Cameroon – Legumes With Rice and Chicken

by Djougwa Kouemo Patricia

Today’s local cuisine, Legumes with rice and chicken is a local cuisine that is made of three different sectors of food so as to become one. We have sector of vegetables, then flour and thirdly meat. The three joined together gives an outstanding taste to this special plate of food. When eaten once, that is the legumes with rice and chicken, it gives the taste of milky wine. Yes, this local cuisine do taste like milky wine. This is due to the combination of these three legumes, rice and chicken. This food is of the main meals that is being prepared during ceremonies such as marriages, birthdays and ceremonies that count a lot for people. It is being considered as a rich meal that is very good and easily digesting as it causes no stomach pains for the people who eat the food. Legumes with rice and chicken is mostly prepared in Yaounde, the city of cultural meetings and gatherings.

Cooking method

The cooking way and method of this food is stewing. Legumes with rice and chicken can still be fried, but the preferential and best method is stewing. Some may prefer frying, but I prefer stewing. That’s the method I am going to use in cooking legumes with rice and chicken. The legumes are being boiled whereas the rice is being stewed with the frying of the chicken.

Cooking ingredients

1. Good quantity of fresh legumes
2. Carrots
3. Chicken
4. Half kilo of rice
5. Groundnut oil is needed.
6. Fresh tomatoes
7. Fresh percil is needed
8. Fresh celery is needed.
9. Maggi cube is needed.
10. Maggi crevette is also needed in cooking legumes with rice and chicken. The two types of maggi shall not be used in cooking legumes, it will only be used in cooking the rice.

Cooking process

1. Wash the legumes with clean water.
2. Boil the legumes. When boiling the legumes, it should be for a period of two minutes. The legumes should not stay on fire for so long. It has to be crispy in the mouth and not become soft.
3. Wash the carrots and boil alongside with legumes
4. Wash the chicken with clean water.
5. Cut the chicken in small parts.
6. Fry the chicken using groundnut oil
7. Take your time so as to fry well. Do not hurry as the inner of the chicken also has to be ready.
8. Wash the tomatoes and grind it well.
9. Wash the percil and the celery and grind it well.
10. Wash the half kilo of rice.
11. Groundnut oil should be on fire when you are washing the rice.
12. In this meal, we are stewing so the grinded ingredients be put in the steaming groundnut oil followed by the rice.
13. Pour a cup of water into the food.
14. If you have a pressure cooker, the food can stay on fire for less than twenty minutes. If you do not have one, it will last longer on fire.

When ready, enjoy your food.