Do Yourself Some Jerk Chicken!

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Jerk chicken, beans and rice and, fried plantain

You want to do yourself a favor? Do yourself some jerk chicken! Jerk is a uniquely Jamaican style of cooking and you can’t fake the funk. This style of cooking is a mouthwatering blend of spice, sweet and heat. Traditionally, this method of cooking uses either a dry-rub or a wet marinade and it’s grilled over green pimento wood in a jerk pan on a half-barrel grill.

A drum or pan isn’t necessary for delicious jerk chicken. All you need is a decent recipe and an idea of how good jerk chicken tastes to get close to the real deal. The ingredients are all very easy to get your hands on, even Walkerswood marinade, which is indisputably the marinade of choice and can be found online or at any Jamaican grocery.

Making jerk chicken is straightforward, not the Chef Du Jour thing I made it out to be the first time I seriously took a stab it. There’s no value in over-thinking it. I find it falls in the ‘simple is sophisticated’ category. The ingredients come together so beautifully, it’s not complex. Green seasoning is also used in jerk wet marinade, as with many standard Jamaican dishes, and includes fresh thyme, green onion, garlic and other seasonings. Green seasoning is definitely a staple in most Jamaican households and everyone has their own way of making it. I like this one from Recipes from a Pantry.

Third Time is the Charm!

Although I’ve tried my hand at this dish many times, I had been faking the funk! But, this was my third serious go at it in order to get that perfect characteristic flavor because of course, I don’t want to post anything that I haven’t tried myself and gotten at least close to perfection.  In the past, I just played around with it and called it jerk chicken.

As great a cook as you might be, perfecting some of the simplest dishes can sometimes elude you. That happened to me with jerk chicken and with my Aunt Josephine’s All Butter Pound Cake. And really all it usually takes is a simple tweak and you’re good!

Some Islanders’ may say “oh, you got it all wrong, man!”, and to that I’ll say my buddy Yolanda and her daughter, who grew up on Jamaican food came by and taste-tested the chicken and my fried plantain, rice and beans. She and her daughter said I nailed it. I’ve eaten her food so I take her and her daughter as the word of authority and I don’t argue with authority!

ripe plantain is sweet and not super firm, while green plantain is hard and starchy.

Try the optional ingredients in the recipe to kick up the flavor. (Note: I do not receive any compensation for any links in this post.)

Jerk Chicken Dinner

Menu
Jerk Chicken
Rice and Beans
Fried Plantain

Jerk Chicken

Ingredients:
Whole chicken, cut up
White vinegar
Walkerswood jerk seasoning (mild or spicy)
Green seasoning (recipe)
Salt
Pepper
Maggi seasoning
Lime juice
Optional Ingredients:
Ground pimento (allspice)
Browning
Ginger
Nutmeg
Garlic

1. Wash chicken in water and and vinegar. Rinse chicken in water and lime juice, pat dry.
2. In a bowl, season chicken with salt, pepper, garlic powder, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg.
3. Using your hands, mix in jerk, green and maggi seasonings and browning until chicken is well coated.
4. Wrap bowl in cling wrap and let marinate at least one hour to overnight.
5. After chicken has marinated, chicken can be grilled or baked in the oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees. If chicken is baked, cover pan in aluminum foil for the first half hour of cooking.
6. Once chicken is done, remove from oven and cover with foil again to let rest so juices can redistribute.

Beans and Rice

1 bag, Dark red kidney beans, washed and sorted
1 cup, Jasmine rice, rinsed
1-1/2 cup water or chicken stock
1 1/2 can of coconut milk
1T Green seasoning

Couple sprigs of fresh thyme
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 Scallion
1 Scotch bonnet or habanero pepper
Pinch of sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste

  1. Once beans have soaked (preferably overnight), in a heavy bottom pot, cover beans with water or chicken stock. Add thyme, garlic and scallion and cook beans until soft (smash between fingers to feel for doneness).
  2. Add coconut milk, green seasoning, scotch bonnet or habanero pepper, salt and pepper and let simmer for about ten minutes.
  3. Add rice and cook until rice is done and fluffy (about 20-minutes).

Fried Plantain

Ripe plantain
Cooking oil
Optional ingredients:
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cinnamon
Honey

  1. Heat frying pan and add oil.
  2. Choose ripe plantain. (Green, firm plantain are hard and starchy. the darker the skin, the sweeter the plantain.) Peel plantains and cut into thirds. Slice each third in half.
  3. Place cut plantain in hot oil, cut side down. When lightly browned, take out of pan and lightly smash the plantain slices.
  4. Put plantain slices back into hot pan to lightly brown on the other side.
  5. Drain excess oil on paper towels.
  6. Sprinkle cinnamon and lightly drizzle with honey.