Recipe source: The Real Jerk: New Caribbean Cuisine
Recipe result: Good flavor, skin could've been crispier, needed mo' fire (habaneros). But it got a good response from my friends.
Whenever I go home to Long Island, I have a list of foods that I need to have: pizza, bagels, mom's papaya smoothies, etc. But if I ever find myself in Uniondale near the Haitian barbershop I used to go to, I need to pick up some extra hot jerk chicken from Tropical Jerk, the Jamaican place across the street. It's masterfully seasoned and char-grilled to crispy perfection. For real, I'm tempted to even eat the bones... not just the marrow, the bones.
For Christmas in 2008, my good friend Dominic bought me a Jamaican cookbook, written by the owners of a well-known Toronto Jamaican restaurant. Naturally, the first thing I had to try out of this book was the jerk chicken.
So what goes into jerk seasoning? Loads of allspice, ginger, nutmeg, black pepper, and hot-as-hell chili peppers. Traditionally, the recipe calls for Scotch Bonnet peppers, but down in Austin it's way easier to find habaneros, and they're just about the same in appearance and heat. Jerk sauce serves as a marinade for the chicken, before it's grilled to a good crisp. I don't have a grill, so I usually broil it, or sometimes braise it the same way I do in my Haitian chicken recipe. Typically I use thighs and breast, but this time around I made wings for my friend's Superbowl party.
You can find my recipe after the jump. Try it out and let me know how you like it.
