Pigeon Peas and Rice is a classic side dish for many Jamaican meals including curries and brown stew chicken.
Pigeon Peas and Rice
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
Pigeon Peas and Rice is my recipe of the day. This is something I made to go with my Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken (slow cooker) which I will be posting on Sunday. This particular version of rice does not contain coconut cream or milk so is slightly different.
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In this version I opted to skip the coconut cream and use coconut oil instead. As well, I added turmeric and cumin to the rice cooking water, which gives it a gorgeous yellow rice look. You can still taste the coconut in the rice dish from the oil. But it won’t know you down.
I used some canned green pigeon peas in this too. Don’t worry about it saying “green”. They are not green like sweet peas but a light brown with a greenish tinge. Don’t substitute sweet peas or even marrow peas for these. Not the same thing.
I’ll call for green pepper in this. But I did use a leftover poblano from my chicken poblano chowder I made recently. You can use either type of pepper. The poblano can pack a tiny bit of hit, but not usually in winter.
I used 2 teaspoons fresh minced habanero in this, which give it “a little bit” of heat, but won’t destroy you. Mind you, these are winter peppers so a summer pepper might take you out with even less. Always test your fresh peppers for heat before unleashing the Kraken on your family. If someone does like spice (like me) I bet they have their own collection of sauces handy to spice things up. For this meal, we used habanero sauce (Bill) and I used a hot mango Pickapeppa.
I’ll post the Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken on Sunday. It does very well as a crockpot recipe, as long as you don’t cook it ten hours. Chicken and pork cook amazingly fast.
Pigeon Peas and Rice
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Pigeon Peas and Rice

Pigeon Peas and Rice
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups uncooked long grain white rice
- 3 cups water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 15 ounce can green pigeon peas (rinsed and drained)
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1/2 cup diced green bell pepper or poblano pepper
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger root
- 2 teaspoons minced seedless habanero pepper (for medium heat)
- 2 tablespoons butter or ghee
- 1 cup chopped scallions
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Rinse rice in a sieve until the water runs clear and drain.
- Place rice in a saucepan with water, salt, turmeric, ground cumin and stir. If you use a rice cooker, defer to the water amount for your appliance.
- If using rice cooker, run according to your appliance.
- If cooking stovetop, bring to a boil; reduce heat to low, cover tightly and simmer twenty minutes.
- In both cases, take a clean tea towel and place it between the lid and the pot, making sure your pot is off the heat so you don't burn your house down. Let sit ten minutes to allow the towel to absorb steam, then fluff rice with a fork.
- Heat the coconut oil in a skillet and add the onion, diced peppers, garlic, ginger, and habanero, cooking until the onion is soft.
- Add the butter, scallions, cilantro and drained peas, cooking a minute or two more so the scallion isn't totally crunchy.
- Stir the rice into the veggies; I use a large mixing bowl so I don't make a mess.
Notes
Nutrition
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When do you add the peas?
Sorry about the typo! (Fixed now) Those are added towards the end, as they just need to warm through and not cook.
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