Benachin
Overview
Benachin is the Gambian one pot rice, and the name is the plainest description of the method anyone has managed: in Wolof it means one pot. Rice, meat and vegetables go into a single vessel and come out as a single dish, which is both a technique and an argument about how food should be shared. It belongs to the Senegambian rice tradition that gave West Africa jollof, and Gambians are direct about the relationship. Benachin is not a version of jollof rice; jollof rice is what happened to the Senegambian rice pot as it travelled east. The Gambian and Senegalese coast is where that tradition sits, and thieboudienne is its closest relative. What distinguishes benachin from the tomato rice dishes further along the coast is the vegetables. Cabbage, aubergine, carrot and bell pepper are cooked in the same pot as the meat, lifted out while the rice takes up the liquid they flavoured, and returned on top at the table. The dish arrives layered rather than mixed, and it is served from the centre for everyone at the table to eat from.
AFN Heritage Note
Benachin belongs to the rice tradition of the Senegambian coast, the region ruled by the Wolof or Jolof polity between the 14th and 16th centuries, from which the wider West African family of jollof rice dishes is documented to descend. The name is Wolof for one pot.
Ingredients
Directions
- 1
Put the chicken and beef pieces into a bowl.
- 2
Season the meat with salt, black pepper, garlic and a dash of vinegar. Leave to sit undisturbed for 30 minutes.
- 3
Heat a large pot, add the vegetable oil and fry the chicken until golden brown on all sides.
- 4
Remove the chicken and set aside, then brown the beef in the same pot.
- 5
Add the onions to the beef and cook until browned.
- 6
Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and minced hot pepper.
- 7
Stir together and cook for 15 minutes.
- 8
Pour in the water and bring to a boil, then return the chicken to the pot.
- 9
Add the chopped cabbage, chopped aubergine and bay leaves. Salt to taste.
- 10
Lift out the vegetables and chicken pieces with a large spoon and set them aside.
- 11
Rinse the rice in cold water, add it to the pot with the sliced bell peppers, and bring back to a boil.
- 12
Reduce the heat and simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.
- 13
Turn off the heat, transfer the rice to a serving dish and arrange the chicken and vegetables on top. Serve hot.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Amarachi Irobi- Lifting the vegetables out before the rice goes in is the step that makes the dish. Left in, cabbage and aubergine collapse into the grain over the time the rice needs.
- The vegetables are open to the cook. Cassava, sweet potato, okra and pumpkin all belong in a benachin, and Gambian households vary the selection by season and by what the market held that morning.
- One and a half cups of oil is a generous traditional quantity that carries flavour through the rice. Reducing it to half a cup gives a lighter pot without changing the character of the dish.
- Cooking the meat and vegetables first means the rice takes up a liquid that has already been built. Do not shortcut this by adding plain water at the rice stage.
Reviews
5 reviews
Can I make benachin without the fish, or does that change the dish?
You can, and plenty of households do. Benachin means one pot, and the idea is that everything cooks together in the same liquid rather than that it must contain fish. Beef, chicken or a vegetable version all work. What you lose is the depth the fish gives the broth, so build it back with more onion cooked down properly and a little more tomato paste fried out until it darkens.
1.5 cups of vegetable oil felt like way too much when reading the ingredients, but it gives the fried chicken and diced beef such a deep brown colour. The vinegar in the garlic marinade cuts right through the richness. Did this for dinner on Sunday, cooked the rice straight in that tomato and onion gravy. My husband was running late at the robot down the street and by the time he got home the whole house smelt incredible. Lekker meal!
made a massive pot of this for labarang last year and doing it again tonight for ramadan. We make sure both the beef and chicken are strictly halal from our local butcher in bo-kaap. Steaming the 3 cups of rice directly in the reduced tomato puree and cooked down onions with bay leaves makes every single grain taste so rich. Reminds me of my mother's pilau but with that sharp hit from the minced hot peppers.
cooked this in my cast iron potjie on the braai instead of the kitchen stove. Frying the chicken first then browning the beef in that same oil with 4 onions creates a baie lekker depth. Added the aubergine right near the end so it didnt go total mush. Ouma se resep for jollof was different but this Gambian benachin is top tier.