Lisas Jerk Chicken Recipes

MISS OLLIE'S JERK CHICKEN

Steps:

• Blend chives, chiles, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, rum, salt, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves in a blender until smooth. Place chicken in a large bowl and pour jerk marinade over. Turn thighs and drumsticks several times to coat. Cover and chill, turning chicken pieces once, at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.
• Remove chicken from marinade, wiping off any excess, and let come to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Discard marinade.
• Prepare grill for 2-zone heat (for a charcoal grill, bank two-thirds of coals on one half of grill and scatter remaining coals over other side; for a gas grill, set one burner to high heat and the remaining burners to medium-low heat). Lightly brush grate with oil. Arrange chicken drumsticks and thighs, skin side down, on grate over hottest part of grill and grill, turning halfway through, until lightly charred, 5-10 minutes. Move chicken to cooler part of grill and continue to grill, turning several times, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 165°F, 20-25 minutes longer.
• Transfer chicken to a platter and let rest 10 minutes before serving.

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.

MISS LILY'S JERK CHICKEN

Steps:

• Place the chicken in a large bowl or baking dish and pour the brine over it, making sure the chicken is fully submerged. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
• Rinse the chicken well. Wearing latex or vinyl gloves (Scotch bonnet chiles can remain on the skin for 24 hours!) rub the Jerk Marinade all over the chicken. Place in a resealable plastic bag and refrigerate for 24 hours.
• Preheat a grill for cooking over indirect medium heat. Lightly oil the grill grates, then place the chicken skin-side down over indirect heat. Grill, uncovered, turning the chicken every 5 to 6 minutes, until the juices run clear when the thighs are pricked with a fork, 40 to 50 minutes.
• Remove from the grill and let rest for 5 minutes to allow the juices to distribute equally.
• Cut the chicken into quarters, separating the leg portions from the breast portions, and serve with Jerk BBQ Sauce.
• Stir the salt and light brown sugar into 8 cups water in a pot and bring to a simmer, stirring to ensure that the salt and sugar completely dissolve. Let cool to 38 degrees F before using.
• Put the soy sauce, oil, salt, allspice, thyme, green onions, garlic, chiles, ginger and onion in a food processor and puree until a smooth paste is formed, adding more oil if necessary. Set aside.
• In a nonreactive heavy-bottomed saucepan, stir together the tomato paste and 2 cups water and heat slowly, stirring, until well incorporated. Add in the Jerk Marinade, molasses, vinegar, brown sugar, mustard powder, tamarind, celery salt, cumin, pepper, liquid smoke, thyme and lime juice. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer until the sauce has thickened and reached the desired consistency. Remove from the heat and let cool.

JAMAICAN JERK CHICKEN

Steps:

• In a large bowl combine all ingredients, except for chicken, stirring until sugar dissolves. Add chicken and toss. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour (up to 24 hours). Bring to room temperature.
• Heat grill to medium high heat.
• Grill chicken, until chicken is done (5-10 minutes per side).

LISA'S ORIGINAL HERBED FRIED CHICKEN MIX--UPDATED!

Steps:

• Mix together in a Ziploc bag or bowl. I separate into portions so that I don't get the whole batch all messy! I store the unused portion in the freezer for the next time around. This will probably be enough for you to fry up multiple batches, and it's great to keep a bag on hand for last-minute cravings for chicken!
• The way I do my fried chicken is this. I either buy boneless thighs and breasts (chicken tenders are also great) and chunk them up into chicken strips. Or, I cut up, skin and bone a whole chicken and cut into strips and bite-side pieces. (The leftover carcass is awfully good to make chicken stock!) Keeping the chicken boneless makes it fry faster and is a lot more kid-friendly, but there's nothing wrong at all with doing it bone-in, the good old-fashioned way either! I've done it that way too! If you're like me, you generally look for what's the better bargain at the time. There IS no bad fried chicken... some's just better than others!
• If you're interested in how I actually marinate my chicken prior to frying, I soak my cut-up chicken pieces several hours or overnight (refrigerated) in a mixture of about 4 cups buttermilk, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, and about 1/2 large bottle of Frank's Red Hot (you can half this... when I fry, it's usually for a crowd, and the marinade goes a long way). Don't be fooled by the hot pepper sauce... this chicken is not "Cajun spicy" as you might imagine... just very flavorful instead of hot.
• When ready to fry, I add a couple of beaten eggs to the buttermilk and chicken with about a cup of the coating flour mix. I stir it with my hands. It should be about the consistency of pancake batter.
• Lift the chicken out of buttermilk marinade. Drain off excess and dredge in a plate of the coating to thoroughly coat. (If you'll gradually add the dry coating to the dredging plate, you won't waste your whole bag of coating by getting it wet and clumpy.)
• Fry the way you normally prefer to fry your own--deep-fried at 350 degrees, or low and slow in a cast iron skillet. When it's tender on the inside and deep, golden brown on the outside, you're there. There is no wrong way to do this... marinated or just washed and rolled in the dry mix. Before the buttermilk kick we got on, I just washed and cut up the chicken and left to soak in a light brine mixture... but if you do this, don't add too much salt or your chicken will be too salty. The Kosher salt is good to get excess blood out of the chicken (I hate that white gunk that forms on chicken when it's not bled well), but the chicken does absorb some of the saltiness. Just be aware of that and adjust accordingly! Some folks also prefer to do an egg dip instead. I've done that and it's good too. Fix this the way YOU like it!
• Drain fried chicken on paper towels and serve. It's good hot, it's good cold. And maybe, just maybe, you'll have a few pieces leftover for a midnight icebox raid!