P
American
Perloo (Pilau)
A one-pot rice dish where long-grain rice (ideally Carolina Gold) cooks directly in a broth flavoured with chicken, sausage, shrimp, tomato, the trinity (or its Carolina equivalent: onion, celery, sometimes green pepper), and seasoning. The rice absorbs the broth completely, producing separate grains stained with the colour and flavour of whatever was cooked before it. Unlike jambalaya, perloo rarely uses a roux base — it relies on the stock's own body and the tomato for depth.
‹Swipe for the next dish›
I
The Market List
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500 g
bone-in chicken thighs
skin on
Your own market
250 g
smoked sausage
sliced into rounds
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
300 g
Carolina Gold long-grain rice
or best available long-grain white rice
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
600 ml
chicken stock
good body; adjusted for moisture from tomato and protein
Your own market
1 (400 g)
tin whole peeled tomatoes
crushed by hand; do not increase — perloo is not a tomato stew
Origin · ItalyBosa Foods · Vancouver →
The trinity (Carolina form)
1 large
onion
finely diced
Your own market
3
celery stalks
finely diced
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1
green pepper
finely diced
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
3
garlic cloves
finely chopped
Your own market
1 tsp
fine salt
Your own market
1 tsp
black pepper
freshly ground
Your own market
1 tsp
hot sauce
to serve alongside
Your own market
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II
The Method
1
Season the chicken thighs on both sides with salt and pepper. Set a wide, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Lay the chicken skin-side down and cook undisturbed until the skin is deep golden and fat has rendered freely into the pot. Turn and brown the second side. Remove the chicken and set aside. Add the sausage rounds to the rendered fat and brown on both cut faces. Remove and set aside. The pot should hold a substantial fond and a visible pool of seasoned fat — this is the flavour base.
2
Reduce the heat to medium. Add the onion, celery, and green pepper to the fat in the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have softened and the onion is translucent with no raw edge remaining. Add the garlic and stir for one further minute until fragrant.
3
Add the crushed tomatoes and stir to lift the fond from the base of the pot. Cook for two to three minutes until the tomato has deepened slightly in colour and the raw acidity has rounded. The mixture should look cohesive, not watery.
4
Pour in the chicken stock. Return the browned chicken and sausage to the pot. Bring to a steady simmer. The stock should be well seasoned at this point — taste and adjust salt. What the rice absorbs, it cannot be corrected for afterwards.
5
Add the rice in an even layer, pressing it gently beneath the surface of the liquid. The liquid-to-rice ratio is approximately 2:1, already adjusted by the tomato and protein moisture now present in the pot. This is where the dish lives or dies: fit the lid as tightly as possible, reduce the heat to the lowest setting that maintains a bare simmer, and do not lift the lid. The steam contained in the pot does the work. Any lift releases it and the rice will cook unevenly.
6
After eighteen to twenty minutes, listen for the sound in the pot to shift from the soft bubble of simmering liquid to a quiet, intermittent crackle — the sound of no remaining free liquid and the bottom layer of rice beginning to caramelise against the fond. Remove from the heat. Leave, lid still on, for five minutes.
7
Lift the lid. The rice should have absorbed all liquid, the grains fully separate and stained with the colour of the broth and tomato. A crust will have formed at the base of the pot — the perloo tradition prizes this, as jambalaya prizes its gratin and paella its socarrat. Scrape it up and fold it through the rice before serving. The chicken can be shredded from the bone at this point if preferred.
From the canon — A one-pot rice dish where long-grain rice (ideally Carolina Gold) cooks directly in a broth flavoured with chicken, sausage, shrimp, tomato, the trinity (or … Perloo (Pilau) →
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Carolina Gold rice — the heirloom variety whose cultivation was central to the Low Country economy and whose starch structure produces the definitive separate-grain texture Hess documents. Sourced from a heritage grower.
02
Estate — Gullah Geechee-tradition smoked sausage or andouille from a named regional producer; whole bone-in chicken from a small farm; homemade chicken stock with real body.
03
Market — Best available long-grain white rice; good commercial smoked sausage; free-range chicken thighs; a well-reduced commercial chicken stock.
04
House — Standard supermarket long-grain rice; any smoked sausage to hand; store-bought stock; tinned tomatoes. The technique remains unchanged and the result is still recognisably perloo.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Sight. The rice grains are fully separate, stained evenly with the broth's colour, and no pool of free liquid remains visible when the lid is lifted.
◇Sound. The soft bubble of simmering liquid shifts to a quiet, intermittent crackle — indicating the liquid has been fully absorbed and the base layer has begun to caramelise.
◇Smell. A faint, dry caramel note rises from the pot as the bottom crust forms — distinct from the wet, brothy smell of the cooking phase.
◇Touch. A grain of rice pressed between two fingers meets no hard, chalky centre — it yields cleanly and completely.
◇Where it lives or dies. The lid must go on tight over raw rice absorbing a precisely measured broth, and it must not be lifted until the cook hears the pot go dry.
Pillars V — VII
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