We seem to have adopted Jamaican culture recently, with Cool Runnings, Usain Bolt, delicious ginger cake and many playfully offensive Jamaican characters in British comedies such as 'Jamaican Teacher' bringing Caribbean fun to the UK. However, perhaps the biggest hit of Jamaica, was when Levi Roots barrelled through weakly-flavoured plates of British meat and two veg to bring us reggae reggae sauce- a tastefully hot condiment right from the heart of Caribbean street food.
In my dish, it's not like the crispy inferno of street Jerk Chicken, but it's still searingly hot and crisp. The flavour all comes from a strong marinade full of traditional seasonings, which seemed odd to me, including what I think of as more cakey spices such as allspice and cinnamon, but together they form a powerful reggae bassline beneath chords of fresh lime and hot chilli.
To serve with, you really need the cool, sweet rice and peas to extinguish the fire in your mouth. Some other good ideas to serve with it are a crisp green salad and plenty of fresh lime.
1)To prepare the marinade, blend 3 spring onions, 3 roasted red bell peppers, either roast your own or use the shortcut like me of keeping roasted ones in jars, 4 garlic cloves, 4 birds eye chillis (any chillis with the seeds in will do, the traditional is the scotch bonnet, but if like me you can't find them use any small red variety; generally, the smaller the chilli the hotter it is) a 4cm piece of fresh ginger (it's best to blend these vegetables on their own first and they'll chop finer into the rest of the marinade that way), the grated zest and juice of one lime, a splash of dark rum, about the same amount of soy sauce (dark here for colour); to honour Roots' sauce, about a tablespoon of tomato puree. Next, you will have to invade the spice cupboard for 2 teaspoons each of ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, ground nutmeg (or I recommend 1 freshly grated) smoked paprika, dried thyme, and about a tbsp of English mustard powder, really depending on how hot you want this, and 2 tablespoons of dark muscovado sugar. Blitz it all together to a fairly fine paste, but still with some texture. If you desired even more pep, add some drops of really viciously hot tabasco.
2)Now, for the chicken. I always feel rather guilty saying I prefer chicken breast, as cooks will often go for the more flavourful brown meat. Although it is true that it has a better flavour, it's not a very good one, and the texture is only more tender if you cook breast meat quickly without a sauce or marinade. For this recipe especially, breast is a perfect smooth and pure canvas for all the flamey flavours of the marinade, and the acidity of it makes the chicken go so succulent. Take 4 breast fillets that are skinless and slash them about three times on the diagonal. Place in a large dish with the marinade and smoosh the chicken in it, which with the searing acidity of the marinade, was not fun for my fingertips. The strength of the marinade makes me go a bit sadistic- I imagine throwing it in the eyes of people annoying me. Leave the chicken to marinate for a good few hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge. All waffle aside, you could substitute some chicken portions like thigh or drumstick just slashed on the skin if you wanted.
3)To cook it, place each chicken piece in a foil lined tray and coat in the marinade. Cook in a mild 170 degree oven for 30 minutes, then tip out any excess liquid, but keeping some of the grainy marinade on top, sprinkle with salt and bake even hotter at 220 to crisp the top.
4)To prepare the rice and peas, cook an onion in some oil until soft then cook 2 cloves of minced garlic. The ratio of rice to liquid is 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of liquid. In this case, use 1 1/2 cups of vegetable stock and 1/2 cup of coconut milk, including the crumbly mass that collects at the top of the tin. For the peas, beans are actually used because the traditional gungun variety are called pigeon peas. I use a can of drained and rinsed kidney beans, and a very non-traditional addition of frozen soya beans, called Edamame which I get from my favourite shop, Setonaikai. I like them because they have a nice, mild broad-bean flavour, they're very healthy and I've always loved purple and green since The Roly Mole Show. Also, I feel like the soy sauce from the marinade might have wanted a friend traveling all the way from Japan to the Caribbean. They would never be used in an authentic recipe, but you know how much I have a rebellious streak. Rinse a cup of rice by rubbing it between your fingers in a saucepan full of water, then drain in a seive under running water until the water runs clear, then bring everything to the boil, then lower the heat and cook for about 10-15 minutes until dry and cooked, then leave to stand to lose it's stodginess.
5)Serve the chicken on a bed of the rice, and serve with fresh lime and a crisp salad.
*A wee disclaimer, I have exaggerated how hot this dish is. It is very hot, but not hot that it hurts and makes it unpleasant to eat.
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