By Yewande Komolafe
- Total Time
- 2 hours
- Prep Time
- 30 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- 4(273)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Thieboudienne holds a special place within the cuisines of West Africa. This elegant one-pot rice masterpiece is often referred to as the national dish of Senegal, yet its presence and popularity extend beyond any national borders. Rof, an herb-heavy marinade, perfumes and seasons fish steaks; nokoss — a blend of onions, bell peppers, chiles and fresh tomatoes — thickens a rich tomato broth. The end result is one pot of tender vegetables and fish layered over fluffed broken rice. Your choice of vegetables can be flexible; cabbage, okra and cassava are traditional, but squash, pumpkin, cauliflower or eggplants will all make adequate substitutes. Use what’s in season and freshest. Serve this warm, family style from a large platter, garnished with xońe or xoñe, those bits of crunchy rice grains that, by proximity to the heat, stick to the bottom of the pot.
Featured in: The Queen of West African Recipes Has Entered the Chat
or to save this recipe.
Print Options
Include recipe photo
Advertisem*nt
Ingredients
Yield:6 to 8 servings
- 1¾ to 2 pounds firm white fish, such as red snapper or striped bass, bone-in, skin-on, cut crosswise into 1½- to 1¾-inch steaks
- Coarse kosher salt (such as Morton) and ground black pepper
- 1medium red onion, peeled and quartered
- 1(1-inch) piece fresh ginger, scrubbed
- 6garlic cloves
- 2scallions, trimmed and roughly chopped
- 8 to 10fresh parsley sprigs, roughly chopped
- 5 to 6fresh dill sprigs, roughly chopped
- 1whole lemon
- 8 to 9tablespoons peanut oil or neutral oil, such as grapeseed
- 3large ripe, firm tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 1large red bell pepper, roughly chopped
- ¼cup tomato paste
- ½teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼teaspoon ground coriander
- 1tablespoon dawadawa powder (see Tip)
- 3fresh or dried bay leaves
- 3cups vegetable stock
- 2 to 3medium carrots, tops trimmed and scrubbed, 1 medium sweet potato, ¼ piece pumpkin or butternut squash, or 1 medium cassava, cut into 2-inch pieces
- ¼piece small green cabbage, outer leaves removed, sliced along the length into 1-inch thick slices
- 4ounces green okra or green beans, tops trimmed
- 3cups broken rice, rinsed and drained
- 1 to 2red or green Scotch bonnet chiles
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
619 calories; 17 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 5 grams polyunsaturated fat; 87 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 30 grams protein; 1315 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered by
Preparation
Step
1
Pat the fish steaks dry with a paper towel. Use a sharp knife to cut ½-inch deep slits into the skin side of the fish. Season each piece lightly with salt and pepper.
Step
2
Make the marinade: Add ¼ of the onion, the ginger and 3 garlic cloves to a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Add the scallions, parsley and dill, and pulse until mixture is a coarse paste. Transfer the paste to a large bowl and zest the lemon directly into it. Stir in 2 tablespoons oil, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. (Alternatively, finely chop the onion, ginger, garlic, scallions, parsley and dill into a coarse paste by hand. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the lemon zest, oil, salt and pepper.)
Step
See AlsoThe Original Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites Recipe (aka Chickpea Cookies) - Texanerin BakingChai Shortbread RecipeEasy Rocky Road Fudge Recipe - Baker by NaturePeanut Butter Pie Recipe (Chess Pie) - Crazy for Crust3
Rub the marinade all over and into the fish, including into any cavities. Set aside while you prepare the remaining ingredients, or, if cooking later, refrigerate until ready to use.
Step
4
Rinse out the food processor and add ½ the onion, remaining 3 garlic cloves, tomatoes and red bell pepper. Pulse until chopped into a coarse purée.
Step
5
In a medium nonstick skillet, heat a tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat. Working in 2 batches if necessary, wipe off any excess marinade, place the fish pieces in the skillet and sear each side until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Drizzle in another tablespoon of oil if working in batches or as needed.
Step
6
Use a knife to thinly slice the remaining ¼ piece of onion. In a large, lidded Dutch oven or a large, wide skillet, heat the remaining 4 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently until just softened, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook, scraping down the sides and bottom as it cooks to prevent it from sticking, until deepened in color, 4 minutes. Add the spices, dawadawa powder and bay leaves, and stir.
Step
7
Add the red pepper purée and stir to combine with the tomato paste. Bring up to a simmer, cover and continue to cook on medium-low, stirring occasionally until the sauce thickens slightly and the oil begins to rise to the surface, 10 to 12 minutes.
Step
8
Stir in the vegetable stock, increase heat to medium-high, cover and bring up to high to a rolling boil. Season with salt to taste.
Step
9
Cook the vegetables until tender enough to just pierce with a fork: Drop in the hardiest vegetables with the longest cooking times in the boiling liquid first. Carrots, squash, potatoes and cassava will take about 12 to 15 minutes. Tender vegetables with shorter cooking times can go in later. Cabbage will take about 10 minutes, and okra and green beans will take 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the vegetables to a baking sheet or large plate as they cook.
Step
10
Once all of the vegetables have been cooked and moved to a plate, gently drop the fish into the broth. Lower the heat to medium-low and allow the fish to simmer until just barely cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to the plate or the baking sheet. Add the rice and whole chiles, stir to coat the grains and cover the skillet with the lid. Cook until the rice is just tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed, about 15 to 17 minutes. The rice may scorch on the bottom of the pan, and that’s OK. Return the fish and vegetables to the skillet, arrange directly over the top of the rice and pour in any liquid on the baking sheet or plate. Cover and allow to continue cooking until the rice is softened, vegetables are warmed and fish is cooked through, about 4 to 6 minutes.
Step
11
To serve, remove the whole chiles or leave in depending on taste. Move the pot to the table and spoon out portions of the rice, fish and vegetables onto individual plates.
Tip
- Dawadawa, also known as iru, is a fermented locust bean product frequently used in West African cooking to add deep, robust flavor to soups and stews. It can be found as a ground powder or whole beans in the spice aisles of any African grocer. Possible alternatives are fish sauce or fermented black beans.
Ratings
4
out of 5
273
user ratings
Your rating
or to rate this recipe.
Have you cooked this?
or to mark this recipe as cooked.
Private Notes
Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.
Cooking Notes
Jeannie
I learned cheb from a champ when I lived in Dakar. Steaks in the photo are too narrow. A half cube of crumbled shrimp bouillon goes in the marinade. Dill and cumin-- wrong flavors. Omit green beans. Use pumpkin. Hold the cooked vegetables in a warm oven once they are done. The same with the fish. Then arrange everything on top of the rice to serve. The crispy rice is a delicacy and served in a separate bowl. The hot chiles are removed and available for those who want an extra kick.
Susan Katz Miller
If you want to read about how this dish is traditionally made in Senegal, including some history. sociology, and more authentic ingredients, read my NYT piece from 1990. (Note, tieboudienne is the French (colonial) spelling for this dish. The Wolof spelling is ceebu jen). https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/05/travel/fare-of-the-country-senegal-s-spicy-noonday-feast.html
Lekkatu Thiebou Jeun
Some cognoscenti Thiebou Jeun add-ons: Beugeudje - a paste of green bissap (hibiscus) leaves. Common in Casamance. A Thiebou Jeun master stroke. Kaani Saddam - a hot pepper named for Saddam Hussein that you simply touch with your spoon, as hot tempered and explosive as it’s namesake. Eggplant - pretty standard inclusionGeudj - dried fish …if you’re at all concerned about authenticity, green beans in thiebou jeune is kinda like pineapple pizza, i.e. a total abomination but perhaps ok?
Miss D
The ingredient list states "whole fish with skin on" that are then cut into steaks. Also, it is easier to score the skin when the fish is whole. Do that step first,then slice it into steaks.
Leona
You can buy broken rice at most decent Asian markets. It’s the smaller (literally broken) rice grains that are separated during processing. It’s used heavily in Vietnamese cooking so if you have an Asian market with any Vietnamese presence you’ll find it.
nancy
Fish steaks do not have a skin side so what is meant by cutting deep slits into the skin in the first instruction?This sounds delish!
Leona
Re: steaks - think of it as a cross-section of fish. The fish is cleaned and then chopped across its body into steaks - so each steak would have a portion of the backbone, skin on the outside and cut through the bottom where it was cleaned.
Elizabeth
Lived in Mauritania and had a Senegalese cook, and I have to be honest--you are not using nearly enough oil! Take a small co*ke bottle and fill 1 1/2 times with the cheapest cooking oil available! Also you need a Maggi (bouillon) cube or 3, and no dill, cumin, or green beans. Use yellow onions, not scallions or red onions. And the rof should have chili peppers ground up into it too! Eat with your hands, which will smell like cheb the rest of the day! ;)
adrian
Quarter piece refers to quite literally cutting a cabbage into four quarters. For whatever reason, it is the custom in west Africa to cut cabbage into quarters or eighths. Then, the patriarch or matriarch at the food bowl distributes slivers of the cooked quarters or eighths to everyone present. In my experience, pumpkin was cut into square chunks, but I was in the Gambia and every country does this a little differently.
Charlene
I loved making this! All of the steps made it a half day exercise for me and it was fun. Sadly the flavors don’t hold up the next day. I was looking forward to taking this into the office for lunch, but when I heated it up, it just didn’t taste as flavorful. Also, this recipe taught me I am not a fan of yucca root.
Piper
I found instructions for making my own broken rice on line: I had jasmine rice, so I rinsed it, then whizzed it in my food processor till the grains had broken up a bit. The various instructions I found said that food processors might not be up to the job, but that a blender might turn the uncooked rice to paste, however my 40yo Cuisinart worked just fine. The rice did tend to stick together (as it breaks, it gets starchier) so I stopped and stirred the rice several times. It cooked up well.
Piper
I found that once the veggies were all cooked and skimmed off, there was not enough left over liquid to cook the rice. I wound up adding about 3 cups of boiling water.
Tricia
What is broken rice?
Sharon
What's "broken rice"?
Donna T., Tucson
Is this statement on the ingredients list a “pick one” or is it “choose all”? (The word “or” in two places is confusing me):“2 to 3 medium carrots, tops trimmed and scrubbed, 1 medium sweet potato, ¼ piece pumpkin or butternut squash, or 1 medium cassava, cut into 2-inch pieces”
Rhona
My husband is not a fish fan. Would this work with chicken too?
Elizabeth
Lived in Mauritania and had a Senegalese cook, and I have to be honest--you are not using nearly enough oil! Take a small co*ke bottle and fill 1 1/2 times with the cheapest cooking oil available! Also you need a Maggi (bouillon) cube or 3, and no dill, cumin, or green beans. Use yellow onions, not scallions or red onions. And the rof should have chili peppers ground up into it too! Eat with your hands, which will smell like cheb the rest of the day! ;)
lauren
This looks delicious - but I cannot stand dill. Any suggestions for an herb utterly non-dill-like that would add appropriate flavor to this dish?
RA
Thoughts on tofu, rather than fish (to which I'm allergic)?
Bibi
Yes. You could also just make a vegetarian version with no protein per se. The fish does add flavor and texture, but the dish is excellent without it.
Susan Katz Miller
If you want to read about how this dish is traditionally made in Senegal, including some history. sociology, and more authentic ingredients, read my NYT piece from 1990. (Note, tieboudienne is the French (colonial) spelling for this dish. The Wolof spelling is ceebu jen). https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/05/travel/fare-of-the-country-senegal-s-spicy-noonday-feast.html
lenora
What is brown rice?
J
Loved the flavor combo across the herbal fish marinade + red pepper/tomato sauce. Next time: triple or quadruple the amount of veggies. (Parboil the whole batch in advance, heat some up at each meal?) Cross-cultural mash-up, with apologies: I made fried rice with the leftovers plus some other rice in the fridge. Sauteed some garlic and veggies with fermented black beans, threw in the rice, topped with handfuls of dill, parsley, chives.
adrian
Quarter piece refers to quite literally cutting a cabbage into four quarters. For whatever reason, it is the custom in west Africa to cut cabbage into quarters or eighths. Then, the patriarch or matriarch at the food bowl distributes slivers of the cooked quarters or eighths to everyone present. In my experience, pumpkin was cut into square chunks, but I was in the Gambia and every country does this a little differently.
Leona
You can buy broken rice at most decent Asian markets. It’s the smaller (literally broken) rice grains that are separated during processing. It’s used heavily in Vietnamese cooking so if you have an Asian market with any Vietnamese presence you’ll find it.
Private notes are only visible to you.
