The wonderful thing about one pot dishes is that you can throw in anything you want and it will all come together to a beautiful and unique taste. Rice dishes do just that. In the Caribbean, there are many different names for this dish. In Guyana, we call it cook-up rice or all-in-one. It's typically made on Sundays or when there are plenty of mouths to feed! It is a hearty and rustic rice dish. The texture of this rice is wet and very moist. People usually include beef, pork, or chicken in it, but others like to top it with a piece of fried fish.
There is no one recipe for cook-up rice. It is a highly customizable dish in terms of what type of beans and meat you can include. I prefer mine with pigeon peas, but it is also popular with black-eyed peas.
In this variation, I've added spinach, kidney beans, ochroes, with a side of mango achar and topped with lightly fried fish.
Since I don't eat beef or pork, I have made mine with nice brown pieces of chicken breasts. Here is the recipe, don't be intimidated by a number of ingredients, it's a quick process once you get it all into the pot.
Bring 10 cups water to a boil and in the meantime, dice onions, garlic, and green pepper, you can add scallions here too
I love using fresh herbs... remove from stems...
give them a coarse chop
add two peppers, you can use ½ scotch bonnet as well
add 2 bay leaves and be sure to remove them later
you will need 1-2 small bouillon cubes depending on how salty you like your food,
start with one and add more later. I ended up using two.
throw everything in the pot and let it all "cook-up" together
add 2 cups coconut milk
add to pot
Then add 2 tablespoon cassareep, this will give the cook-up rice a nice brown color
you can add any type of beans you like, but I love cook-up with pigeon peas
Using parboiled rice is a great option here, parboiled rice is firm and can hold up to the
heavy ingredients in this dish, white rice or any other short grain rice will make this cook-up become soggy.
Add rice to the pot along with black pepper and old bay seasoning. You can add any other dry seasonings you like here.
Cook the chicken
I used 2 large chicken breasts
rice is almost done, did you notice how most of the water has evaporated?
Guyanese Style Cook-up Rice
Guyanese Style Cook-up Rice
Yield:
Serves 6-8 people
Ingredients
- 10 cups water (if you like it less watery, add 8 cups water instead)
- 1 onion diced
- 2-3 scallions chopped (I didn't have any on hand which is why you do not see it pictured above)
- 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 cup green pepper, chopped (optional)
- 1 sprig of oregano, coarsely chopped
- 1 small sprig of rosemary, coarsely chopped
- 1-2 sprigs of thyme, removed from stem
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 wiri wiri pepper or ½ scotch bonnet
- 1-2 small bouillon cubes
- 2 cups coconut milk
- 2 tablespoon cassareep
- 1 tablespoon old bay seasoning
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup chopped spinach (optional)
- 1 15.5oz canned beans of your choice or *dry beans
- 2 ½ cups parboiled rice (any other type of rice will be too soft to hold up to the heavy ingredients in this dish)
- 2-3 pounds of your choice of meat
Chicken:
- 2-3lbs chicken (or any type of meat you prefer)
- season meat to your tastes, but here is an idea of how I seasoned my chicken
- 2 tablespoon of onion and garlic puree
- 1 teaspoon cassareep
- cayenne pepper
- black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon oil
Instructions
If you are using dried beans:
- In a large pot, bring 10 cups of water to a boil. Add dried beans to boiling water.
- In the meantime, dice onions, garlic, scallions, and green pepper add to the boiling water. Add in wiri wiri pepper, fresh herbs, bay leaves, and bouillon cubes.
- When beans are slightly soft, add coconut milk, cassareep, and spinach (if you are using spinach). Let this mixture boil for 15 minutes.
- Place rice in a mixing bowl and run the tap water over it on low, until the water goes clear (this method is how we wash rice in the West Indies). Drain water from rice and add to the pot.
- Add old bay seasoning and black pepper. Let rice boil until the rice is cooked, you can take one out to feel if it is soft or not. When the cook-up is close to being done, you will see that it is wet and soupy looking, there will hardly be any liquid left in the pot. Now at this point, add your cooked meat and give it a good stir.
- Remove from heat and cool. This will taste the best on the next day, trust me!
If you are using canned beans:
- In a large pot, bring 10 cups of water to a boil.
- In the meantime, dice onions, garlic, scallions, and green pepper add to the boiling water. Add in wiri wiri pepper, fresh herbs, bay leaves, and bouillon cubes. Let ingredients cook for 10-12 minutes.
- Add in coconut milk and cassareep and spinach (if you are using spinach). Let mixture boil for 7-8 minutes.
- Place rice in a mixing bowl and run the tap water over it on low, until the water goes clear (this method is how we wash rice in the West Indies). Drain water from rice and add to the pot.
- Drain and rinse beans and add to the pot. Add old bay seasoning and black pepper. Let rice boil until the rice is cooked, you can take one out to feel if it is soft or not.
- When the cook-up is close to being done, you will see that it is wet and soupy looking, there will hardly be any liquid left in the pot. Now at this point, add your cooked meat and give it a good stir.
- Remove from heat and cool. This will taste the best on the next day, trust me!
Ayesha Monique says
My mom makes this so well. I wish I could do it like her. It looks so delicious on your page.. I want to make it come out the computer and onto my desk
GT Girl Ramblings says
I just had to say this about the cook up rice SLAMMING. I'm drooling. This is not the best site for a pregnant woman to be on! lol
Ms. Gourmet Express says
Thanks GT Girl!
Food is Love. Love is Food. says
The herbs you have used in this recipe proves to be an interesting twist to traditional cook up rice. I must try it your way. Nice job.
Nikki says
Hey! I cooked this on Friday 29 July 2011 for the first time! the flavors were amazing! However, instead of boiling da water first, I fried da chicken first then added the seasonings, then added the coconut milk and water! I also found that using 12cups of water for 2 1/2 cups of rice is way to much... Unless u add da rice later... Hummm not sure! But I'm grateful for the recipie! 🙂
Alica says
Hi Nikki! Glad that you liked the flavors!
The method you have used is the one used when making pelau/pilaf where enough water is added to cover the rice just about 2inches up the pot. This will result in a looser rice. Boiling the water first then adding the ingredients results in a more sticky, mushy type texture because of the amount of water added. Either way it sounds like you enjoyed it! Thanks for visiting!
Alica
cocoadiva says
I am American and I appreciate Guyanese food.
Princess Jihan says
Thanks for sharing this recipe.
D Jay says
I can't find Parboiled Rice where I live. Would Long Grain Rice (Tolly Boy Brand) do?
Alica says
Hi D Jay,
Is it like basmati rice? If so, it might be too fine a grain to use for cookup, it will turn soggy. Can you get your hands on enriched long grain? Feel free to send me photos at innergourmet@gmail.com.
Barbara khan says
Basmati rice is very good for cook up rice I
used that all the time ,and it’s perfect .
Alica says
Yes, it works well, cooks faster too. I've also used the lower GI basmati rice for diabetics and it's good!
Alica says
This comment has been removed by the author.
Touched and Thankful Heart says
Alica it's pixxy Kay, hey what type Of Cassreep do you use? I got some and it was horrible.. a waste!
Jamil says
Hi Alicia. Made it yesterday and it was great. What brand of coconut milk you use. I like a good coconut flavour not overwhelming but even after using a can it does not seem to do the trick. This time I used a brand called Cool Runnings. Would cream be a better choice?
C.M. says
Hi!
Thank you for making a recipe with each step for the cooking impaired to easily follow! My fiance is guyanese and Id like to surprise him with cook-up because he always talks about it! The only problem is we recently moved to PA and there is no where to find certain things. I ordered casareep on amazon, but is there anything I can use instead of wiri wiri peppers? I saw at the store they had "hot peppers" which sort of looked like the scotch bonnet peppers, but I'm not sure. Any advice for someone who cant find the wiri wiri peppers?
Thanks!
Alica says
Hi there,
Yes, you can use scotch bonnet peppers or habanero peppers. I would avoid jalapenos. Wiri wiri peppers are native to Guyana and hard to find in the US, but those peppers I mentioned are good substitutes. Good luck! :).
Mary says
How did you season the chicken?
Alica says
I usually season my chicken with green seasoning, casareep, salt, and oil. The green seasoning recipe can be found under "Condiments." I'll have to update this recipe soon.
Downtown Foodie of Richmond says
This looks delish! Thanks so much for another yummy recipe. I agree with the other reader about this site and temptations in pregnancy. What type of beans did you use? They look amazing! I love big, fat beans.
Malinda says
Beef cook up rice is my husbands favourite and he insist I make it once every week. This is a different twist to how I make mine but pretty much same ingredients. If I'm doing beef Cookup then I pressure the beef with peas and when thats done I add everything else (uncooked rice) and pressure again. Some times I add a piece of pumpkin and once I added ripe plantain. Gave it a little sweet taste but was very delicious.
I should also mention I've tried some of your other recipes and they came out great. ☺
Lana says
I'm Guyanese and as you know we all have our own cook-up recipes which results in different tastes. I'm going to try yours tonight and I already know from the ingredients that it's going to come out great. Thanks for the recipe 😉
Marcus says
Love it...
Pamela Marks says
I have not had cook up in eons. Will try this recipe for the New Year's. Has this recipe ever been done with risotto ij lieu of parboiled rice?