Jerk the Chicken

I spent a few years living in Africa, this is where I had my first taste of jerk chicken. Whilst it is typically known as a Jamaican food, it's roots are found in African cooking. The jerk chicken I first tried was in a Jamaican style restaurant, that had given an African twist to it's menu.

I couldn't recreate the recipe from all those years ago, but this is a pretty close approximation, and with the skin and visible fat removed from the chicken, keeps the calories low. One tip, wear gloves when cooking with very strong chillies as if you get any in your eyes, you will know about it for a long time.

Ingredients:

4 skinless chicken thighs
60 ml malt vinegar
60 ml lime juice
1 tbsp dark rum
1 Scotch bonnet chilli, with seeds, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
1 tsp (heaped) dried thyme
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp molasses

How to:

1. Put vinegar, rum, chilli, onion, spring, thyme, olive oil, salt, pepper, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and molasses into a blender. Blitz until mostly smooth.
2. Pour lime juice over the chicken and coat well. Add the jerk paste to the chicken pieces and coat well. Cover the chicken with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
3. Drain the marinade from the chicken into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside to use as a basting sauce for the chicken.
4. Preheat oven to 180ºC and cook for approximately 25 minutes, turning the chicken occasionally and basting with marinade. The chicken is cooked through when the juices run clear when a knife tip is inserted into the thigh. Transfer the chicken to a plate and tent loosely with foil to keep warm and let stand 15 minutes.
5. Serve with a rice salad.

Serves 4