Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Roti met Kip
Griddled split-pea roti served with a curried chicken, potato, and long-bean masala, Suriname's signature plate.
Surinamese · medium · serves 4
prep 40 min · cook 40 min
~1241 cal · 83g protein · 158g carbs · 27g fat · 21g fiber · 7g sugars · 6g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Roti met kip, roti with chicken, is arguably Suriname's national dish, born from the Indian indentured labourers who arrived in the Dutch colony in the late 19th century. It has since become the food that Surinamese of every background reach for.
The roti here is dhalpuri, a soft flatbread stuffed with ground, seasoned split peas and griddled until it flakes. Alongside comes a masala curry of chicken and potato, usually with long beans (kousenband) and a hard-boiled egg, all stained gold with turmeric and Surinamese curry powder.
You eat it with your hands, tearing the roti to scoop up the curry. Sold everywhere from home kitchens to Amsterdam takeaways, where the Surinamese community made it a Dutch favourite too, it is a dish with a whole migration history folded inside.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut- 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 4
3 cups flour
1 cup yellow split peas, cooked and ground
1 1/2 lb chicken thighs, boneless, in bite-size pieces
3 potatoes, cubed
2 cups long beans (or green beans), cut
4 eggs, hard-boiled
3 tbsp Surinamese masala kerrie (not )
Hard to find? a mild Madras-style curry powder with extra roasted cumin and coriander - Surinamese masala is darker and roast-heavy; garam masala is the wrong direction, as the recipe warns
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 whole madame jeanette pepper
Hard to find? a whole scotch bonnet or habanero - the same fruity Capsicum chinense heat; keep it whole and unbroken just the same
3 cups chicken
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
3 tbsp oil
Instructions
1
Make the roti dough with the flour, a little oil, and warm water; rest, then stuff each portion with seasoned ground split peas and roll flat.
2
Griddle the roti on a hot flat pan, brushing with oil, until flaky and speckled; keep warm wrapped in a cloth.
✎ Chef’s note
Slap the cooked roti between your hands or crush it lightly once cooked, the traditional way to break the layers so it turns flaky rather than stiff.
3
Brown the chicken thighs in oil, then add the onion and garlic, and once they soften stir in the masala and cumin and let them cook down over a low flame.
✎ Chef’s note
Use Surinamese masala kerrie, not garam masala. They are different blends and garam masala takes the dish somewhere else entirely. Thigh rather than breast, too: the fat keeps it tender through a long simmer.
4
Add the chopped tomatoes for a couple of minutes, then pour in the stock a little at a time so the chicken and potatoes are never quite submerged, and drop in the whole madame jeanette.
✎ Chef’s note
The pepper goes in whole and comes out whole. It perfumes the pot and gives a background warmth, but the instant it splits the roti turns ferociously hot and there is no undoing it. Taste as you go and lift it out when you have enough heat.
5
Add the potatoes and simmer 40 to 45 minutes, uncovered for the last quarter of an hour so the sauce thickens and clings.
6
Meanwhile boil the long beans separately until just tender, then stir-fry them with a little chopped onion and garlic, and hard-boil the eggs.
✎ Chef’s note
Cook the kouseband on its own rather than in the curry. Simmered in the pot it goes grey and soft; boiled briefly and then stir-fried it keeps its colour and its snap, which is how it is served in Suriname. Turn the peeled eggs in the masala sauce for a few minutes so they take on its yellow, or fry them briefly until the outsides crisp.
7
Warm the roti, then serve it on the plate with the chicken and potato, the kouseband and an egg alongside, and eat it with your hands.
Surinamese Indo-Caribbean cooking.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Paramaribo. Five kitchens share one city. Javanese contract workers brought saoto soup and bami, Indian indentured families brought roti eaten with the hands, Chinese shops brought stir-frying, Creole cooking runs on cassava and salt fish, and Maroon cooking came down from the rivers of the interior.
🗺️
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.
Bojo CakeA dense, moist cake of cassava and coconut spiked with rum and raisins, Suriname's Creole celebration bake.
Browse all Suriname recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Griddle or flat pan.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Suriname meal
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Bojo CakeDessert
Pindasoep met Tom TomDinner
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Roti met Kip?
Griddled split-pea roti served with a curried chicken, potato, and long-bean masala, Suriname's signature plate.
Where does Roti met Kip come from?
Roti met Kip is a Surinamese dish from Paramaribo, Suriname.
Can Roti met Kip be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Roti met Kip 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 Roti met Kip 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 Roti met Kip take to make?
About 80 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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