Jamaican Jerk Sauce is a fiery marinade, that works great with chicken and pork, I'm sure it would be great with Rabbit and prawns too. Its primary ingredients are Scotch Bonnet Chillies (one of the hottest chilli peppers on the Scoville Scale) and Allspice (Pimento in Jamaica). Originally Jerk Chicken or Pork was smoked over wood charcoal, Now it is usually grilled.
Scotch Bonnets can now be found in a larger supermarkets (Tesco in the UK recently have started selling them), also in Indian food shops and the plants are readily available in garden centres. You can use Habanero chillies instead, but Scotch bonnets are more fruity. Likewise you can double up on the peas, if you cannot find Edamame for the rice. Edamame are immature soybeans, green like peas, popular in Asia, most health food shops and chinese supermarkets stock frozen ones these days.
If you do not like your food hot, and I mean hot, I'd give this recipe a miss, but the flavours are intensive and like no other, you can add less Scotch Bonnets, but that kinda defeats the purpose of the recipe. The longer you marinate the meat, the richer the flavour.
Beware Scotch Bonnets are a very potent 100,000 - 350,000 scoville units, for a comparison most jalapeño peppers have a rating of 2,500 - 8,000, so please do wear rubber gloves, and treat them with care, avoid scratching ANY sensitive areas whilst preparing them.
This chicken is great eaten cold the next day too, as is the rice.
Jerk sauce marinade ingredients
3 Spring Onions, roughly chopped
4 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 small white onion, chopped roughly
2 to 4 fresh Scotch bonnet or habanero chillies, stemmed and seeds removed (wear gloves!!)
Juice from 3-4 limes
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon soft light brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon of freshly grated or crushed ginger
3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons freshly ground allspice
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
Chicken
Legs, Drumsticks and wings 3-4 of each
Edamame, peas and rice ingredients
2 tablespoons of sunflower or peanut oil
2 tablespoons of sunflower or peanut oil
2 onions, finely sliced
2 large garlic cloves chopped finely
1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger
1 heaped teaspoon of ground turmeric
450g of cooked rice ( I used Basmati)
100g of Edamame Beans, removed from their pods
100g of Frozen peas.
Salt & Pepper to season
1. Place all the marinade ingredients into a blender or food processor and blitz until smooth, make sure the lid is secured as any splashed into your eyes will not be a pleasant feeling.
2. Put the required amount of chicken into an appropriate sized sealable freezer bag, add enough marinade to cover each piece, and scrunch the bag a few times to make sure the chicken is well coated.
2. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, over night is best.
3. Cook the chicken for at least 50 minutes at 180°c, the marinade should be black in parts, as pictured, check that chicken is cooked thoroughly. Remove from oven and Rest the chicken for 10 minutes under some lose foil.
4. Heat a work or large frying pan until hot, but not smoking, as this will burn the onion before its cooked, heat the oil and throw in the onions, stir them for 4-5 minutes until just turning brown.
5. Add the garlic, ginger and seasoning to the pan, stir for another minute, then add the turmeric, mix well to combine.
6. Add the pre-cooked rice to the pan and the Edamame and peas, stir fry for another 2-3 minutes until the rice is piping hot and all grains are yellow. Check seasoning and serve, with the chicken placed on top.
