Jerk Chicken With Rice Peas Recipes

JERK CHICKEN WITH RICE & PEAS

Steps:

• To make the jerk marinade, combine the spring onions, ginger, garlic, onion, scotch bonnet chillies, dried thyme, lime juice, soy sauce, vegetable oil, brown sugar and ground allspice 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 12 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 1 hr 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 4. Put the chicken pieces in a roasting tin with the halved lime and cook for 45 mins until tender and cooked through.
• While the chicken is cooking, prepare the rice & peas. Rinse the basmati rice in plenty of cold water, then tip it into a large saucepan. Add the coconut milk, spring onions, thyme sprigs, garlic and ground allspice.
• 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 kidney 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.

HOMESTYLE JERK CHICKEN

Steps:

• I should start this by saying my home version of Jerk Chicken is different from the street-food, hot and crisp, that I've eaten in Jamaica straight out of what looks like a metal barrel on its side. Well, it would be different, wouldn't it? It's not that I haven't tried to replicate the recipe, using whole quarters of chicken, with the bone still in and the skin still on, but it hasn't felt right. A domestic oven just doesn't get hot enough, and so although the spiced chili crust gets gratifyingly crisp, the skin doesn't - it can't - and flabby skin is just not to be countenanced. Thus, although the vinegary, limey, rum and spiced marinade makes the meat lusciously tender, you have to jettison its outer casing entirely. This seems too much of a waste to me.
• Now, you will rarely find me suggesting breast meat, let alone a breast fillet, so you have to believe me when I say that the heat of the marinade, and the meat's edible carapace work best when offset against the meltingly tender white meat within. And, in turn, I must say that I have never managed to make, or find, white meat that turns out so luscious and succulent. It's a miracle all round. I'm stunned, but grateful. I have nothing to add, save the suggestion that you could consider working the same magic with some lean pork tenderloin as well.
• Don't cook this, though, unless you like it hot. And I mean hot. There's no point choosing to cook this and then trying to find a way to tame it, say by taking out the seeds from the chili (though you could if you must). Besides, although it packs a major punch, the sweet, creamy, coconutty rice that just must be served with it, offers the perfect counterbalancing salve.
• Slash the chicken breasts, 3 slashes a breast, each cut about 3/4-inch deep on the diagonal. Put in a rectangular dish, slashed-side down. Put all the other ingredients in the processor and blitz to a dark, earthy paste and pour and spread over the chicken pieces and leave to marinate out of the refrigerator for 2 to 4 hours or in the refrigerator, (covered), overnight.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Double-line a shallow roasting pan with aluminium foil. Tip into it the chicken with its marinade, slashed side up and roast for 30 minutes.
• Take the pan out of the oven, just to pour off excess watery juices. Use a pastry brush and spoon to place any paste back on the chicken and cook for a further 30 minutes, by which time the chicken will be cooked through and tender with a thick fiery crust. You could get started on the Rice and Peas once the chicken's back in the oven for its final stint.
• For serving: Pile up each dinner plate with coconutty rice and sit a piece of hot-crusted chicken proudly on top.
• Make Ahead Note: Jerk paste can be made 1 day ahead. Transfer to non-metallic bowl and press a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface. Cover bowl tightly with second layer of plastic wrap and refrigerate. The chicken can be marinated up to 24 hours in advance. Cover dish tightly with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.
• Freeze Note: The chicken in its marinade can be frozen, in a resealable bag, for up to 1 month. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator - put the bag in a bowl to catch any leaks.
• Making leftovers right: Should you have leftovers - and don't count on it if you're 6 round the table - refrigerate as soon as cooled and within 1 to 2 days you can simply snip some chicken into the rice and reheat until piping hot. However, I love this in a new form: a thick, coconutty soup punctured by fiery bursts of tender meat. Add some coconut milk and chicken broth to the leftover rice, along with some freshly grated gingerroot and a spritz of lime juice, and heat up, adding the chicken, cut into small strips or small chunks, once it starts bubbling. When the meat's piping hot, season to taste then pour your soup into a bowl (or bowls) and scatter with freshly chopped cilantro and slurp gratefully.
• Drain and rinse the gungo peas, and heat the oil in a heavy based saucepan that has a lid. Fry the onion for about 5 minutes, stirring every now and again, letting it soften and brown a little. Then add the chopped chile and garlic, and give everything a good stir around. Now stir in the rice, making sure it is all slicked with oil, then pour in the coconut milk and chicken or vegetable broth and stir in the drained gungo peas. Bring to a bubble, clamp on the lid, and turn down the heat to very low and let it cook gently for 15 minutes.
• Check the rice is cooked through and the liquid is all absorbed - give the rice another 5 minutes if it needs it. Sprinkle with the freshly chopped thyme and season with salt if desired, forking it through.

EASY JERK CHICKEN WITH RICE & PEAS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Heat the oil in a roasting tin, then carefully add the chicken pieces. Brown them lightly on all sides - it will take about 6-8 mins. Pour over the jerk sauce, scatter over the sliced spring onions, then toss to coat each piece of chicken.
• Roast the chicken for 30 mins, turning occasionally to ensure it gets nice and sticky.
• While the chicken is cooking, make the rice & peas. Rinse the rice in a sieve until the water runs clear. Bring a pan of water to the boil with the liquid only from the kidney beans, the coconut milk, spring onions, thyme, garlic, allspice and some salt, then simmer for 10 mins. Add the beans, then simmer for 5 mins more until the rice is tender. Drain and serve straight away with the chicken.

GRILLED JERK-STYLE CHICKEN AND COCONUT RICE PILAF WITH PEAS

Steps:

• For the chicken: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Add the garlic, habanero, onion, five-spice, celery salt, cinnamon, ginger, thyme, nutmeg and 1 tablespoon black pepper to a food processor and pulse until combined and paste-like. Add the soy sauce, oil, vinegar and scallion whites and puree until well-mixed and smooth. Set aside.
• Arrange the chicken parts in a baking dish and pour half of the marinade over the top, brushing so that all pieces are coated. Set the remaining marinade aside. Marinate the chicken at room temperature for 15 minutes or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.
• Heat a cast-iron grill pan over medium-high heat. Place the chicken parts in the pan skin-side down and cook for 7 minutes per side. Place the chicken back in the baking dish and baste with the reserved marinade. Place in the oven and roast until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F, 15 to 20 minutes. Note that the baking time for the breast may be shorter than the leg. Remove from the baking dish as finished and let rest for a couple of minutes.
• For the rice: Coat the bottom of a small pot with the oil and sweat the sliced onions with a pinch of salt over high heat until browned. Add the rice and stir to coat. Add the chicken stock, coconut milk, thyme bundle and bay leaves. Stir and season to taste with salt. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and stir in the peas. Cover and cook for 17 minutes. Turn off the heat then remove the bay leaves and thyme bundle. Fluff the rice and mix in the cilantro and scallion greens.
• Place a large scoop of rice in the center of each plate and arrange the chicken pieces on top.