Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Moksi Alesi
Suriname's one-pot mixed rice, chicken and salted beef browned with tomato and allspice, then steamed with rice and coconut milk until every grain is savoury.
Surinamese · medium · serves 5
prep 25 min · cook 45 min
~757 cal · 44g protein · 75g carbs · 30g fat · 4g fiber · 5g sugars · 15g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Moksi alesi means mixed rice in Sranan Tongo, and it is the everyday one-pot meal of Suriname, a dish born on the plantations where cooks stretched leftover meat, salted beef and fish into a filling pot of rice. Every family has its own version, which is why Surinamers describe their moksi alesi as a particular household's recipe rather than a fixed national one.
The method is always the same in spirit: brown seasoned meat and a sofrito of onion, garlic and tomato in a heavy pot, then stir in rice, and and let the whole thing steam under a tight lid until the grains are fluffy and stained with flavour. Salted beef, soaked first to tame it, gives a deep savour, while a whole hot pepper laid on top perfumes the pot.
Colourful, hearty and endlessly adaptable, moksi alesi is Sunday food and weekday food alike, the kind of dish that turns whatever is in the kitchen into a meal for the whole table.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, 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 5
2 cups long-grain rice, rinsed
1 lb chicken pieces, cut small
1/2 lb salted beef (pekelvlees), soaked and cubed
1 cup
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tomato, diced
1 tbsp tomato paste
4 whole allspice berries
1 bay leaf
1 Madame Jeanette or habanero pepper, left whole
2 tbsp oil
2.5 cups water or
to taste salt and black pepper
Instructions
1
Soak the salted beef in cold water for a couple of hours, or boil it 10 minutes and drain, to draw out the salt, then cube it.
2
Heat the oil in a heavy pot and brown the chicken and salted beef, then add the onion and garlic and cook until soft.
3
Stir in the tomato, tomato paste, allspice and bay leaf and cook a few minutes into a thick base.
4
Add the rinsed rice, coconut milk and water, stir once, and lay the whole pepper on top. Bring to a boil, then cover tightly and steam on low heat until the rice is tender and the liquid absorbed, about 20 minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep the lid on and the heat low once the rice goes in; steaming undisturbed is what gives loose, separate grains rather than a sticky mass. Lift out the whole pepper before it bursts.
5
Let the pot rest off the heat for 5 minutes, then remove the pepper, fluff with a fork, season, and serve.
Surinamese Creole home cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Paramaribo. Pom is a substitution that turned into a tradition. Portuguese Jewish plantation families made a potato dish for the sabbath; potatoes would not grow here, so the grated corm of the pomtajer went in instead, with chicken and a sharp hit of bitter orange. The local line is that without pom there is no birthday.
🗺️
Suriname. Pom is credited to Portuguese-Jewish plantation families, who substituted the indigenous pomtajer root for the potato they could not get, and it is defined as much by the bitter-orange juice poured through it as by the chicken. The local saying is that without pom there are no birthdays, and it is a claim about occasions rather than about frequency.
🌍
South America. Migration reworked the plate within living memory. Japanese arrivals in Peru and Brazil produced Nikkei cooking, Italians made pasta and pizza entirely ordinary in Argentina, Uruguay and Sao Paulo, and West African cooking carried into Bahia by the slave trade gave Brazil dende palm oil, okra and a whole ritual repertoire.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Suriname
PomA festive baked casserole of grated pomtajer root and citrus-marinated chicken, crisp on top and tangy within.
BaraLittle savory fried rings of ground urdi and flour, green with chopped tajer leaf and heavy with masala, eaten hot with chutney or sambal.
Roti met KipGriddled split-pea roti served with a curried chicken, potato, and long-bean masala, Suriname's signature plate.
Browse all Suriname recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Steamer.
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.
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Moksi Alesi?
Suriname's one-pot mixed rice, chicken and salted beef browned with tomato and allspice, then steamed with rice and coconut milk until every grain is savoury.
Where does Moksi Alesi come from?
Moksi Alesi is a Surinamese dish from Paramaribo, Suriname.
Can Moksi Alesi be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Moksi Alesi 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 Moksi Alesi 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 Moksi Alesi take to make?
About 70 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 5.
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