Every Nigerian has an opinion about Jollof rice. Your mother's recipe is the best one...

Your friend's mother also makes the best one. So does your neighbour. This has been going on for decades and nobody is wrong.

What we can agree on is what bad Jollof looks like. Pale. Watery. Tasting of nothing in particular. The kind that makes you eat a small portion and quietly reach for the snacks instead.

Good Jollof is different. It is deep red, smoky at the edges, fragrant enough to draw people into the kitchen before the food is ready. It is rice that tastes like something happened to it — because something did.

Here's how to make it.

What you need (serves 6)

• •3 cups parboiled rice
• •2 tins Mega Tomato Paste
• •4 medium tomatoes, blended
• •2 red bell peppers, blended
• •1 large onion (half blended with peppers, half sliced)
• •3 cups chicken or beef stock
• •500g chicken pieces (or your protein of choice)
• •3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• •2 bay leaves
• •1 teaspoon each: thyme, curry powder, garlic powder
• •Salt and seasoning cubes to taste
• •Foil paper

The Base - do not rush this

Blend your tomatoes, red peppers and half the onion together until smooth. Pour into a pot with no oil and cook on medium-high heat, stirring regularly, until the water dries out and the paste thickens. This takes about fifteen to twenty minutes. You are not burning it — you are concentrating it. The colour should go from bright orange-red to a deeper, duller red. That is what you want.

Once the water is gone, add your oil and fry the tomato base for another ten minutes. It will spit and hiss. Keep stirring. Add your Mega Tomato Paste here and stir it in thoroughly. The paste deepens the colour and gives the Jollof that rich, restaurant-quality base that the tomatoes alone cannot achieve. Cook for five more minutes.

Building the rice

Season your chicken with salt, thyme, curry, garlic powder and a seasoning cube. Cook in a separate pot with minimal water until just done — you want the stock for the rice.

Add your stock to the tomato base. Taste and adjust seasoning — this liquid needs to be slightly saltier than you think, because the rice will absorb it. Add the bay leaves, sliced onion and remaining seasonings.

Rinse your parboiled rice and add it to the pot. The stock should just cover the rice — not flood it. Stir once, then cover tightly.

Cook on high heat for five minutes, then reduce to the lowest flame your cooker has. Leave it.

The part most people miss

After about twenty minutes, check the rice. If the liquid is absorbed but the rice is not fully done, add a small splash of stock or hot water, then cover again. When the rice is almost done — a little firm still — turn off the heat completely and leave the pot covered for fifteen minutes. This is where the bottom crust forms. The smoky, slightly-caught-at-the-bottom part that everyone fights over. If you want more of it, put the pot directly on very low heat for three to four minutes before serving.

Cover your pot with foil paper before putting the lid back on during the steaming stage. It traps heat more efficiently than the lid alone.

Before you serve Add your chicken back into the pot for the last five minutes of cooking so it absorbs the Jollof flavour. Remove the bay leaves. Taste one more time. Serve with fried plantain, coleslaw, and more chicken than seems reasonable. This is not a meal for being modest.