Caribbean Rice and Beans
Caribbean Rice and Beans delivers a flavor explosion with garlic, onions, and intensely delicious spices. Infusing it with bay leaves, thyme, scotch bonnet, and coconut milk creates an incredible rice meal!
I would like 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
When making this scrumptious meal, I don’t have any favorites, so whatever is in the pantry works. Traditionally, Caribbean beans and rice 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.
Recipe Ingredients
- Rice – Long-grain separates more easily. However, medium-grain, jasmine, and basmati rice work just as well.
- Seasoning – Garlic, onion, hot pepper (scotch bonnet peppers are my fave), Creole seasoning, thyme, bouillon powder, bay leaves, optional smoked paprika, and good ol’ S&P pack a flavor punch.
- Kidney Beans – Dried beans are cheaper, but for convenience’s sake, I’ve gone with canned. Choose which is best for you and your Caribbean red beans and rice.😉
- Coconut Milk – Full-fat coconut milk provides liquid to cook the rice and a tropical taste.
- Chicken Broth delivers the rest of the needed liquid and adds extra flavor.
How to Make Caribbean Rice and Beans
Follow along with my numbered instructions below to see how to make Caribbean rice and beans in your own kitchen.
- Wash rice until water runs clear. Drain water.
- Sautee Aromatics – Heat a saucepan with oil. Then add onions, garlic, thyme, and hot pepper, and sauté for about a minute. (Photos 1-2)
- Simmer – Stir the rice into the pan, then the beans, and cook for about 2 minutes. Then add coconut milk, bay leaf, bouillon powder, Creole spice, and broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer until rice is cooked (about 20 minutes). (Photos 3-4)
Note: Stir occasionally to prevent burning, adding water as needed. - Serve – Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper. Discard bay leaves. Serve warm and enjoy!
Recipe Variations
- Jerk Rice and Beans – For even more spice, add a teaspoon of jerk seasoning to the traditional recipe.
- Bean Swap – 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.
- Vegan Version – Replace the meat-based broth with vegetable broth; done.
Tips and Tricks
- Test 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.
- Don’t skip rinsing the rice because it removes excess starch and keeps the rice from getting sticky.
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. It will last in the fridge for 3-4 days—the same works 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.
FAQs
Caribbean rice and beans definitely have a West African influence. Enslaved Africans brought the recipe to the Caribbean, and it quickly became a staple in many Caribbean cuisines.
It depends on who you ask and where you are in the world. In Jamaica and other Caribbean countries, it’s known as rice and peas. That’s because, in the West African Akan language, the word for pea refers to most legumes, including beans.
Rice and beans are a nutritious meal. So you can serve it as a complete meal or add meat and sides, such as ripe fried plantains.
What to Serve With The Recipe
It’s traditionally served with chicken, beef, or pork. It goes excellent with brown stew chicken, Jamaican curry goat, or jerk chicken. Fried sweet plantain and Caribbean coleslaw are wonderful sides.
More Popular Jamaican Dishes to Try
Conclusion
This Caribbean rice and beans recipe takes rice to a whole new level. Would you like more African-based recipes? Then follow me on Facebook for more! ❤️
Watch How to Make It
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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
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (or canola)
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ medium onion, diced
- 2 teaspoons Creole seasoning
- 2 cups uncooked long grain rice
- 1 sprig fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
- 1 13.5-ounce can coconut milk (about 1¾ cups)
- 1 15.5-ounce can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 small bay leaves
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 2¼ cups chicken broth or water (see notes)
- 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon (optional)
- 1 whole scotch bonnet pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika (optional)
Instructions
- Wash rice until water runs clear. Drain water.
- Heat a saucepan with oil. Then add onions, garlic, thyme, and hot pepper, and sauté for about a minute.
- Stir in rice to the pan, followed by beans, and cook for about 2 minutes. Then add coconut milk, bay leaf, bouillon powder, and Creole spice with 2¼ cups of broth or water, bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover with a lid, and simmer until rice is cooked, about 20 minutes (more or less). Stir occasionally from the sides to prevent burning add more water as needed.
- Adjust for salt and pepper. Discard bay leaves You have to stir occasionally to be preventing any burns.
- Serve warm.
Tips & Notes:
- Use 3 cups of water or broth for really moist rice and beans. If you want your rice to look just like in the picture, use 2 cups of water or broth.
- I used paprika and Creole salt to enhance the rice’s flavor. It’s not traditional, so if you want traditional rice, omit the paprika and use regular salt instead of Creole salt.
- Feel free to switch the coconut milk with 2 cups of water.
- If you want to make it vegan, vegetable broth is fine.
- If using dry pigeon peas, boil them until tender, then replace beans with pigeon peas in the recipe instructions. You may also use pinto or black beans instead.
- I use uncooked long-grain rice. No need to parboil; just rinse it until the water runs clear. One of our readers here has used Japanese short-grained rice, and it works. Brown long-grain rice works, too.
- Too much liquid and stirring would make your rice mushy.
- You may cook it ahead and refrigerate it. It heats up very well the next day.
- If you don’t have chicken bouillon, you may leave it out or use half of a Maggie cube and add it to the pot.
- For those who want to cook it using an Instant Pot, one of the readers shared this: saute everything like you usually would and cook for 3 minutes at high pressure with a natural pressure release.
- No Creole spice? You can use my jerk spice.
- 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.
I LOVE this recipe! I do have a question! Do you use the plain enriched long grain rice, or parboiled rice?
Hi. Use uncooked long grain rice. No need to parboil, just rinse it until water runs clear.
That was a really good question, was about to boil the rice. Cool for clarification on Imma’s part.
I tried this recipe this past weekend and it’s the best rice and peas I’ve ever made. You can eat it as is but I paired this with Imma’s Slow Cooker Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken. DA BOMB! Thanks!
I made that rice dish yesterday with your suggested chicken and peppers stew in the picture. Oh my gosh, it was delicious! My girlfriend was so happy with it. We both love good food I must say. She is British with quite a strong Jewish flair in her and I am french – from Brittany! I actually added the creole spice to the chicken both in it’s marinating phase (overnight for me) and at the time of cooking it with the browning sauce, organic ketchup et cédera. I found your website ‘accidentally” recently and there are quite a few meals that I look forward to making. Thank you so very much ⭐️⭐️
What would make this mushy?
Too much liquid and stirring .
Thank you
This is delicious!
I made it with barbequed chicken and it was soooooo good. I didn’t have scotch bonnet peppers so I used 2 small jalapenos I had on hand and diced them along with the onion. Otherwise made exactly according to recipe, including your creole spice, and it was perfect.
I don’t have creole spice, can I substitute for something else?
Onion powder garlic powder salt pepper 1 part each, 2 parts paprika and 1/2 part each oregeno basil thyme.
Just make homemade creole spice, I just did 🙂
Hi Dylan. So happy you did. Guess what? you will never buy again from the store , it’s my favorite spice. I put it on EVERRRRYTHING. Shhhh.. my little secret.
Enjoy!!!
Would need salted pigtail to be authentic! Also needs a sprig of thyme and some allspice grains!
OMG .. I love this recipe
I’m from Europe and this for me is something new. I’ve always wanna to try different recipes from all around the world. With your recipes I successfully did it from the first time. Thank you so much!
Very delicious… yummy..
This recipe is to die for. Such a perfect side for any meat dish. Heats up perfectly the next day.
It’s basically the perfect recipe. Thank you for sharing!
Such a treat! Thanks again Imma for all your amazing recipes.
My rice staying kind of hard what’s happening?
Hi Connie, I have not encountered this problem before , so I can’t say for sure without actually being there . The only think that comes to mind is the water . Make sure it’s accurately measured.
I made this and my rice was a little mushy. I did the broth and coconut milk. It still tastes good but I would’ve liked it less mushy. I also used that tropical sazon I had no paprika and it was an excellent substituting spice/ season. I pairs it with oxtails. I’m definitely gonna try again maybe with less 1 cup of broth.
Thanks for the great recipes.
I have made this 10 or more times and it always comes out right every time.
Good work I love your recipes.
I’m cooking this right now, can this be refrigerated and heated up next day?
Yes, it can.
Amazing with the Oxtail stew recipe!
By adding the coconut milk, will that make the rice have a sweet taste?
Not at all.
I made this rice and beans with Jamaican OxTails and it was deliciousthis will be the way I make my rice from now on.Thank you for sharing
My wife and I made this last night, and served it on the side of grilled yellowtail amberjack. It was excellent!
Most of your foods have a nutrition fact but the serving size would be great too please…I track my food intake so I would greatly appreciate that
Completely agree!
The servings are listed at the top
@Tiffany, she means the serving size as in how much of the actual food is suggested for 1 serving.
I did a little math (which I’m not claiming to be good at). 2 cups of uncooked rice yields about 6 cups of cooked rice. And in a can of beans there is about 1 1/4 cups. So that’s about 7 and 3/4 cups of food (just estimating, not including all the spices and herbs). Divide that by 6 and it comes to about 1 full cup and just over a little of 1/4 cup of food per person. If you’re eating this with other dishes I think a half cup or 3/4 cup should suffice. 1 1/4 seems kind of a lot.
2 cups of uncooked rice yields 4 cups cooked rice according to package.
I made this for the very first time and it came out DELICIOUS!!
My family tore it up…Lol. Thank you for posting a delicious meal with easy to follow instructions.
That cracked me up. Lol. I’m so happy it turned out great for you, Andrea. Thanks for dropping by. 🙂
I made this yesterday. It was excellent and also it also worked with Japanese short grained rice. I rinsed the rice well, used canned, drained field peas, and Sason, since I didn’t have the Caribbean salt seasoning. It came out perfect, without having to look at it constantly. By the time o remembered it, the rice was done and delicious. Your hint for the whole habanero caused it to have a perfect flavor. Thank you
Thank you for sharing those tips, Cheryle! Glad you love the flavor overall.
Thank you we love it.
I cooked for my best friend and my love.
He’s love it.
Hi Imma, really want to try this recipe but I’m scared. I don’t use chicken bouillon by the spoons. I use it by the cubes like Maggie. You said you used chicken broth in addition to the Creole seasoning. I’m thinking adding the bouillon might make it too salty. Did you add it to yours?
Hi Vanessa, Yes I did. You don’t have to be scared hon. You can omit it , if desired. Or cut your cube in half before adding to the pot . It works out just fine with or without it. Happy Cooking!!!!