If you are a marinade lover, then you could have heard of the Jamaican marinade which on itself has many versions, just like this super spicy with a dash of soy and served with coconut basmati. With this recipe, you can make your yummy jerk marinade, with rice and peas.
Ingredients
- 12 chicken thigh, bone in
- 1 lime halved
- Hot sauce, to serve (optional)
For the jerk marinade
- 1 big bunch spring onions, roughly chopped
- Thumb-sized piece ginger, roughly chopped
- 3 garlic clove
- ½ a small onion
- 3 scotch bonnet chillies, deseeded if you want less heat
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- , or 1 tbsp thyme leaves
- Juice 1 lime
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp ground allspice
For the rice & peas
- 200g basmati rice
- 400g can coconut milk
- 1 bunch spring onions
- , sliced
- 2 large thyme
- Sprigs
- 2 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 2 x 410g cans kidney beans, drained
Method
- To make the jerk marinade, combine all the ingredients in a food processor along with 1 tsp salt, and blend to a purée.
- If you’re having trouble getting it to blend, just keep turning off the blender, stirring the mixture, and trying again.
- Eventually it will start to blend up – don’t be tempted to add water, as you want a thick paste.
- Taste the jerk mixture for seasoning – it should taste pretty salty, but not unpleasantly, puckering salty.
- You can now throw in more chillies if it’s not spicy enough for you. If it tastes too salty and sour, try adding in a bit more brown sugar until the mixture tastes well balanced.
- Make a few slashes in the chicken thighs and pour the marinade over the meat, rubbing it into all the crevices.
- Cover and leave to marinate overnight in the fridge.
- If you want to barbecue your chicken, get the coals burning 1hr or so before you’re ready to cook.
- Authentic jerked meats are not exactly grilled as we think of grilling, but sort of smoke-grilled.
- To get a more authentic jerk experience, add some wood chips to your barbecue, and cook your chicken over slow, indirect heat for 30 mins.
- To cook in the oven, heat to 180C/160C fan/gas.
- Put the chicken pieces in a roasting tin with the lime halves and cook for 45 mins until tender and cooked through.
- While the chicken is cooking, prepare the rice & peas.
- Rinse the rice in plenty of cold water, then tip it into a large saucepan with all the remaining ingredients except the kidney beans.
- Season with salt, add 300ml cold water and set over a high heat. Once the rice begins to boil, turn it down to a medium heat, cover and cook for 10 mins.
- Add the beans to the rice, then cover with a lid. Leave off the heat for 5 mins until all the liquid is absorbed.
- Squeeze the roasted lime over the chicken and serve with the rice & peas, and some hot sauce if you like it really spicy.