Nigeria

Menu: Jollof rice and chicken thighs | Recipe Source: cheflolaskitchen.com/

This dinner ended up being a bit of a scramble, but it was completely worth it. My original plan was to make jollof rice (success!) and goat stew (not a success!), but when I started cutting up the goat meat, I realized it wasn’t safe to use (I’ll spare you the details). I had chicken thighs on hand in the fridge and an excess of African spices in my pantry from previous rounds of Cooking Around the World, so I made a last-minute pivot and whipped up African-inspired baked chicken legs instead of the stew. The chicken seasoning was delicious and the jollof rice was indescribably good -warm, earthy, hearty- and I’d place this meal very high in the Chicken and Rice Hall of Fame (alongside Spanish paella and Cuban arroz con pollo).

Ready to cook?

Jollof Rice: (link): This recipe was absolutely amazing and I made very few changes. I used 1 serrano pepper instead of the 2 habaneros (but only because I couldn’t find habaneros at the store!) and based on a tip I saw in a different jollof recipe, I cut and roasted the serrano pepper, tomatoes, onions, and garlic for 30 min at 400°F prior to pureeing them for the sauce. I ended up needing 8 total cups of chicken stock (I added 4 initially and then kept checking every 15 minutes during the rice cooking to make sure it didn’t dry out). Otherwise, I followed this recipe exactly!

Chicken Legs (link): I cooked the chicken legs at 400°F for 40 minutes and used the seasoning recipe in the link to the left. Obviously, Ethiopia is on the opposite side of the continent from Nigeria, but I was scrambling to throw something together after the goat meat let me down and this seasoning was amazing!