Who Wants Pelau (Chicken and Rice) for Dinner?

Lesley Enston’s heartfelt new cookbook, Belly Full, is everything a cookbook should be. To begin with, I’m excited to cook everything in it…

…like pumpkin fritters and coconut-stewed vegetables and sweet plantain omelettes and meat stews flavored with intense green sauces. These are bright, beautiful recipes that tell stories.

Enston grew up in Toronto with a Trinidadian mother and Canadian father, and as she got older felt drawn to people of the Caribbean islands, like Puerto Rico, Dominica, Jamaica, Barbados, Haiti and beyond. Even though their languages and spices differed, she says, “I felt at home in their food, their music, and that unmistakable vibe of a person who grew up with the sun in their face, surrounded by the Caribbean Sea.”

Her 100-plus recipes are organized by 11 key ingredients across Caribbean cuisines — beans, calabaza, cassava, chayote, coconut, cornmeal, okra, plantains, rice, salted cod, and Scotch bonnet peppers.

And Enston makes the stories personal. The pholourie (deep-fried split pea fritters) was “100% one of my favorite reasons for visiting Trinidad.” For Soup Jomou, Haiti’s “Freedom Soup,” she enlists Haitian-American chef Cybille St.Aude-Tate, who expresses awe at how long her people have been making it. And — my favorite part — many of the recipes weave through the joyous memories of her family’s home cooking, like this pelau, below.

“‘Me belly full’ is a phrase you’ll hear throughout the English-speaking Caribbean,” Enston writes in the introduction. “It has an obvious meaning — a full and satisfied stomach — but can also mean a full and satisfied heart and soul.”

Pelau (Chicken and Rice)
From Belly Full by Lesley Enston
Serves 6-8

Says Lesley: While Arroz con Pollo may be the most famous version of chicken and rice outside of the Caribbean, pelau is the one I know best. It always showed up at family functions at my aunt’s house around the corner… As a person who, prior to having a small child, never had ketchup in my house, I have to admit it is really the secret sauce. You could substitute tomato paste if you must, and I have, but the magic will be missing. I’ve eaten a lot of pelaus in my life, but this one from Dominica might be my favorite.

3 pounds bone-in chicken thighs, skin removed, cut into bite-size pieces
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons Green Seasoning, store bought or homemade (below)
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons coconut oil or other neutral oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 yellow onion, diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, diced
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained
¼ cup ketchup
3 cups water
2 cups basmati or jasmine rice

In a medium bowl, mix the chicken with ¼ cup of the green seasoning, two-thirds of the garlic, the salt, paprika, and pepper, using your hands to make sure the seasoning is evenly distributed. Place in the fridge to marinate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight. About 30 minutes before cooking the chicken, remove it from the fridge to come to room temperature.

In a large Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot, heat the coconut oil over medium-high heat until it shimmers, then add the brown sugar. Cook, watching it constantly and stirring it occasionally with a wooden spoon to make sure it cooks evenly, for 5 to 8 minutes, until the sugar bubbles all over, turns dark brown, and just starts to smoke. (This will vary from stove to stove; if it hasn’t happened by minute eight, just hang in there; the moment will happen quickly after.) Immediately add the chicken and listen to it sing and sizzle. Cook the chicken, uncovered, for 5 minutes, until it’s releasing its juices, then add the onion, remaining 2 tablespoons green seasoning, remaining garlic, the scallions, carrot, and thyme.

Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Add the beans and ketchup and cook until the ketchup has darkened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the water, raise the heat to high, and bring it all to a boil. Add the rice, reduce the heat to medium, and cook, uncovered, until the water has mostly evaporated, about 15 minutes. Give everything a hearty stir to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes more, until the liquid has completely evaporated.

Pelau is great immediately and heats up well for several days after; store it in an airtight container in the fridge.

Green Seasoning
In a food processor combine the following until pureed and smooth: 1 bunch culantro (about 8 leaves, if you can’t find it, swap in cilantro); 1/2 cup fresh cilantro; 1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves; 1 head garlic cloves, peeled; 1 medium yellow onion, roughly chopped; 1 shallot; 5 scallions, roughly chopped; 1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves; 1 celery stalk, roughly chopped; 1 (1-inch) piece fresh ginger; peeled and roughly chopped; 1 seasoning pepper, seeded and roughly chopped (optional); 1/4 cup fresh lime juice. Store in an airtight glass jar in the fridge for up to 1 month.

P.S. Five-ingredient dinners, and a Brooklyn brownstone inspired by the Caribbean.

(Photos by Marc Baptiste.)