The BEST Jamaican Rice and Peas | Made In 2 Easy Steps

Get ready to be obsessed with this Jamaican rice and peas recipe. It combines long grain rice with sweet coconut milk, tons of incredible spices, and tender kidney beans to make a super flavorful side dish you won't be able to get enough of. And, best of all, it's an absolute breeze to whip up!

The Best Jamaican Rice and Peas Recipe

Honestly, as far as easy-to-make Jamaican recipes go, this Jamaican rice and peas recipe might be the easiest.

In fact, just 2 steps are all you need to follow to make this rice and peas recipe, and the entire cooking process is almost completely hands-off. The pot you cook everything in basically takes care of all the heavy lifting - or cooking - for you.

Plus, as I alluded to earlier, every bite of this rice and peas recipe is chock-full of flavor. From the onions and garlic to the spices, herbs, kidney beans, rice, and scotch bonnet pepper this dish packs a ton of savory deliciousness.

So, go grab a nice big pot with a lid so you can get those kidney beans and rice simmering. Just the smell of the Jamaican rice and peas cooking is going to make you drool in anticipation!

Oh, and don't forget to pick a tasty main course to go with this Jamaican rice and peas recipe. Every great side dish needs a great main too, right? With that said, a few of my favorite mains to pair it with are these fried chicken gizzards, this jerk chicken, and these Jamaican fried dumplings.

Ingredients

Now, just so you know, authentic Jamaican rice and peas are actually made with kidney beans. Dried beans are typically called "peas" in Jamaica, so don't go out and buy a bag of frozen green peas- you don't need it! Kidney beans are all you need!

And, let me tell you, those kidney beans going to taste so good. They cook with white rice in coconut milk and eight different types of spices - gah, I'm getting hungry just thinking about 'em.

Anyway, here is everything you'll need to make this Jamaican rice and peas recipe:

• 1 cup dried kidney beans, soaked overnight
• 3 cups water
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 scallions, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 all spice berries
• 5 thyme sprigs
• 1 Scotch bonnet pepper
• ½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 2 cups long-grain white rice

By the way, might want to pick up a few extra Scotch bonnet peppers and make this Jamaican chicken soup with dumplings with 'em next. It's one of my favorite Jamaican recipes.

Also, just so you know, this jollof rice recipe uses a lot of the same ingredients that this Jamaican rice and peas recipe does. So, if you want to put some of your leftover ingredients to good use, you might want to give that recipe a whirl too.

Ingredient Substitutions & Suggestions

While I recommend making this recipe with the ingredients listed above, I do have some suggestions for making some substitutions if you're in a pinch.

Substituting Out the scotch bonnet pepper

Scotch bonnet peppers are extremely spicy - in fact, they are one of the spiciest peppers out there - and they add a ton of heat to this dish. So, if you're not a big fan of spicy food, one thing that you may want to consider is skipping the Scotch bonnet pepper altogether.

With that said, though, if you still want to have a little bit of heat in your Jamaican rice and peas, you can use some jalapeno peppers or serrano peppers instead. Both are considerably less spicy than scotch bonnet peppers are, but they still have a nice kick to 'em.

Use Canned kidney beans

This Jamaican rice and peas recipe is made in the traditional way by soaking the red kidney beans overnight - this makes them tender and soft. If you want to skip the soaking step, you can use canned kidney beans.

Now, if you do use canned kidney beans, you'll want to drain and rinse them well before using them.

Also, keep in mind that you'll want to use two cups of canned kidney beans to replace the dried beans. Canned beans are already soaked and larger than dried beans, so you need a little more canned beans than dried beans.

Rice Swaps

Another swap you can try is replacing the authentic long grain white rice with long grain brown rice. Brown rice will work just as well, and it will also add a little extra fiber to the Jamaican rice and peas too.

Just keep in mind that the brown rice will need to cook a little longer. So plan to add about ten to fifteen minutes to your cooking time if you go that route.

Also, you may need to add an extra splash of coconut milk to help the rice get a little more tender.

Milk Suggestions

As far as the coconut milk goes, you'll want to make sure you use unsweetened coconut milk.

With that said, you can use refrigerated fresh coconut milk or canned coconut milk for this recipe. Both will work as long as they're not sweetened.

By the way, if you're not a fan of the slightly fruity/nutty flavor of coconut milk, you can replace it with the same amount of vegetable broth. It obviously won't be an authentic jamaican rice and peas experience if you do, but it will still be delicious.

How to Make Jamaican Rice and Peas

As I mentioned a couple of times already, this authentic Jamaican rice and peas recipe is super, super easy to make. In fact, it's probably the easiest Jamaican recipe I've ever made, and I think that'll be true for you as well. I mean, just 2 steps are all you'll need to follow to make it, how hard can it be?

Anyway, let's stop wasting time and get into how to make this tasty Jamaican rice dish.

Step 1: Cook the Beans

The first thing you'll want to do is add the beans to a large pot and cover them with water. Next, you can place the pot over medium-high heat and bring it to a boil.

Then, once you've got the water boiling you'll want to add the yellow onion, green onions, garlic, allspice, thyme, scotch bonnet pepper, ginger, salt, and pepper to the pot and give everything a good stir.

Now, after everything's been mixed well, you can add in the coconut milk and lower the stove temp to medium heat. Then, once that's been added in, you can cover the pot and simmer the dried kidney beans for about an hour.

After an hour you can check and see if the kidney beans are tender. You'll know they if you can break them apart easily with a fork.

Step 2: Cook the Rice

So, now that the beans are all set and ready to go, you'll want to stir in the uncooked jasmine rice. Then, once you've stirred everything together, you can put the cover back on the pot and simmer the rice and peas for another 30 minutes.

After the rice has cooked, you can remove the pot from the stovetop - but keep the cover on it when you do.

You'll want to let the rice sit and steam for ten more minutes on its own. Then, after you've given the rice some time to mature, you can remove the thyme stems, allspice berries, and scotch bonnet pepper from the rice and discard them.

Lastly, give the rice and peas a good fluff up with a fork, and enjoy!

How to Store Jamaican Rice and Peas

This recipe for Jamaican rice and peas makes about 4 large servings so there's a good chance you'll have some leftovers if you make it. If you do end up with some store you'll want to keep them in the fridge in an airtight container. Stored this way the rice and peas will keep for about 3-5 days in the fridge.

That being said, rice is always best when eaten fresh. So, cook up some jerk chicken, invite your family over and try to eat it all the day you make it.

How to Reheat Jamaican rice and peas

This Jamaican rice and peas recipe is best enjoyed warm. Luckily, reheating it is a breeze.

To reheat it quickly just put a few scoops of rice and peas into a small bowl and microwave 'em in 1 minute intervals until warm.

A little tip about reheating rice in the microwave - it helps to add a little more liquid to the bowl to prevent the rice from drying out. Adding a splash of coconut milk to it, or even an ice cube or two can really do the rice wonders during the reheating process.

Wrapping it Up

Well, that's how to make Jamaican rice and peas from scratch!

This Jamaican rice recipe is just so, so good, and so easy to make too. It's quickly become a fam favorite in our house and I'm sure it will be in yours soon too.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it as much as I/we do.

As always, if you make this recipe, leave a comment below and let us know how it went!

More Rice Recipes

If you loved this Jamaican rice and peas recipe and are looking for more just like it, we have a bunch of other delicious rice recipes on the blog for you to try next.

Here are some of our favorites:

• Hibachi fried rice
• Turmeric rice
• Thai pineapple fried rice
• Benihana fried rice recipe
• Easy beef fried rice
• Broccoli rice casserole

Oh, and for even more mouth wateringly good recipes, be sure to follow us on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. We post new ones on them every single day.

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