00:00I don't even need to be a housewife or like a rare woman because whoo cooking
00:05all this food it's a lot of work. Hey guys I'm Nikki this is my kitchen sink
00:10today I'll be cooking Jamaican brown stew chicken with rice and peas and
00:14plantains it's a recipe I learned from my Auntie Sonia. I went to two different
00:18grocery stores for all the ingredients we're gonna use today and roughly spent
00:21$27. It's something my grandmother used to always cook but my aunt is the one who
00:25told me how to cook it. I'd call her and she'd like you need to do this that XYZ
00:31carrots tomatoes potatoes thyme. She's the best she's a great cook. Right now we
00:37have a few pieces of chicken breast and chicken thigh roasted garlic herbs Mrs.
00:43Dash and some lorries and I put a little thyme in to like marinate get all the
00:48good little juices and all the little nicks and crannies in there to get like a
00:51flavorful punch. I get my cooking inspiration from my family any family
00:58meal for us is like a production. Food is like our love language. We're also gonna
01:06add some thyme we're gonna use way more than this because thyme is everything it
01:12has so much flavor and nothing should survive without thyme. Cooking is very
01:18therapeutic for me it's like I like to come home, pour a glass of wine and figure
01:22out what I'm gonna cook for the night. The most I always keep in my fridge are
01:26herbs and just like growing up in a Caribbean household that's like thyme is
01:29very very important and on top of that whether I'm cooking like a Caribbean meal
01:32or just any kind of meal it just adds an extra flavorful punch. Next we're going to
01:40fry the chicken. I'm using both olive oil and canola oil. My aunt taught me fry with
01:46both. And then we're gonna put the stove on medium-high and once it starts bubbling a
01:54little bit we'll throw the chicken in. Now that I've put the chicken in I'm gonna
02:00wash my hands. Now we're gonna move on to the rice and peas. I'm gonna be very
02:04honest nobody taught me anything about two teaspoons of this or one cup of that
02:11like Caribbean people don't cook like that they just cook. I can't really give
02:16you a measurement sorry about that my aunt never gave me a measurement she's
02:19just like you know keep keep cooking until it tastes like X Y and Z and I'm
02:24just like that doesn't help but you know that's just how I'm gonna cook. Coconut
02:28meal is like so important into the rice and peas. Might as well just add the beans now.
02:35Season salt some more time because time is in everything. We will put this on the
02:41stove and let it like heat up for like two or three minutes and then after that
02:46we'll add the round rice to it. So last but not least is the plantains. I like to
02:51buy my plantains a little beat up like this because in my mind this is not a
02:56scientific fact no one has taught me this but my taste buds would attest to it
03:01that these are gonna be sweeter. I'm usually good with just a half of plantains
03:05when you have all this other stuff happening. We're gonna go put the brown
03:11rice in now because the pot should be warm and then we're gonna put the
03:15plantains on and fry them. I like to just like poke the chicken to just make
03:20so the inside is actually really cooked then it's like softening up because no
03:24one wants to eat raw stew chicken. That's gross. We're gonna add the carrots
03:30the tomatoes, the scallions, the garlic and of course can't forget the thyme and then
03:38we're gonna cover the pot and let it stew for like another 20-30 minutes. This is
03:45scotch bonnet pepper. It's like a really spicy pepper. You literally need to wash
03:50this for 60 seconds because if it pops your mouth will be on fire. Caribbean
03:54people always use scotch bonnet pepper for everything. The rice is basically done.
04:00So we're just gonna move the rice off the stove to the side and fry the plantain
04:05until it's golden brown. I'm a clean freak so don't mind me. This is my magic power
04:13you guys. Cleaning while you're cooking. That's something my mom taught me. Clean
04:17as you're cooking and it'll be less mess when you're done. I don't really give you
04:20guys too much numbers or instruction because I didn't really get any. You can
04:26tell the chicken is ready. It's like when it's nice and soft and it's kind of like
04:30falling off the fork. Smells so good.
04:38What I love most about making Jamaican food is that it kind of just keeps me in
04:42touch with my culture. My cousins and I are first-generation Americans and
04:47although we were heavily raised in a super super Jamaican household it's easy to
04:52be Americanized and although it's great to be in a country where you have all
04:57these different cultures I want to make sure I keep a part of culture with me and
05:01my family. And voila! Check out the full recipe in the description below.
05:10Really good. You ever cook something and I'm like can't believe I cooked that. I might
05:18actually eat the whole thing.
05:22Stew chicken just reminds me a lot of my grandma and all the times we spent
05:26together and it's like my favorite meal. It feels very at home like it's just my
05:31safe space.
