Pelau
Chicken browned directly in caramelized brown sugar, then cooked in one pot with rice, pigeon peas, coconut milk, and pumpkin until the liquid is fully absorbed. A genuine three-way culinary fusion: Spanish colonists' paella-style rice cookery, enslaved West Africans' jollof-rice and sugar-browning technique, and Indian indentured laborers' pulao tradition, all combined in Trinidad and shared with neighboring English-speaking Caribbean islands.
Meat
Ingredients
- 2 lb chicken pieces, bone-in
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 cups parboiled rice
- 1 can (15 oz) pigeon peas, drained
- 1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 scallions
- 1 scotch bonnet pepper, whole
- 1 carrot, diced
- 2 cups pumpkin or squash, diced, optional
- 2 cups water or stock
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
Steps
- Season the chicken with garlic, onion, scallion, thyme, salt, and pepper, and marinate 30 minutes to overnight.
- Heat the oil in a large pot, add the brown sugar, and cook, stirring, until it caramelizes to a deep amber color.
- Immediately add the chicken pieces, stirring quickly to coat and brown in the caramel, and saute 5-8 minutes.
- Add the rice, pigeon peas, coconut milk, water or stock, whole scotch bonnet, and pumpkin or carrot if using.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce to low, cover tightly, and simmer 25-30 minutes until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, stirring once partway through.
- Fluff, remove the scotch bonnet, and serve.