Jerk chicken

Pour this authentic spicy marinade over chicken, seafood or even aubergines to make them come over all Caribbean.

Ingredients

• 6 chicken breasts, or chicken thighs, bones removed

For the sauce

• 225g/8oz onions, quartered
• 1-1½ scotch bonnet or other chillies according to taste, halved and seeded
• 50g/2oz root ginger, peeled and chopped roughly
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• small bunch fresh thyme, leaves only
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 120ml/4fl oz white wine vinegar
• 120ml/4fl oz dark soy sauce

To serve

• rice and peas
• 1 pineapple, peeled, cored and cut in wedges
• 4 limes, 3 cut in wedges, 1 juice only

Preparation method

1. Put all the ingredients for the Jerk Sauce in a food processor and whiz until smooth.

2. Place the chicken in a large shallow dish, pour over the sauce, cover and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight.

3. On a hot griddle cook the chicken for 25-30 minutes, basting now and then with the leftover sauce. As it cooks, the thick sauce will go quite black in places, but don’t worry, as it falls off it will leave behind a really well flavoured, crisp skin, with lovely moist tender meat underneath.

4. Brush the pineapple lightly with oil and char grill until golden brown on all sides. Squeeze over the juice of one lime.

5. Serve the jerk chicken with the rice and peas, pineapple and wedges of lime on the side.