How to Make Jerk Like a Jamaican
Home to Jerk,...Boston Bay, Jamaica. Where you can find an intoxicating blend of moist meat, soaked in pimento smoke,...spicy. Bite into something that bites back.
How to make Jerk like a Jamaican.
First you're going to need a good looking companion,... a chicken will do:). Cut out it's spine and lay it open. Poke some holes in it's breast and thighs. No Jamaican needs this advice, save the back,..it's the best part of your jerked bird and the first preview off the grill on what's to come. It cooks fast.
Get your Jerk paste ready.
Mix for a whole chicken or tons of wings, 1/2 bottle of Walker's Wood Jerk Paste with about a 1/4 cup of low sodium soy sauce. Add good quality olive oil or a neutral oil, grape seed or canola oil works, not a lot just enough to mellow it out and get the seasonings to stick.
True Jamaicans have already washed the chicken with lime. If you didn't, be sure to add a least 1/2 of fresh lime juice to the paste mix,...if it's a dry lime, do a full one. By the time you've added the lime juice, your paste should look like a slurry.
Add fine cut spring onions-couple handfuls, a small bunch of fresh thyme -stripped or fine cut, 1-2 cloves of chopped garlic, if you like it really hot a bit more chopped Scotch Bonnet, and if you have it around the house a bit of chopped ginger. Now season the chicken with lots of black pepper, dry jerk seasoning (Boston Bay works great), Jamaican ground pimento is key, be generous , not crazy with it, and garlic salt.
Wash up them mitts of yours and start making some music with your bird,..rub it down like a night out in Kingston,...hit up all those nooks and crannies stuffin in the spicy goodness and let your bird sit out like a bad date on the counter for 2 hours or if you believe in health codes in the frig overnight.
Grilling,..the only way
Cook on indirect heat for about an hour till done,...start skin down if you have indirect heat like an "Egg" or a Weber,..if it's straight up on the coals reverse the process, start with skinless side down,...use garlic salt, Boston Bay dry jerk spice as it cooks, to build on the flavor. It smells so good when the dry spice hits the fire. Flame ups? No problem, that's what Red Stripe or whatever you're drinking is for, to quench the flames and build flavor. If you have a pimento tree, fresh cut some of it's fine branches with leaves and lay them over the chicken as it sits on the grill top. The nest of leaves will build some steam along with the beer to slow cook your bird. Serve it on rice n peas. This is the real deal, enjoy.