Jerk chicken

Ingredients

• Chicken, jointed1.6 kg
• Scotch bonnet chillies3
• Allspice berries2 tbsp
• Spring onions6
• Thyme8 sprig
• Ginger30 g
• Garlic6 clove
• Soy sauce60 ml
• Limes2
• Brown sugar2 tbsp
• Nutmeg and cinnamon1 tsp
• Neutral oil60 ml

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Blend the chillies, allspice, spring onion, thyme, ginger, garlic, soy, lime juice, sugar, nutmeg and oil into a thick paste.

   10 min

2. 2

   Cut deep slashes into the chicken down to the bone and rub the marinade in with gloved hands, filling the cuts.

   15 min

3. 3

   Refrigerate for at least eight hours, better a full day.

   480 min

4. 4

   Bank the coals to one side of the grill and throw soaked allspice berries and wood chips on them. Put the chicken on the far side, away from direct heat.

   15 min

5. 5

   Cook covered at 150-160 °C for an hour and a half, turning every half hour and adding more chips.

   90 min

6. 6

   For the last ten minutes move it over direct heat for colour. Serve with lime and festival bread.

   12 min

About the dish

Jerk is a method rather than a sauce: the marinade is rubbed into cuts and the meat is smoked over a low fire for hours. Smoke here is as much an ingredient as the pepper.

Allspice — pimento — is compulsory both in the marinade and in the smoke. In Jamaica the wood of the same tree is burnt; at home a handful of soaked berries thrown on the coals does the job.

Scotch bonnet can be replaced by habanero, its close relative. An ordinary chilli gives heat but not the fruity aroma that is heard separately in jerk.

Worth knowing

• — Cut scotch bonnets with gloves on. Their oils stay on skin for hours and travel everywhere.
• — An oven gets close but has no smoke. Compensate with smoked paprika in the marinade, which is more honest than pretending it is the same.
• — The slashes are essential: the marinade only reaches inside through them, otherwise it stays on the surface.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

560 kcal

Protein

48 g

Fat

36 g

Carbs

10 g

More from Jamaica

• Ackee and saltfish — Jamaica's national dish: ackee fruit, which looks and behaves like scrambled egg, with soaked salt cod.