Winner winner, chicken dinner. – A food and lifestyle blog. Anything from recipes, books & mental health.
I have been working quite a lot lately and haven't had time to create any new dishes. However, I have had this weekend off and really fancied jerk chicken so I thought I would cook it for dinner last night. I have only ever done it once before and then it turned out way too spicy and a little bitter as I used fresh oranges and I had to try and balance out the flavour with honey. My parents are in Jamaica at the minute so that could be one of the factors for me craving it.
I love the flavour of jerk. I want it to almost blow my face off and homemade is just the best. This was so easy to do and I will definitely be doing it again! I used half of my marinade on the chicken, then the rest I made into a sauce. I used birds eye chillis, as well as regular ones so it definitely had a kick. When I made the sauce, I used some coconut milk so it was creamy, but the spice still left a tingle on your tongue.
The recipe serves 4 and I would do two chicken thighs per person. Chicken on the bone is best to use for this dish as you to allow time for the meat to marinate and the bone ensures it stays moist and doesn't dry out.
Prep time: 10 minutes/ at least 4 hours marinating.
4 tbsp dark soy sauce.
2 tbsp dark brown sugar.
Fresh thyme – handful of sprigs.
2 fresh limes (zest and juice).
2 chicken thighs per person.
25g long grain rice per person.
To make the marinade, place all the ingredients except the chicken and coconut milk into a food processor. Blitz until smooth.
Score the skin of the chicken thighs and place in a bowl. Spoon half of the marinade onto the chicken and ensure it is all thoroughly coated. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
The marinade will penetrate the chicken in the fridge and keep it moist.
Set the rest of the sauce aside until you cook the chicken.
Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees, and put some water in a large saucepan to boil in order to cook your rice.
Place the chicken thighs on a baking tray. If there is any marinade left in the bowl, spoon onto the tray as the chicken will soak up the flavours!
When you put the chicken in the oven, put the rice, peas and kidney beans into water to cook. Because of the kidney beans, the rice will take slightly longer than usual to cook. I cooked my chicken for 20 minutes.
At the same time, place the rest of the marinade in a saucepan and heat through gently. Add the coconut milk if you want it to be a little less spicy and you like creamy sauces. If not, just heat the marinade through!
When the chicken is cooked, place the baking tray under the grill as this will crisp the skin up and give it a slightly barbecued taste. I had mine with a homemade mojito!
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Yummy sounding recipe. I think I'll copy it for my files and give it a try. The thighs are definitely the best part of the chicken, too bad it couldn't be made up of all thighs — the chicken, not the recipe. Great blog!