Burkina Faso

I knew pretty much nothing about Burkina Faso as we started our Burkina Faso unit, primarily because I hated geography when I was in school. My 6th grade geography unit was horribly done, and primarily consisted of all the incredibly boring stuff about countries, nothing that made it interesting, like their culture or fun facts. So when we reached Burkina Faso in our geography lessons, I was excited to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and generally expand our Africa Unit.

(there are affiliate links in here)

Burkina Faso unit resources

Here are a few fun websites about Burkina Faso.

• Burkina Faso fast facts
• 20 Facts about Burkina Faso
• Interesting Facts about Burkina Faso
• BBC Burkina Faso facts

And here is the Burkina Faso Geography Now video:

Burkina Faso unit recipe: Fat Rice

Two funny stories:

1. I told my kids we were having “Fat Rice” for dinner and they all looked at me like I was crazy. Admittedly that name is not designed to get you excited, but it was tasty.
2. I decided to rotate around in the world so we wouldn’t end up with the same problem as we’d had as we finished Europe of too many similar taste profiles, and then I picked three chicken and rice dishes almost in a row. It’s pretty ironic considering I tried so hard not to do that.

But getting to making Burkina Faso Fat Rice, ingredients

• 5 chicken breasts
• 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained of liquid
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 onion minced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 6-ounce can of tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 tablespoon red pepper (original recipe said ground red pepper, but I had crushed red pepper, I also used slightly less than called for amounts, because The Artist doesn’t like spicy food)
• 2 1/2 cups rice (yes, I buy this in 20 pound bags)

Making the Fat Rice

1. Dump the tomatoes, onion, and garlic into the food processor and blend until smooth.
2. In a dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat, add the combination from the blender and cook for 5-6 minutes.
3. Once cooked, add the chicken broth, tomato paste, salt, crushed red pepper, and parsley. Stir to mix it all together then add in the chicken and bring that mixture to a boil.
4. Once boiling, add the rice and cover. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Stir occasionally. Check to see if the liquid has been absorbed and if the rice is thoroughly cooked. If not give it another minute, if the liquid is absorbed but rice isn’t cooked add another 1/4-1/2 cup of liquid.
5. Turn off the heat, stir the rice, and allow it to sit for 10 more minutes to finish cooking and fully blend the tastes.

Overall, it’s a flavorful dish, but not one we’ll cook all the time because no one said, “I like this, we should make it again.”

Fat Rice

Print

This one dish recipe of rice creates a delicious meal

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 5 chicken breasts
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 onion roughly chopped
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 2 teaspons salt
• 1/2 tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 2 1/2 cups rice

Instructions

1. Dump the tomatoes, onion, and garlic into the food processor and blend until smooth.
2. In dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat, add the combination from the blender and cook for 5-6 minutes.
3. Once cooked, add the chicken broth, tomato paste, salt, crushed red pepper, and parsley. Stir to mix it all together then add in the chicken and bring that mixture to a boil.
4. Once boiling, add the rice and cover. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Stir occasionally. Check to see if the liquid has been absorbed, and if the rice is thoroughly cooked. If not give it another minute, if the liquid is absorbed but rice isn’t cooked add another 1/4-1/2 cup of liquid.
5. Turn off heat, stir the rice, and allow to sit for 10 more minutes to finish cooking and fully blend the tastes.

Burkina Faso Unit notebooking pages

We filled out our Africa notebooking pages, as we watched the Geography Now video and filled it all out.

• each tribe in Burkina Faso has its own distinct architecture style (I’d love to visit and see that)
• 80% of the population lives on subsistence farming
• They farm to music
• The population has exploded in the past 5 years more than doubling (this was from the video filmed several years ago, so this may have changed since then)

I’m really curious to hear what music they farm to. I think that’s a great idea.

It was a challenge to find a good picture for Burkina Faso because there were some amazing pictures of various people and tribes, but it feels odd to pick a specific person to be the face of the country in my post. I try to go with distinctive architecture or geography, but this shot of pottery was intriguing.

More great learning

Today, let’s go with some younger kid learning to go with this. I’m going to pick out a few 5th grade ideas, because you could totally do this lesson with 5th grade, even if we completed our Burkina Faso Unit in high school.

• California Unit
• Age of Exploration Unit
• The Black Cauldron book club
• Muscles Science Unit
• Bird Unit

“Pays Lobi – Burkina Faso” by Rita Willaert is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.