Have you read a full essay on how to prepare Jollof rice before? Your reply will either be yes or no, but whatever the case may be, there is still an advantage for you because this article centres on that from the beginning to the end.

For many preparing for exams like WAEC, NECO, GCE, etc, there is a tendency for you to come across questions like “Write an essay on how to prepare Jollof rice“, and if that happens, what would you do, if you had cooked one before?

Well, you don’t need to be a good cook or chef before can deliver an essay of such type. Being a chef does not guarantee you the chance to write a good essay on jollof rice making.

Below is an essay on how jollof rice is prepared.

How to Prepare Jollof Rice

Here’s how to cook the Classic Nigerian jollof rice (Also known as spicy jollof rice or West African jollof rice, Nigeria style). Before you should think of cooking your jollof rice, try and get all the needed ingredients available.

Jollof rice’s ingredients are many but the most essential one is the rice itself. Other ingredients for jollof rice rice are meat, tomatoes, pepper, etc.

To prepare jollof rice, parboil the protein choice (meat or chicken) with the spices listed above. Remove from the water and set aside for later use.

Blend your red bell pepper, scotch bonnet, tomatoes, onions (three-quarters of your big onions), garlic and ginger and put to a boil till a thick paste is formed where there is little or no water left.

Fry your protein of choice in oil (I’m using olive oil) till it’s tender and golden brown then keep it aside. Meanwhile, wash and parboil the rice.

In a stainless/aluminium pot or saucepan, heat a little of the left-over oil from frying your protein, sauté the rest of your ominous till it’s fragrant and translucent. Add a teaspoon of thyme and curry, white pepper to taste and one finger or a teaspoon of ground ginger alongside ground nutmeg.

Add your canned tomato paste and stir while frying. Fry till it has lost its acidic/sour taste. Then add the blended tomato-pepper mix and keep stirring while frying. At this point, get your meat/chicken water (stock) and add to the mix. Taste for seasoning and add your salt and/or seasoning cubes if needed.

Add your parboiled rice to your stew base and stir till all the grains are coated with the stew base. (You can choose to take out part of your stew base for later before adding your rice). Leave to simmer till all the water is absorbed.

Check if it is done. Cover with a tight lid and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes then stir (let the steam do the rest of the work). Serve with your meat or chicken.

Ingredients for Jollof Rice

1. 5 medium-sized Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped

2. 1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped

3. 1 medium-sized onion, roughly chopped, set aside

4. 2 scotch bonnet peppers (habanero peppers as they are sometimes called)

5. 1/4 cup of groundnut oil

6. 3 tbsp tomato paste

7. 2 cups of parboiled rice

8. 2 1/2 cups of chicken stock

9. 1 tsp salt to taste

10. 1/2 tsp curry powder

11. 1/2 tsp thyme

12. 1 tsp All purpose seasoning

13. 1 Knorr stock cube

14. 3 bay leaves

15. Water, as needed

Jollof rice ingredient and seasoning includes salt, dried thyme, curry powder and Maggi cubes which are the major seasonings in most traditional Jollof recipes.