Name: Carolina Pilau
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste; 2 cups long-grain white rice; ½ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes; ¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter; 2 quarts water; 1 large onion, chopped (about 1½ cups); 2 cups chopped celery; 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon dried; 2 or 3 large tomatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and chopped; 1 3½ - to 4-pound chicken

Preparation info

Serves
8

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Hoppin John’s Lowcountry Cooking

By John Martin Taylor

Published 1992

About

Dishes like this one appear in various cultures as pilaf, jambalaya, and just plain chicken and rice. In Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry, they started as pilau, but they’re often spelled perloo (though I’ve seen purloo, perlo, and perlau as well). The word is pronounced “PER-lo,” “per-LO,” and “pee-LO,” but that o is a distinctive Charleston sound—and many people not from here think we are saying “oo.” Some people say “oo, la, la”; others say “oh, la, l