Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Antiguan Seasoned Rice
A one-pot of rice and pigeon peas cooked down with seasoned chicken, tomato, sweet pepper, and thyme until every grain is savoury; Antigua's everyday cook-up rice.
Antiguan · easy · serves 6
prep 20 min · cook 45 min
~560 cal · 38g protein · 71g carbs · 12g fat · 5g fiber · 3g sugars · 3g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Antiguan seasoned rice is the island's everyday one-pot, rice and simmered together with seasoned meat and island herbs until the grains drink up all the flavour. It is cooked throughout the week in homes across Antigua and Barbuda and turns up at every cookout, church lunch, and family gathering, the kind of dish that stretches to feed whoever arrives.
The base is browned chicken, though salt beef or pork works too, with onion, sweet pepper, tomato, garlic, and thyme, to which and rice are added and left to steam in one pot. The right pigeon pea matters to Antiguan cooks, who prize a dark local pea that tints the rice and carries real flavour over the tinned kind.
Hearty and complete, seasoned rice needs little more than a spoon, though it is often served with a side of salad or stewed meat and a shake of the island's pepper sauce. Every household guards its own proportion of pea to grain and its own hand with the seasoning.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1 1/2 lbs bone-in chicken pieces, cut small
2 cups long-grain rice, rinsed
1 1/2 cups (soaked dried, or canned and drained)
1 onion, chopped
1 sweet bell pepper, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh thyme
1 pepper, left whole
2 tbsp vegetable oil
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Season the chicken with salt, black pepper, and a little of the thyme, then brown it in the oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat.
✎ Chef’s note
Browning the meat first, before the rice goes in, is what gives seasoned rice its deep savoury colour and flavour rather than the flat taste of plain boiled rice.
2
Add the onion, sweet pepper, garlic, and tomato and cook until softened and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
3
Stir in the pigeon peas and rice, turning to coat every grain in the seasoned oil.
4
Pour in about 3 1/2 cups water (less if the peas were canned and soft), add the remaining thyme and the whole scotch bonnet, and season with salt. Bring to a boil.
5
Reduce to a low simmer, cover, and cook undisturbed for about 20 to 25 minutes until the rice is tender and the water absorbed. Lift out the pepper, fluff with a fork, and rest 5 minutes before serving.
St. John's home tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
St. John's. St. John's pairs fungee, a cornmeal and okra mash, with pepperpot stew as Antigua and Barbuda's national plate. Its Creole kitchen leans on saltfish, ducana sweet potato dumplings, and plenty of thyme, scallion, and hot pepper.
🗺️
Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Barbuda's national dish is fungee and pepperpot, cornmeal dumplings with a rich vegetable-and-meat stew. Saltfish, seafood, and tropical produce define a warm Eastern Caribbean table.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Antigua and Barbuda
Fungee and PepperpotAntigua's national dish: cornmeal fungee dumpling served with a thick stewed pepperpot of greens and meat.
Antiguan Fried Dumplings with CheeseGolden, slightly sweet fried dumplings split open around a wedge of sharp cheese, a simple, filling Antiguan breakfast.
Antiguan Chop-UpSpinach, okra, and eggplant boiled and chopped smooth with saltfish, an Antiguan everyday plate often eaten with fungee.
Browse all Antigua and Barbuda recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Antigua and Barbuda meal
Ginger BeerDrink
DucanaDessert
Fungee and PepperpotDinner
Similar dishes from around the world
Locrio de PolloDominican Republic
Jollof RiceGhana
Cook-up RiceGuyana
Arroz con Pollo PanameñoPanama
Moksi AlesiSuriname
Nasi KatokBrunei
Cuisine
Diet
Gluten-Free Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free Recipes from Around the World
Nut-Free Recipes from Around the World
Egg-Free Recipes from Around the World
Pork-Free Recipes from Around the World
Gluten-Free Lunches from Around the World
Dairy-Free Lunches from Around the World
Nut-Free Lunches from Around the World
Egg-Free Lunches from Around the World
Frequently asked questions
What is Antiguan Seasoned Rice?
A one-pot of rice and pigeon peas cooked down with seasoned chicken, tomato, sweet pepper, and thyme until every grain is savoury; Antigua's everyday cook-up rice.
Where does Antiguan Seasoned Rice come from?
Antiguan Seasoned Rice is a Antiguan dish from St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda.
Can Antiguan Seasoned Rice be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Antiguan Seasoned Rice recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Antiguan Seasoned Rice safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Antiguan Seasoned Rice take to make?
About 65 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 6.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.