Caribbean Jerk Rice

I have had jerk every which way, on every kind of meat and fish and I can't believe it's only recently that I got the idea to try it with rice. We served this with stewed chicken. I used a mild jerk because of the kids but you could certainly go hotter if flames shooting from your tongue hot, is your thing. This was made with parboiled white rice only because we were out of brown rice. One of the healthy food changes I have made over the years is to cook with brown rice as much as possible and not the 'fake' Uncle Ben stuff that looks very polished.

It looks like what the gourmet folks would call wild rice. Around here it's what we lovingly call 'nasty rice'. It took some getting used to, but by mixing it with parboiled white or Uncle Ben's brown we gradually grew to enjoy it. I can tolerate ( note I did not say enjoy ) a meal of 100% brown rice. The most the kids will tolerate is a blend of 75%brown and 25% white. We all agree that we can enjoy a 50/50 blend and we are unanimous about the fact that while you can get us to eat it, Pelau with brown rice is just wrong!

Ingredients

* 1 cup chicken broth
* 1/4 cup raisins
* 1 1/2 teaspoons jerk seasoning
* 1 1/4 cups rice
* 1 tin pigeon peas
*water

The jerk seasoning has salt so I don't add any additional salt. If you don't have access to a good commercially prepared jerk seasoning you can make your own.

Directions

1. Combine chicken broth, raisins, and jerk seasoning in medium saucepan. Cover and bring to boil on high.
2. Stir rice mix into boiling mixture.
3. Cover, return to boil, and cook 2 minutes stirring occasionally.
4. Reduce to low and cook for 20 minutes covered, without stirring, or until rice is tender.
5. Stir in peas cover and cook 5-6 minutes until peas are heated.