Liberia : Liberian Jollof Rice (with chicken)

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE I USED

Ah yes, another chicken and rice meal but this one does things a little differently.

The chicken and the rice are cooked separately but you need the broth from the chicken to cook the rice and they work together to create a final dish that is an incredibly flavorful rice that pairs well with the chicken.

The flavors come from tomato sauce and puree, garlic, onions, and peppers. The recipe calls for Scotch Bonnet peppers but I did not use them. I can't get them locally and the recommended substitute of Habanero peppers would render the dish inedible for me, so, I used jalapeno peppers and they worked great.

This recipe calls for frying the chicken after the initial cook to crisp up the skin which is a step that I really appreciated. A lot of times, chicken and rice recipes call for bone-in, skin-on chicken (which is cheaper and more flavorful) and everything is cooked together in one pot which leaves the chicken skin soggy and unappetizing. I didn't fry mine in oil, like the recipe suggested, but crisped it up in the air fryer instead. It came out very crispy and not at all greasy.

Would I make this again? I don't know. It's very tasty and it wasn't difficult to make but did create a lot of dishes and took some time. As written, it made a VERY LARGE amount of food and, after eating it for days, I doubt I'll be craving it anytime soon. It is good, just not every day for several days good. But, other than tacos, what food is something you can eat day after day without getting tired of it?