guyanesedinnerServes 6
Cook-up rice, kind to blood sugar
The Guyanese Saturday one-pot — brown rice, black-eye peas, lean chicken and thyme in light coconut milk.
Cook-up rice is Guyana in one pot: rice, peas, meat and coconut milk simmered together at week's end, stretching whatever the kitchen held into a feast. This version keeps the ritual and the thyme-and-coconut soul, swaps in brown rice and extra black-eye peas for a steadier release, and lets light coconut milk carry the flavour. Saturday stays Saturday.
Ingredients
- Brown rice300g
- Black-eye peas2 × 400g tins
- Chicken thigh fillets (skinless)400g
- Light coconut milk400ml tin
- Chicken stock (low salt)500ml
- Onion1
- Garlic4 cloves
- Fresh thyme4 sprigs
- Spring onions3
- Scotch bonnet (whole, unbroken)1
- Black pepper
Method
- 1Brown the chicken pieces in a large heavy pot — no oil needed if it is non-stick; a few minutes each side. Set aside.
- 2In the same pot soften the onion, garlic and the white parts of the spring onions.
- 3Return the chicken with the rinsed brown rice, peas, coconut milk, stock, thyme and the whole scotch bonnet.
- 4Bring to a simmer, cover tightly, and cook low and slow for 40–45 minutes until the rice is tender and the pot smells like Saturday.
- 5Remove the scotch bonnet and thyme stalks, season with black pepper, scatter the green spring onion tops, and bring the pot to the table.
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