This is my
very delicious not to mention closely guarded, incredibly secret recipe for jerk chicken. Considering no one ever reads this blog I guess this is the safest place to keep it.
I have been lucky enough to work in the Caribbean (pronounced Caar-Rib-Iain) twice and one trip we were hopping between six islands, but the best food was alway the jerk chicken in Barbados.
The first of these trips I was a green, wet behind the ears soundy. The furthest from home I had been was main land Europe, and boarding the Virgin Atlantic plane I could hardly wipe the grin off my face, I was getting paid to go to Barbados!
I was not to be disappointed, Barbados is a vibrant, exciting, noisy island where there is always something happening. We filmed in the two top posh restaurants
The Lone Star and
The Cliff, not to mention we were treated to a brilliant night out at a transvestite cabaret by a well known TV celeb.
But I was happiest after we had wrapped filming, watching the sunset, sitting by the waters edge on a bench eating jerk chicken, rice and peas, washed down with a cold bottle of Banks.
Cooked in a small wooden shack on an old bbq at the shore of the Caribbean Sea it was like the best cliche ever.
The flavours of that jerk chicken was like nothing I had experienced before. Sweet and spicy with a killer kick of scotch bonnet pepper, my mind was blown forever and I was hooked.
Thinking back, this is where my love for cooking was born, I was inspired by these flavours and had to find recipes and recreate the fiery chicken. But not just the jerk chicken, I now had a taste for the exotic and far flung - there was no turning back.
Anyhoo, lets stop rambling on and get to the business end of this blog, the recipe...
Ingredients:
- 500 grams of chicken thighs and legs
- 3 cloves of garlic
- half an onion
- 2 inches of fresh ginger
- 2 tbsp of fresh lime
- 4 tbsp of white wine vinger
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 3 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1 tsp of cayenne
- 1 tsp of paprika
- half tsp pepper
- 1 tsp thyme
- half tsp all spice
- 2 scotch bonnet peppers
The first thing to do is grab the chopping board and peel finely chop the garlic, halve a peeled onion, peel and grate the ginger and carefully finely chop the scotch bonnet peppers, removing the seeds. I would in all seriousness wear thin disposable pastic gloves to chop the scotch bonnets, as these are serious customers and can burn your fingers! We've all heard the 'funny' jokes about not going to the loo after chopping chilies, well I cleaned and put in my contact lenses the day after chopping these bad boys and it felt like being pepper sprayed.
You could ask, why use these things if there are so lethal?! Its an easy answer, you just get the most fantastic sweet flavour from a chilli that is over ten times hotter that a jalapeno. However, don't worry if you don't like things too hot, you can substitute with chilli flakes or easier to find chilli peppers.
The easiest way to combine these ingredients is to chuck them all in to a food processor. Make sure you have sorted out the garlic, ginger and scotch bonnets as food mixers have a habit of leaving these in big chunks.
So blend all of the ingredients together and you will get a
marinade that not only gives the meat its amazing taste but keeps the chicken tender. Put the chicken in to a bowl and cover with your mixture, I try and marinade in a fridge over night, but just do it for as long as you can.
Take the chicken out of the fridge an hour before you want to cook it, to bring it up to room temperature. Jerk chicken is best cooked over hot coals on a bbq but generally speaking I cook it in the oven. Preheat the oven to 200c and cooking for an hour should do it. Hopefully you will have dark crispy skin and beautiful moist meat beneath.
I really hope you enjoy this as much as do and it inspires you like it did me. Oh, and that it blows your socks off!
Serve with the traditional rice and peas, coleslaw and it is imperative you have some proper West Indian hot sauce on the table. I have a lot to say on accompaniments for this dish, but I will give more details on the sides for this in separate blog posts.
