The Grenadines' one-pot rice — chicken browned in caramelized sugar, then simmered with rice, pigeon peas, coconut milk, and pumpkin into a glossy, faintly sweet, savory rice.
Pelau is the shared one-pot rice of the Eastern Caribbean, the meat first caramelised in burnt sugar before the rice and pigeon peas go in. The Vincentian version often adds pumpkin and cooks down in the islands' coconut.
Spoon up Vincentian pelau — glossy caramel-brown rice with tender chicken, pigeon peas, and sweet pumpkin melting through. Bite: faintly sweet from the burnt sugar and pumpkin, deeply savory, the rice fragrant with coconut and thyme, a warm thread of scotch bonnet. A complete one-pot — the Sunday rice of the Grenadines.
Browning the meat in caramelized sugar gives pelau its color and bittersweet depth; cooking the rice in the coconut-meat liquid lets it absorb the flavor. Pumpkin added later melts to sweeten and thicken the pot — a Vincentian touch on the shared dish.
Variations
With beef or salt beef. Without pumpkin. With carrots and olives. Spicier. Drier or moister. With saltfish.
On the Palate
Where Vincentian Pelau sits in the Vincentian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
8 steps · 35 min active + 40 min waiting
- 16 min
Season 8 chicken pieces with green seasoning.
- 26 min
Caramelize 3 tbsp sugar in oil until deep brown, then add the chicken and coat (browning).
Watch outWatch the sugar go from melted to a deep mahogany foam right before it would burn — that dark bittersweet caramel is what gives pelau its color; too pale and the pot stays bland.
- 33 min
Add 300 g rice and 200 g pigeon peas; stir to coat.
- 43 min
Pour in 400 ml coconut milk and water to cover; add thyme.
- 524 min
Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer 20 min.
Watch outKeep it at the barest simmer with the lid on — a hard boil scorches the rice on the bottom before the top cooks.
- 611 min
Add 200 g diced pumpkin and a whole scotch bonnet; cook 10 min more.
- 710 min
Rest off the heat 10 min; remove the pepper.
Watch outThe rest is when the last liquid gets drunk up and the grains firm — resist lifting the lid or the steam that finishes it escapes.
- 82 min
Fluff and serve with coleslaw.
