The most popular and possibly the best Jamaican dish to have been imported from the island is my all-time favorite jerk chicken. You guessed it right we are talking about the juicy chunks of chicken with drenched marinade taste, mottled skin, and crisp, scorched pieces of meat thanks to the barbecue on which the bird is grilled.
A perfect balance of spices makes it addictive
Jerk chicken that is excellently cooked and genuine is extremely addictive: It’s soft and flavorful, smoky, and juicy. Its softness and flavor are because of the long marinating and cooking time, and the spicy pepper sauce presented on the plate passes through all of the enrichment of the chicken leaves you to come back for more.
We would be revealing the original and authentic Jerk Chicken recipe, with instructions for grilling. Due to hours of marination in a vivid and exquisitely aromatic marinade, it’s amazingly tasty. Who can say no to the soft charcoal and irresistible flavorful hit? It is a must to try!
How is traditional style Jerk chicken made?
Traditionally jerk chicken is cooked over raw green woods as well as over coals: Woods mostly from pimento tree, which itself is indigenous to the Caribbean and provides a further essential ingredient for jerk chicken.
The jerk procedure requires the wood from the sweet wood tree or laurel trees. The chicken is cooked on wood that has been placed beneath massive metal latches and is constantly heated to keep it burning hot. The racks are then covered with large pieces of allspice or pimento wood. The chicken is laid right on top of the greenwood, which is then covered with large metal sheets.
As the poultry prepares, it soaks up oils straight from the wood’s surface, as well as the aromatic steam and smoke created by the charcoal and greenwood beneath it. When this chicken is ready you would have a delicacy; a perfectly cooked jerk chicken. The right amount of time needed to cook this incredible dish is about two hours.
Once it has been cooked, remove it from the flame, separating the bones from the chicken and chopping the meat. It is preferred to present it with the flaming Scotch bonnet sauce served on the edge.
Marination; the process to perfection
Before it reaches the grill, jerk chicken is marinated in a quick and easy but diverse marinade that imparts the meat’s slightly sweet and a bit spicy flavor. If you look for jerk chicken recipes on the internet, you’ll probably discover dozens of different recipes for what gets into the conventional marinade. Few recipes ask for soy sauce, while others opt for brown sugar; several recipes use whole cloves, while others ask for ground pepper; people usually request for spicy Scotch bonnet peppers, whereas others call for gentler jalapeños.
Recipes and the marination process are transformed over generations, to give it a different taste to everyone. However, to make the traditional jerk chicken, you need to follow the traditional recipe.
Ingredients used in the magical dish
The jerk chicken franchises we experienced in the Caribbean were always hesitant to disclose precisely what ingredients they used into their house marinades, but there is an accepted recipe that serves as the basis of the marinade, which different chefs or vendors will play on, altering a spice here and there. The following ingredients are used in the recipe:
● Berries of allspice: It is the fruit of the pimento tree and is used to grill jerk chicken, is dry, and resembles peppercorns. This has a soft, spicy, and aromatic flavor. Their name comes from the fact that English colonists in the Caribbean assumed they taste like a combination of the spices cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg when they tried them. To extract the essential oils from the berries, they are crushed.
●Thyme: Thyme is a herb that is used in cooking. While fresh is preferred, however, you can use dried herbs as well.
●Scotch bonnet pepper: Scotch bonnet pepper is a kind of chili pepper. Scotch bonnet peppers, which have been indigenous to the Caribbean, are exceptionally spicy and are about 40 times stronger than jalapeños. For the marinade, the pepper is blended or chopped, and the seeds are sometimes included in or discarded for a little less hot effect.
●Spring Onions or Scallion: Chop down both the white and green sides since they have an aroma essential to the dish.
●Ginger pods: Freshly cut ginger is scraped and roughly chopped. In the Caribbean, the ginger plant thrives and is used in a variety of regional specialties including ginger beer and salsify, a drink made from hibiscus flowers.
Cinnamon powder or ground nutmeg, brown sugar, cooking oil, or soy sauce are all common additions to this base. The majority of chefs marinate their chicken as long as possible, likely to be at least 12 hours but often up to a day. As a consequence, the chicken has a lot of flavors before it has even come into contact with the smokiness-inducing coals and wood.
To make a delicious and healthy Caribbean meal, serve it with coconut rice and fresh pineapple.
