BURNT SUGAR, DEEP GROOVE - FAY VICTOR’S CARAMELIZED CHICKEN COCONUt PILAU

Caribbean Chicken Pilau  // Fay Victor

Recipe

Ingredients (serves 20 people):

• Chicken thighs — 8 lb

• Long grain rice —  7 cups (about 3.5-4lb)

• Onion —  4 medium onions

• Garlic — 6 cloves

• Ginger — 1 large piece (about 4 oz)

• Tomatoes — 5 medium tomatoes

• Red bell pepper - 2 large (chopped)

• Carrots  - 4 (chopped)

• Vegetable oil — ¾ cup

• Pumpkin or kabocha or sweet yam –  (about 3 lb)

• Scallions - 1 large bunch (6-8 stalks)

• Pigeon peas - 3-4 cups (dry or 2-3 cans)

• Coconut milk - 3-4 cans

• Cumin — 2 tsp

• Cinnamon — 1 tsp

• Cardamom — 1 tsp

• Paprika - 1 tbsp

• Salt - to taste

• Black pepper - to taste 

• Scotch bonnet pepper - 1-2 whole 

• Brown sugar - 1 to 1.5 cups (for caramel base) 

• Parsley, Cilantro, Chives – for finishing

Fay’s voice is deep and smoky, intelligent, and warm. And beneath it all, there is a quiet, unwavering strength. Her rounded brown shoulders are smooth, always seeming to shimmer softly with a golden light. Everything she is appears in the Caribbean chicken pilau and coconut pumpkin soup she taught me. The aroma of caramelized sugar, layered with bell peppers, paprika, , onion, carrots, pumpkin, and Scotch bonnet pepper - all held within long-grain rice and rich, overlapping layers of coconut milk. In those layers, her roots live and breathe.

Chicken pilau is a dish that arrived in Trinidad and Tobago after a long journey. Its origins trace back to Persian polow, traveling through India before reaching the Caribbean. In English, it is often called pilaf, but this version carries a far more complex layering of cultures. The technique of browning meat in sugar comes from African traditions..

First, you heat the pot until it is properly hot, then add brown sugar. It melts slowly, gradually turning into a deep, dark caramel. You must not rush this moment. Confidence, the way Fay carries it. Then comes the oil, followed by the chicken—seasoned simply with salt and pepper—turned and coated in the caramel as it sears. In that instant, a loud shhhhhh fills the kitchen. At the same time, the sweet, slightly burnt aroma of caramel rises powerfully into the air.

Drawn by the smell, musicians and staff at Loghaven begin to appear - one by one - peeking into the kitchen.“What are you making today?” Fay told me that in her childhood in Trinidad, when a family made pilau, they did it loudly and flagrantly on purpose for this effect! The sound and the smell were a way of announcing to the neighborhood: Tonight, we are making chicken pilau.

Fay Victor // Fay Victor’s Mom

To the chicken, you add pumpkin, carrots, onion, garlic, and scallions. And most importantly, pigeon peas and bonnet pepper (or habanero). Then comes a generous pour of coconut milk, forming a broth the color of sweet Trinidadian coffee with plenty of milk. Rice is added, and everything is left to cook gently. When it is done, you fluff the rice, letting it breathe. Finish it with a green sauce made from parsley, cilantro, and chives. The chicken and rice, coated in caramel and deepened by the Maillard reaction, carry a layered richness - sweetness, smokiness, brightness from fresh herbs and scallions, and the softness of coconut. It feels like a landscape - formed by time, movement, and memory. 

Everybody loved it.

-Yurie Ito

At the Loghaven residency with the Bloodlines Interwoven artists, the staff of THE OFFICE performing arts + film, and Loghaven.

Fay’s Chicken Pilau was interwoven with Sunny Jain’s dal bati to create one meal.

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