A little slice of Carribean magic

I first tried jerk chicken with rice and peas at Leeds West Indian Carnival a couple of years ago. I liked the rice but struggled with the chicken, probably because I am a bit of a baby with bones. I do however love the concept, especially all of the different flavourings, and who can argue with chicken dowsed in rum?? Last night I made Nigella's version and was glad I did.

Nigella suggests using chicken breasts with the peg bone still in, but I couldn't source these so just went for the regular bone-free option. These are marinaded in a long list of spices and other ingredients which I whizzed up in the food processor, namely:

allspice
dried thyme
cayenne pepper
ground ginger
ground nutmeg
ground cinnamon
garlic cloves
root ginger
muscovado sugar
dark rum
lime juice
soy sauce
cider vinegar
whole (yup hot!) red chillies
onion

The chicken was then cooked in the oven for an hour in total until it looks worryingly charcoaled on the outside.

For the accompanying rice and peas, I fried off some chopped onion in vegetable oil, added chopped red chilli, garlic, long grain rice, coconut milk, stock, kidney beans and let simmer for 15 minutes. To serve I added some thyme and seasoned a little with salt.


All-in-all a pretty decent dinner for a Wednesday, but very spicy so is not for those who can't handle a bit of heat. The chicken wasn't tender inside but I'm not sure it is intended to be. All that was missing was a can of Red Stripe, some live louder-than-loud music, dancing and a procession of colours.

Looking forward to this year's event. It is second only to the Notting Hill Carnival which to me says it is pretty special, and something that we Yorkshire folks should be shouting about!

Goddess Mx