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Baked Jollof Rice with Chicken
Baked jollof rice with chicken is one of my favourite one-pan dinners. I cook the rice in a spiced tomato and pepper base, then tuck in seasoned chicken pieces and bake until everything’s tender and full of smoky flavour. The rice soaks up all the goodness while forming those golden crispy bits at the edges – my favourite part. It’s a vibrant, hearty dish that’s perfect for feeding a crowd or just enjoying with plenty of leftovers for the next day.
Ingredients
- 500g chicken thigh, diced into small pieces
- 400g basmati rice
- 300g roasted red peppers
- 1 white onion
- 2 inches of ginger (or 2 tbsp minced ginger)
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 Scotch bonnet chilli (see notes)
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 100g passata
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 2 tsp mild curry powder
- 500ml chicken stock, hot
- Salt and pepper, to season (see notes)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C.
- Rinse the rice well, and set aside.
- Blitz together the peppers, onion, ginger, garlic, and chilli until well combined into a smooth paste. Set aside.
- In a large, shallow skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the chicken and fry for 4-5 minutes, or until just cooked.
- Add the curry powder and fry with the chicken an additional minute, or until fragrant.
- Next, add the tomato paste and fry for 1-2 minutes, or until dark and well incorporated with the chicken.
- Stir through the passata and the blitzed pepper mixture, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, or until the sauce is thick.
- Add the rice, and stir through the sauce.
- Next, stir through the stock, thyme and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper (see notes).
- Cover with a fitted lid and transfer to the hot oven. Bake for 45 minutes.
- Once removed from the oven, remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork before serving/
Notes
- The Scotch bonnet is optional for a mild flavour. Alternatively, if you can't find a Scotch bonnet, you can replace this with your preferred chilli of choice.
- I use Maldon Sea Salt Flakes, and this recipe requires a very large pinch of salt!
- The rice will go dark at the edges of the dish once out of the oven - this is perfect! It means you'll have a deliciously crispy bottom. Don't worry, it won't taste like burning -it's just the tomatoes!
What I Cook With
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Amount Per Serving: Calories: 521Total Fat: 16.2gSaturated Fat: 3.7gCholesterol: 74mgSodium: 470mgCarbohydrates: 61.5gFiber: 2.6gSugar: 4gProtein: 30.4g
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Baked Jollof Rice with Chicken
Back to the Office, Back to the Oven
Since heading back to the office a couple of days a week, I’ve had to seriously rethink how I cook during the week. I used to potter around the kitchen, letting a dish bubble away while I sipped a cup of tea and daydreamed. But these days? I want something I can throw together quickly without sacrificing flavour. This Baked Jollof Rice with Chicken has become an absolute weeknight hero. It ticks every box: quick, easy, comforting, and packed with the kind of spice and flavour that makes me do a little happy dance in my kitchen slippers.
Honestly, it’s the kind of recipe that feels like it’s doing you a favour. You blitz up the red pepper base, chuck everything into one pot, and shove it into the oven. The rice comes out fluffy and tender, with that crispy golden layer on the edges that we all know is the best bit. It’s rich, it’s warming, and it makes enough for leftovers, which always feels like winning at life. I’ve made it a few times now, and each time I’m reminded just how satisfying it is to pull out a bubbling pot of dinner with barely any washing up.
And let’s be honest, the oven does most of the work here – that’s the beauty of it. While it’s baking, I can tackle the laundry, scroll aimlessly on my phone, or just sit on the floor with my cat pretending I’m being productive. It’s a lazy dinner without tasting like one, and that’s my kind of midweek magic.
The Joy of Crispy Bits and Clever Shortcuts
I’ve got a real soft spot for anything that crisps up in the oven. And the baked edges of this Jollof Rice? Utter heaven. That golden, crunchy bottom layer has me scraping the dish like I haven’t eaten in days. It’s honestly the kind of dish where the leftovers are almost better than the first round, purely because the crispy bits have had time to intensify their flavour. I know some people say the microwave is your best friend for weeknight meals, but I don’t even own one. Never have, and probably never will. I prefer letting the oven or stove do its thing. Feels more like cooking, less like reheating life.
The other reason I love this dish is how low-effort it is without being boring. It’s literally three steps – make the paste, mix everything together, bake. That’s it. It’s hard to mess up, and even if you’re heavy-handed with the spices or slightly off with the liquid, it still turns out delicious. There’s a kind of freedom in that – no precision required, just good food with minimal faff. I’ve started leaning heavily into these kinds of meals now that I’m juggling blog work, full-time work, and, you know, being a functioning adult.
And speaking of spice, I never hold back with the heat. Rice dishes should punch you in the face with flavour. I’m celiac, so I eat a lot of rice, and the last thing I want is bland, boring bowls, and this Jollof is anything but. It’s fragrant, rich, a little smoky, and leaves just enough warmth on your tongue to make you want a second helping. Or a third. No judgement here.
Weeknight Comfort with a West African Twist
One of the things I love most about cooking is the way it transports you. Jollof rice might not be something I grew up with, but it’s fast become a staple in my kitchen. It’s a dish with roots in West African cuisine, and honestly, I think it deserves far more attention than it gets. It’s vibrant, hearty, and satisfying in all the ways you want comfort food to be. But it’s also clever. It turns a handful of pantry staples into something magical. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic. Simple stuff that sings when you treat it right.
And don’t get me started on the chicken. Juicy, flavourful, and perfectly cooked from just hanging out in the oven with the rice. No separate frying or faffing about. Everything cooks together in one pot like a happy little flavour party. It makes for the kind of dinner that feels like you’ve put effort in, even though you haven’t. Which is the kind of lie I like to tell myself after a long day in front of a computer.
This recipe’s also become a bit of a go-to when I want to impress without actually trying. Friends come round, I serve this, and suddenly I’m the queen of casual dinner parties. I just smile and act like I didn’t chuck it all in a pot 40 minutes earlier while trying to detangle my hair and answer emails. It’s the kind of meal that lets you have your delicious rice and eat it too.
Ingredients Breakdown
The ingredients in this Baked Jollof Rice with Chicken are straightforward, but each one pulls its weight. The base of the dish is a red pepper paste made with fresh red capsicum, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and a bit of heat from chilli. This is what gives the dish that rich, slightly smoky flavour. Once blended and cooked down, the paste becomes the backbone of the dish, coating the rice and chicken in all that glorious spice.
Basmati rice is the grain of choice here, and for good reason. It cooks up perfectly in the oven, staying fluffy and tender, while still getting those crispy golden edges that are so addictive. The chicken is bone-in and skin-on, which keeps it juicy while it bakes and allows the skin to take on all the flavour from the sauce and spices. You could use thighs or drumsticks depending on what you’ve got.
Everything is layered in one pot or baking dish and finished in the oven, which gives the whole dish time to marry together. I usually use a heavy Dutch oven because it retains heat beautifully and gives the bottom layer of rice that proper golden crunch. It’s spicy, saucy, and comforting in a way that only oven-baked dishes can be. And the best part? Minimal dishes, maximum reward.
