![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() She advises removing the skin to allow the marinade “to work its way right into the meat”, but, as the crisp, salty skin is one of the great joys of jerk as far as I’m concerned, I’m not keen. I like legs, but, as Lucy Pilkington, quoted in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Meat Book, says, a tray of drumsticks and wings works well for a big party where the chicken is going to be eaten by hand. The only thing to note here, apart from a plea to use good chicken that has enough flavour to stand up to this powerful marinade is that you need to leave the bone in for maximum taste and succulence. Indeed, I’d go as far as to say that this is the only chicken recipe you should bother with on the barbecue – there’s not much else to touch it. Pork and goat are prime candidates for jerking, but I’ve chosen chicken because if ever a dish needed livening up, it’s grilled chicken. Today, you’ll find jerk huts all over Jamaica – indeed, you’ll probably smell them before you leave the airport – but, if you’re not hopping back to the island any time soon, it’s easy to get a taste of the Caribbean in your very own garden. (The name, apparently, is the Spanish version of an Andean dialect word for dried meat, ch’arki – presumably because the original jerk would have been smoked to preserve it.) ![]() Jerk’s distinctive seasoning – hot peppers, sweet allspice berries, thyme and ginger – however, is credited to the African slaves brought to the island by its Spanish and British colonisers, who also introduced the cooking pits which were traditionally used for jerk until the advent of the modern oil drum. Native to Jamaica, the tradition began with the indigenous Taíno people who would cook their meat over fires made from the aromatic wood of the island’s allspice trees – still the only way, devotees claim, to get that really authentic flavour (no one seems to import it the UK, so I’ll have to take their word for it). Let’s face it: spicy, crisply barbecued chicken or pork are an easier sell for most of us than hard food or stew peas. And don’t forget to join us on Facebook, Twitter and do tell your friends about the cooking videos.If you’re familiar with any aspect of Caribbean cuisine, then it will almost certainly be jerk. BTW, the sort of sweet and creamy flavours of the coleslaw complements this jerk chicken wonderfully.īefore you go, please leave me a comment below – it’s always appreciated. Here I have it served with some rice and creamy coleslaw. While this cooks in the oven your home will be blanketed with the lovely scent of rich Caribbean spices and herbs and you’ll be counting down the minutes until you can devour a succulent piece of the Ultimate Oven Jerk Chicken. If you want you can place some aluminum foil over the dish the first 30 minutes of cooking, but I find that leaving it exposed (open) works great. The chicken should be cooked after that, so if you want to add some rich colour to the finished dish, you may need to turn on your broiler for a few minutes. Place the baking dish with the chicken on the middle rack and allow this to cook for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. I had mine marinating in the baking dish already, so I was good to go. After 2 hours take it out of the fridge and pour everything (including all the marinade) into a baking dish and let it come up to room temperature while you oven heats up. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |