rice tricks out there, you can write them in the comments section of this blog entry for myself and other readers to learn. Thank you and bye for now.