Jamaican Rice and Peas Recipe
Jamaican Rice and Peas served.
Jamaican Rice and peas is the staple of every Jamaican Sunday dinner. The 2 things you can be sure of in Jamaica are sunshine, and rice and peas on Sunday. This delicious dish was first introduced to the island by the slaves that came from West Africa centuries ago. The recipe has changed a little since then, by using ingredients found on the island, such as thyme, and pepper.
My grandmother would scoff at me for using canned coconut milk instead of the fresh coconut milk she used. If only I had a coconut tree in NJ which I could get my own fresh coconuts, LOL. Enjoy your Sunday rice and peas.
Jamaican Rice and Peas
This easy to follow recipe will have you cooking like a Jamaican in no time flat. If you're a Jamaican, you better know how to cook rice and peas.
Ingredients
- 2 cups long grain white rice (brown rice can be substituted)
- 3/4 cups unsweetened coconut milk
- 3 stalks scallions (AKA green onions)
- 1 clove garlic chopped
- 1 whole scotch bonnet pepper (AKA habanero) chopped
- 1 3/4 cups dried kidney beans canned kidney beans can be used as a substitute
- 2 springs thyme dried
- 1/2 tbs black pepper
- 1/2 tbs salt
- 7 whole allspice seeds (AKA pimento seeds)
Instructions
- The first thing you must do if you're using dried kidney beans is to make sure you soak them overnight in a bowl of water. This softens the texture of the beans. I prefer dried beans, but you can use the canned kidney beans instead. Drain the water from the beans and rinse thoroughly with water.
- Place your beans in a medium saucepan, add about 3 cups of water and boil for about 1 hr under a medium flame. Your beans should now be tender (test by sticking a fork into one of them).
- While your beans are simmering, you can now add your unsweetened coconut milk, and stir for about 5 minutes.
- Then you add your chopped garlic, scallions (green onions), thyme, allspice seeds and scotch bonnet pepper.
- Add your salt and pepper to the mix
- Stir under a medium-high flame for about 5 minutes or so. Then you can add your rice and cook until the rice is cooked and fluffy, which takes about ½ hr to 40 minutes. There you have it, delicious Jamaican rice and peas.
Notes
Please check out this very useful video from http://caribbeanpot.com/
Nutrition
Serving: 01Sodium: 0mgCalcium: 0mgVitamin C: 0mgVitamin A: 0IUSugar: 0gFiber: 0gPotassium: 0mgCholesterol: 0mgCalories: 476kcalTrans Fat: 0gMonounsaturated Fat: 0gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gFat: 0gProtein: 0gCarbohydrates: 0gIron: 0mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
This is a delicious dish! Thanks for posting it. Many central and south american countries have a version of this dish but none of them use coconut milk that I know of. It makes a huge different and imparts its own special flavor. Thanks again!
Hi Mike, thanks for stopping by my piece of the internet. the coconut milk makes a big difference. If you get a chance, try to make it with the real coconut milk, I guarantee you will be pleased.
Regards
Court
I love, love Jamaican rice and peas! I have never attempted to make it myself, but I think I may give it a try now as your recipe looks pretty simple. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Christen, thanks for stopping by and welcome to myjamaicanrecipes.com. Please let me know how your rice and peas turn out. Bon Appetit.
Regards
Court
Hello Courtney, nice post on Jamaican Rice. It looks good, and I am always trying to taste food that I have never had before. It looks pretty easy to cook, and I will have to cook some on my spare time. Thanks again, and continue to do what you do!!
Whats up Ahmad? thanks for dropping by. Let me know if you try it out, and how it turned out. I appreciate you man.
Regards
Court
I simply love rice and peas and cook them all the time. I’m going to try your recipe…..it sounds delicious! I’ll give you feedback after I try it. The oxtail recipe looks very interesting too. Thanks.
Hi, Terry welcome back, I would love your feedback on how the recipe turned out for you. Please check back as I will be adding some new recipes very soon.
Regards
Court
Hi there! Would you still boil the canned kidney beans for an hour with 2 cups of water?
Hi Kris, you do not have to boil the beans if they are canned.
Thanks
Where can I find Allspice seeds and also, what is mixed spice? Really want to try this rice & peas recipe with the ox-tails.
I fell in love with the takeaway Jamaican shops rice and peas and often bought the Tilda rice and pea bags you just heat up but decided I wanted to learn how to make it from scratch. I tried one recipe before that was trash compared to this. This was so authentic and easy to follow too! My first time I made a delicious batch and everyone approved. Highly recommend this over any other recipe for rice and peas, thank you so much you don’t understand how happy I was to finally be able to perfect the recipe with your help!
Been in trying jamaican Rice and peas recipes for a while now. Yours is perfect. I have Jamaican friends who won’t share theirs with me 🤣 After cooking this I believe yours taste better. And just like paste it taste better the second day and I usually don’t eat leftovers. It was good?
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