Looking for something new or just wondering about allspice? Let’s make jerk chicken and feel Jamaica’s vibes!
Jerk seasoning principally consists of allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers. Other ingredients may include cloves, cinnamon, scallions, nutmeg, thyme, garlic, brown sugar, ginger, and salt.
Jerky, originally means dried, salted meat which the dish in its modern form isn’t but it’s dry-rubbed or brined before slow cooked and more importantly smoked over pimento wood.
Traditional method involves making coal from pimento wood then placing the meat on a pimento wood frame over smoldering coal. The slow smoldering flame both burns the pimento wood frame underneath the meat and the meat itself while the meat also got smoked from the frame underneath.
It’s a pretty simple method in the open air but recreating it in our kitchen or anywhere where the pimento wood isn’t natively grown, is an unfathomable challenge. If anyone is lucky enough to have a piece of pimento wood and willing to smoke the kitchen or have a wood burning oven installed, doubt not what to cook in it.
Is jerk chicken possible at home?
For the rest of us, poor souls, we have to be content what’s given, and make the most of it. Luckily, Jerk chicken spices are all over the world so with a bit of searching, we can source them pretty easily, even though we may have never seen them in the shops before.
Many times, all it takes to find new things is to open our minds and all what we were looking for is already there hiding in plain sight or maybe on the top shelf where we never looked before.
Ingredients
(for 2 chicken)
- 4 teaspoons / 20g Salt
- 1 piece / 150g Onion
- 6 pieces / 300g Green onion
- 4 cloves / 12g Garlic
- 1 piece / 25g Habanaro/Jalapeno/Hot pepper of choice (optional)
- 1″ / 15g Ginger
- 1 piece / 10ml Lime juice
- ¼ cup / 60ml Soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon / 1g Thyme (or one sprig)
- 1 teaspoon / 0.5g Black pepper
- 1 teaspoon / 0.5g Allspice
- ½ teaspoon / 0.5g Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon / 0.5g Ground nutmeg
- 2 whole / 4kg Chicken
How to make Jerk chicken
- In a blender, combine salt, onion, green onion, garlic, hot pepper, ginger, lime juice, soy sauce, thyme, black pepper, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Rub the chicken with the spice mixture.
- Let it sit 2 – 4 hours in the fridge so the salt can brine the meat. Arrange the pieces of the chicken onto a baking tray so they don’t touch each other. Pour the remaining marinade onto the chicken.
- Roast the chicken in a 390°F / 200°C oven until cooked through, about 30 – 60 minutes.
Enjoy!
Jerk Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 teaspoons Salt
- 1 piece Onion
- 6 pieces Green onion
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 1 piece Habanaro/Jalapeno/Hot pepper of choice optional
- 1" Ginger
- 1 piece Lime juice
- ¼ cup Soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Thyme or one sprig
- 1 teaspoon Black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Allspice
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Ground nutmeg
- 2 whole Chicken
Instructions
- In a blender, combine salt, onion, green onion, garlic, hot pepper, ginger, lime juice, soy sauce, thyme, black pepper, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Rub the chicken with the spice mixture.
- Let it sit 2 – 4 hours in the fridge so the salt can brine the meat. Arrange the pieces of the chicken onto a baking tray so they don't touch each other. Pour the remaining marinade onto the chicken.
- Roast the chicken in a 390°F / 200°C oven until cooked through, about 30 – 60 minutes.
Notes
Pin now, Enjoy later!
