Jerk chicken, a spicy grilled-meat dish mostly associated with Jamaica but common throughout the Caribbean. Jerk refers to a style of cooking in which the main ingredient—which most often is chicken, also be beef, pork, goat, boar, seafood, or vegetables—is coated in spices and slow-cooked over a fire or grill traditionally composed of green pimento wood positioned over burning coals; the resulting smoke is key to the flavour of the dish. The cuisine had its origins with the Taino, who developed the jerk method and later taught it to Africans slaves , who in turn adapted it in creating jerk chicken. The word jerk reportedly stems from the Spanish charqui, meaning dried strips of meat similar to the modern-day jerky.
INGREDIENTS:
1 Whole Chicken cut in 8 pieces or 4 medium boneless chicken breast
2 Tablespoon Little Jamaica Original Carnival Jerk dry Mix or our newest wet delicious Jerk marinade
DIRECTIONS:
Whole chicken cut in 8 pieces wash in lemon water and drained leaving a little moisture.
Season chicken with salt and garlic powder to your taste.
Add 2 tablespoons of Little Jamaica Original Carnival Jerk mix or our jerk marinade then rub ( with food gloves if possible) evenly on chicken pieces. For boneless chicken option ( 4 medium chicken breast) use only 1 1/2 tablespoon Jerk seasoning and Little Jamaica all natural sea salt to taste .
Allow the chicken to marinate overnight (best) or at least for a minimum of 4-6 hours.
Heat your grill up (in my case we use charcoal) and cook the chicken at about 325F-350F or with your coals on the lowest setting for about 35-45 minutes with the lid closed, turning over the chicken occasionally to grill it evenly on both sides.
For sauce or gravy, Little Jamaica DELICIOUS island flavour recipe BBQ KETCHUP. In some cases where you collect the juice from the tray when doing an oven jerk, mix with island flavour bbq jerk ketchup. AND USE AS A GRAVY.
Serve chicken with rice or rice & peas, festivals, fried dumplings, hardough bread, garden salad or any side you prefer.