Jerk chicken
Jerk is a style of cooking native to Jamaica in which meat is dry-rubbed or wet marinated with a very hot spice mixture called Jamaican jerk spice. I am obsessed with the spice mixture flavour and how it coats the chicken to make it incredibly crispy and charred.
Servings: 2 people
Ingredients
- 4 Manor Farm chicken thighs, skin on
- 4 Manor Farm chicken drumsticks, skin on
- 1 tbsp Allspice berries
- 1 tbsp Black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp Dried chilli flakes
- half tbsp Muscovado sugar
- 2 tbsp Runny honey
- A few sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 2 Scotch bonnet chillies
- 1 Clove of garlic
- 3 cm Piece of fresh ginger, peeled
- 2 Spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
- Olive oil
- 1 Lime
Instructions
- Pound the allspice berries, peppercorns and chilli flakes in a pestle and mortar until finely ground, then mix in the sugar and honey.
- Finely chop the parsley, chillies, garlic and ginger, add to the spice mixture and bash it all up some more. Add the green parts of the spring onions and a good drizzle of oil and mix well.
- Pour the marinade over the chicken and massage it into the meat. Leave to marinate in the fridge for as long as possible, but preferably overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6, then cook the chicken for 25–30 minutes, turning occasionally. Finish these off on the barbecue for 5 minutes to get all lovely and charred, or alternatively, you can just finish them in the oven.
- When the chicken is ready, squeeze a little lime juice over it, then take it off the grill or out of the oven and be ready to tuck in. Serve on a nice fresh bed of dressed salad leaves.