Caribbean Rice and Beans
Enjoy a flavor explosion with my Caribbean rice and beans recipe. Garlic, onions, and delicious spiciness from bay leaves, thyme, scotch bonnet pepper, and coconut milk create an incredible one-pot meal!
I want to say that with what the world is experiencing right now, every day should be a gratitude day. So, I’m beyond thankful for this gift of life and my beloved family by my side.
And while I’ve been daydreaming about my next Caribbean trip, a tropical food trip in my kitchen, starting with this rice and beans recipe, will have to do. Or if you’re into Jamaican food, it’s rice and peas.
What Type of Beans Works Best
Traditionally, Caribbean rice and beans use red kidney beans. However, it’s just as delicious with black or pinto beans or pigeon peas. The look may change slightly, but that’s about it.
How to Make Caribbean Rice and Beans
- Wash rice until the water runs clear, then drain. (Photo 1)
- Sauté the onions, garlic, thyme, and hot pepper for about a minute. (Photo 2)
- Stir the rice into the pan, then add the beans and cook for about 2 minutes. (Photos 3-4)
- Pour in the coconut milk, bay leaf, bouillon powder, Creole seasoning, and broth, and simmer until rice is cooked (about 20 minutes). Stir occasionally to prevent burning. (Photos 5-7)
- Serve – Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper. Discard bay leaves. Enjoy! (Photo 8)
Recipe Notes
- Swap the Creole seasoning with jerk seasoning for a different flavor profile.
- Please don’t skip rinsing the rice because it removes excess starch and keeps it from getting sticky.
- Pigeon peas, kidney beans, and black beans are all conventional choices. You can also use other beans, such as pinto beans, red beans, or lentils.
- Replace the meat-based broth with vegetable broth for a delicious vegan version.
- Taste the rice to avoid overcooking. It should be tender but still have a slight bite, and the beans should be tender but not mushy.
- Almost any chili pepper, such as habanero and jalapeño, will work if you don’t have a scotch bonnet.
Make-Ahead and Storage Instructions
Cool the rice and beans after cooking and freeze them in meal-size portions in airtight containers for 2-3 months. They’ll last in the fridge for 3-4 days—the same for leftovers.
Thaw frozen rice and beans in the refrigerator overnight. Then simmer (stirring occasionally) in a pot until it bubbles. Add water or broth as needed to keep it from burning—a microwave works, too.
What to Serve With Caribbean Rice and Beans
It’s traditionally served with chicken, beef, or pork. It goes wonderfully with brown stew chicken, Jamaican curry goat, and jerk chicken. Fried sweet plantain and Caribbean coleslaw are wonderful sides.
More Popular Jamaican Dishes to Try
By Imma
Watch How to Make It
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”m8wdXU8u” upload-date=”2018-08-06T19:52:04.000Z” name=”Caribbean Rice and Beans” description=”Caribbean Rice and red Beans- Seasoned with garlic, onions and creole spice. Infused with bay leaves, thyme, Scotch bonnet and coconut milk.” player-type=”collapse” override-embed=”false”]
This blog post was originally published in February 2014 and has been updated with additional tips, new photos, and a video.
Caribbean Rice and Beans
Ingredients
- 2 cups (320g) uncooked long-grain rice
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) vegetable oil (any neutral-flavored oil works)
- ½ medium onion, diced
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 sprig fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
- 1 whole scotch bonnet pepper
- 1 15.5-ounce can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 13.5-ounce can coconut milk (about 1¾ cups)
- 2 small bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons (9-10g) Creole seasoning
- 1 teaspoon (3g) paprika (optional)
- 1 teaspoon (4g) chicken bouillon or vegetable bouillon for a vegetarian version (optional)
- 2¼ cups (530ml) chicken broth, vegetable broth, or water (see notes)
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Wash rice until the water runs clear, then drain and set aside.
- Heat a saucepan with the oil. Then add the onions, garlic, thyme, and hot pepper, and sauté for about a minute.
- Add the rice to the pan, followed by the beans, and cook for about 2 minutes. Then add coconut milk, bay leaves, bouillon powder, Creole spice, and paprika with 2¼ cups of broth or water.
- Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat, cover with a lid, and simmer until rice is cooked (20 minutes, more or less). Stir occasionally (but not too often) from the sides to prevent burning, and add more water as needed.
- Discard the bay leaves. Adjust seasonings for salt and pepper. Serve hot.
Tips & Notes:
- Use 3 cups of liquid for really moist rice and beans. If you want your rice to look just like in the picture, use 2 cups of liquid. Too much liquid and stirring will make your rice mushy.
- Vegetable bouillon and broth are a quick hack for a vegan version.
- I used paprika and Creole salt to enhance the rice’s flavor. It’s not traditional, so feel free to omit them.
- If you don’t like coconut milk, replace it with 2 cups of water.
- I use uncooked long-grain rice. No need to parboil; just rinse until the water runs clear. One of our readers used Japanese short-grained rice and loved it. Brown long-grain rice works, too.
- For an Instant Pot, a reader shared this: sauté everything like you usually would and cook for 3 minutes at high pressure with a natural pressure release.
- You can add your favorite cooked protein to the mix, like shredded smoked turkey, diced chicken, ground meat, sausages, and so on.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on the products used.
Turned out delicious This is probably not traditional but we had it w mahi mahi topped with spicy mango salsa and avocado on the side.
Hiya, What is Creole spice. Don’t think its available in the UK. Is there an equivalent or could I make my own?
Hi Lucy! Check out this post here .https://www.africanbites.com/creole-seasoning/ It’s my homemade version
Looks real tasty my dear pepper pot ♥♥♥
Thanks!
This has been one of our favorites since I first made it a couple of years ago. I just got an Instant Pot back in February, and this recipe converted flawlessly. For anyone else who would like to Instant Pot this, just saute everything like you normally would, and cook for 3 minutes high pressure with a natural pressure release. Perfect!
Was looking for a not-so-typical rice and beans dish online, found your recipe and tried it — absolutely delicious! Will be making this more often, it was a big hit with the whole family.
Yay!! Thanks for letting me know Amie.
OH MY GOODNESS!! I’ve made this twice in the last two nights- my husband loves it so much! As do I! Thanks for a great recipe!! I noticed in your pics you added paprika? before the milk- yes?
Yes I did! Thanks for taking the time to let me know.
Good tasty stuff! I was too lazy to find or make Creole seasoning. I used your dry jerk spice recipe. Seemed a bit similar to Creole, +/- a few ingredients. Blooming the spices with the onions and garlic in hot oil is a really good technique.
Yes it is Martin! Adds some extra boost of flavor to it. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
Hi, im making this tonight and wanyed to know if i could use chicken stock instead of broth?
Hi Jasmine! You sure can. Happy Cooking!!!!
Hi Imma. I would like to make this along with some jerk chicken for a church group of 60 people. Can I multiply this the ingredients many times without risk of the liquids not evaporating etc?
Hey Robert! I have doubled the ingredients and it worked out just fine. Never tried more than that. When am cooking for a large crowd I cook in batches.
Can I use brown long grain rice?
You sure can.
Rice was really good but I had one problem. My rice had two much liquid in it. I used two cups of water and one can of milk. Great technique and good flavor.
Hmmmm..Double check your measurements , that’s a good amount of liquid to rice ratio.
Thanks so much for this recipe! I’m gobbling up my masterpiece right now lol. It came out perfectly, the measurements were just right. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes.
Awesome!!! Thank you SO MUCH!
Love this recipe can I ask what kind of pot you used?
I used a 7 inch Dutch Oven(cast iron).
Hello Imma,
Thus far I have made your rice and peas with curried beef, curried goat and stewed chicken..out of sight!!! Thank you for sharing your families recipes. I will be making the one pot rice and peas with jerk chicken next girl..I’m excited. Who doesn’t love good home cooked authentic Jamaican food?? Now, I do have a question..can you please send me an easy roti recipe? I love it and haven’t gotten it right yet.. Thank for all that you do Imma..wink*
This is an amazing dish with perfect instructions. Thank you Imma. Love your posts.
I made this and it turned out so well, started on stove pot and continued in rice cooker.
My husband and I loved it and we call it “the Caribbean Wachey”
(Wachey is rice and beans in Ghanaian cuisine)
However, I am looking forward to the baked version of it, to make things easy in the future.
Awesome! I have a rice cooker version will load it up soon. It’s a lot easy to make
The Caribbean Coconut rice is fabulous! The coconut milk and creole seasoning make this recipe delicious! I will be making it over and over again! Thank you!
YASS!!! So happy to hear this. Thank you for taking the time to share this with me Tiffany.
Found this recipe ,made it for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it. The whole pot want so fast. Now everyone is requesting it for Christmas. Thank you for posting this.
My pleasure!!! Thanks for giving it a try.
We tried a different restaurant the other night and I was so excited because the flavors are supposed to be Caribbean. I expected an explosion of flavor! Oh my gosh, it was SO bland. Everything. One thing i had ordered was beans and rice and I thought, really, add some garlic or even salt and pepper, people! So today I came across your recipe and cannot wait to try it!! Looks like lots of flavor in there!
What a terrible Experience !!! This is packed full of flavor. And it’s cheaper too! Do let me know how this works out for you
Happy Cooking!!!!
I wanted to come back and tell you I made this tonight and it was SO good!! Mine looked creamy, not as pretty as yours, but it was DELISH!! Way, way better than that restaurant. Husband liked it, too! Thank you so much for a great recipe!
I tried this tonight for the first time…unbelievable! I didn’t imagine all those ingredients would turn into this glorious dish. Thank you OP for an incredible recipe.
My pleasure ! Glad you liked it.
This is the best red beans and rice recipe I have ever eaten! I can’t wait to try your other recipes. I eat a very restricted diet but I can eat most of the ingredients in your recipes. Yay!!
Yay! Thank you so much . Glad it fits into your diet.