Jamaican Rice and peas

4.11 from 39 votes

Rice and peas is the quintessential Jamaican food. It’s the perfect side-dish for just about any Caribbean meal. But don’t limit yourself to serving rice and peas with Caribbean meals, try it with other dishes; it tastes really good with shito (Ghanaian hot pepper sauce).

Prep Time10

Cook Time1 48

Total Time1 58

Course: Main

Cuisine: Caribbean

Servings: people

Calories: 393kcal

Author: Meals by Mavis

Ingredients

3/4 cup dried red kidney beans
2 cups long grain brown rice
1 scotch bonnet pepper (leave whole)
1 cup coconut milk
4 stalks thyme (leave whole)
2 stalks scallions (chopped)
1 medium onion (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 tsp fresh ginger (minced)
1 tsp allspice (ground)
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 tsp black pepper (ground)
⅔ cup chicken broth
4 cups water

Instructions

Soak the red kidney beans in cold water overnight or for at least 8 hours.
When you're ready to cook the dish, soak the rice in a bowl with warm water while you work on the next steps.
In a medium non-stick pot, bring 4 cups of water to a boil over medium-high heat (about 5 minutes).
Strain the beans and add them to the pot.
Add the scallions, garlic, ginger, onions, thyme, allspice, black pepper, and scotch bonnet pepper to the beans.
Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat (about 3 minutes).
Set the heat to low and let the bean mixture simmer for 60 minutes or until the beans are al dente.
Remove the scotch bonnet pepper and thyme stems from the pot. Add the salt, coconut milk, and chicken stock to the beans.
Using a strainer, wash and rinse the rice over the sink and then add the rice to the beans, mix well using a spoon. The liquid should be about 1½ inches above the rice and beans.
Cover the pot with tin foil (aluminum foil) to trap in steam to cook the rice and peas evenly.
Bring the rice to a boil over medium heat (about 5 minutes), then set the stove to low heat and let the rice and peas cook for 40 minutes or until tender. Using a spoon, gently turn the rice and peas when it’s about half-way done to prevent the bottom of the dish from burning.
About 6 minutes before the rice and peas is done cooking, remove the tin foil from the pot and let the rice and peas cook with only the lid covering the pot

Notes

Avoid using beans that are older than 12 months as old beans won't soften.
If you want to use canned beans instead of dried beans to make rice and peas, you can follow my recipe for Jamaican rice and peas with canned beans.
A few people have asked me what pepper they can use to substitute scotch bonnet pepper as it's not sold in grocery stores in their area. So, I thought I'd include a note here. Habanero pepper is the closest substitute for scotch bonnet pepper. If you can't get habanero pepper, you can use chili peppers like serrano pepper and Thai red chili. Also, since you don't cut open the pepper in rice and peas, you can leave it out without changing the taste of the dish by much.

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