House recipe 03 · Chicken Pelau
Burnt-Sugar Chicken Pelau
Pelau is the pot that follows Trinidadians everywhere — to the beach, to the river, to Sunday lunch — chicken, rice, and pigeon peas cooked down in one heavy pot over caramel made from burnt sugar. Our family has cooked it this way since the Trinidad years, and the Scotch bonnet in our sauce is the same pepper the dish was built around. A spoonful goes into the seasoning overnight, and another goes in at the end, where its tang wakes up the coconut milk.
- Serves
- 6
- Active
- 45 minutes
- Total
- 1 hour 30 minutes, plus marinating
The cook
- 01
Season the chicken
Blend the chadon beni, scallions, thyme, and garlic with a splash of water into a rough green seasoning. Toss the chicken with the seasoning, the salt, and 1 tablespoon of pepper sauce until every piece is coated. Cover and marinate at least 1 hour, or overnight in the fridge — overnight is where the flavor lives.
The sauce moment
- 02
Burn the sugar
Set a heavy pot — iron if you have it — over medium heat with the oil, then sprinkle the sugar over in an even layer. Let it melt, bubble, and darken past amber to a deep mahogany that froths at the edges. Do not walk away; the line between burnt sugar and ruined sugar is about ten seconds.
- 03
Coat and brown
Add the chicken straight into the frothing caramel, seasoning and all, and turn the pieces until they are stained brown on every side. Let them brown and release their juices, about 8 to 10 minutes, stirring now and then.
- 04
Build the pot
Add the onion, pimento pepper, and carrot and cook until the onion softens, about 3 minutes. Stir in the pigeon peas and the rice, turning until every grain is slicked and colored by the pot.
- 05
Add the liquid
Pour in the coconut milk and water, add the ketchup if using, and scrape the bottom of the pot once. Taste the liquid — it should be slightly saltier than you want the finished rice — and adjust. Bring to a boil.
- 06
Cover and cook low
Drop the heat to low, cover tightly, and cook undisturbed for 25 to 30 minutes, until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed. Resist stirring; the quiet crackle near the end is the bun bun forming at the bottom, and that crust is the cook's reward.
- 07
Rest and finish
Pull the pot off the heat and let it sit, covered, for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork, then stir the butter and 1 tablespoon of pepper sauce through the hot rice so it glosses every grain. Scatter over the chadon beni and bring the pot — and the bottle — to the table.
The sauce moment
From the family
If the sugar turns black and smokes acrid before the chicken goes in, throw it out, wipe the pot, and start again — bitter caramel cannot be cooked out, and three tablespoons of sugar is a cheap do-over.
This one needs the jar.
1 tbsp in the green seasoning marinade · 1 tbsp stirred through with the butter after the rest