A few jerk chicken primers:
1. Jerk chicken is long-marinaded Jamaican chicken grilled until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside
2. Peas does not refer to green peas. It refers to black-eyed peas, aka beans.
3. The rice is usually cooked with coconut milk.
4. Most restaurants involve Maggi flavouring cubes with MSG in the rice and/or chicken. Never, never do this.
5. If you want the best jerk chicken, the jerk chicken sauce should not come in a bottle.
6. It should definitely involve Jamaican allspice. If you can find whole allspice grind it yourself. And if you can get a whole fresh nutmeg, grate a little of that in too. It’s not in this recipe but it was in many others, so it’s a simple addition.
That said, jerk chicken should be a fun dish. And it’s actually really easy. You toss a bunch of roughly chopped stuff in the blender, slash some chicken thighs, and let it all marinate overnight (or for two nights if you’re really a pre-planner). Then you bake or grill it. If you bake it you should broil it at the end if a crisp, almost blackened skin hasn’t developed. The marinade is also great broiled, rather than staying soggy mush, so don’t worry about burning that a little either. People say the Maillard (browning/burning) reaction is carcinogenic, but so is life. Enjoy a little chicken for goodness sake.
And don’t skip the green onions/spring onions in the rice and peas. They’re key.
Oh, and don’t use almond-coconut milk from Almond Breeze instead of straight up sweet and creamy coconut milk from a can. It’s bitter and awful. There’s another coconut-almond milk, I think from Almond Fresh, that comes in the refrigerator section of some major grocery stores, and it might work since it has the coconut milk sweetness preserved.
After a lot of searching for a recipe I liked, I went with this one from the BBC’s GoodFood. I liked it because it used whole garlic, ginger and onions, and seemed like it would have the right sweet-sour-spicy balance from the authentic scotch bonnet peppers, lime, brown sugar (really it should be cane sugar or palm sugar but brown works just fine). The soy sauce I’m not sure about being authentic, but it adds salt with a little extra umami, which goes a long way. You could use other peppers, but avoid hot green ones like jalapenos, which can be bitter. Also, be careful with scotch bonnets. They’re really hot! Use less if you’re afraid. Use none if you’re French.
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