Jamaican Me Crazy!

I decided to jerk some chicken tonite! (Ok, there's a dirty joke in there somewhere...although I'm jerkin' and not chokin'!) I ended out combining the Jamaican Jerk recipes from the Closet Cooking site I recently found, and the Dinosaur BBQ book my folks got me last year. It was just an issue of not having all of the ingredients either recipe had, and/or wanting to use up more stuff... So here's how it went down...

As soon as I got in the door I tracked down the two recipes that seemed to meld together (a number of recipes from other books got dropped right away). While I started thawing out four boneless skinless chicken breasts in a bowl of hot water (still in their zip-lock baggies), I tossed together the spices/seasoning in a bowl.


Raced outside and grabbed some jalapenos from the garden, plus I had a cayenne, garlic and onion inside. Also had some green onions from the store that needed to be used up. They all went in the food processor, and then I started washing my hands after just about every step! (Hey, can you blame me?!)


After a few quick whizzes, here's what things were looking like - quite pretty actually!


Then I added the soy sauce, oil and vinegar that I'd measured out, pulsed some more, and got this ugly mess. (Hey, jerk sauce is NEVER pretty)


After a few more pulses I added in the juice from the freshly squeezed orange and limes, pulsed some more, and got this slop.


Once that was all done, I dumped it in a gallon bag, pounded the thawed chicken breasts a bit to tenderize them, added them to the bag, and they've been marinating ever since! Four hours later - and it's grillin' time!

Here we are - all nice and grilled! Even though the marinated chicken was at room temp, it took a little longer than usual to cook pounded boneless chicken breasts - I'm guessing that's because of the incredibly mooooiiiiist marinade still remaining on the meat? Anyhow - tasted GREAT! This is four chicken breast halves you see here...

And there was so much marinade left over (and tainted with chicken juices)...so I figure next time I make it, maybe I'll try saving some for use within a week, or maybe even freezing it? Hm, wonder if I could freeze chicken breasts IN the marinade? I've done stuff like this before, but not with such a busy concoction.

The chicken didn't taste spicy at all, but I did get a WHIFF of spice of it - very interesting. Definitely not a complaint.

Anyhow, in case you're interested - here's the "recipe":

Chop finely in food processor:
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 medium onion
1 cayenne pepper, seeded
2 medium jalapenos, seeds and membrane removed
4 green onions, used only the white and dark green parts

Then add and whizz some more:
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground thyme (the dry, powdery stuff - not fresh)
1 teaspoon salt (don't worry, more saltiness is coming from the soy sauce)
1 teaspoon black pepper

Then add and whizz even more:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup white vinegar

And finally add and whizz yet again:
the juice of one orange
the juice of one and a half limes (because that's what I had)

I only did things in that order, and with those separate "dump in the food processor before pushing the button" breakdowns because, from experience, I knew that 1) I wanted all the solid ingredients chopped up and if I'd added EVERYTHING, they might've swum around in really fast circles before actually having much chopping happen, and 2) I figured add the liquidy stuff in stages just to ensure a good mix of stuff.

Note: I am finding the Kitchenaid food processor, while I love it, seems to splatter more stuff up to the underside of the lid than my old Cuisinart food processor did...so there's more scraping with a spatula to ensure all the ingredients get included.

This was MORE than enough marinade for 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves. Would've been great on pork tenderloin!

The measurements above are VERY flexible. If you need to use up two oranges, or 3 limes, or only have a lime and a lemon, or only have red wine vinegar, or no vinegar at all - do whatever! No soy sauce? Just double or triple the salt. I think it's such a complex mix of flavors that you won't notice some substitutions and changes in measurement. I WOULD say I think some of the primary "jerk" flavor came from the mix of all spice, nutmeg, cinnamon and thyme. Hell - I bet you could just use pumpkin pie seasoning or apple pie seasoning if you had that! One recipe called for dark rum. Didn't have any. Didn't fret. Moved on... There are so many different recipes out there for "jerk marinade", with different measurements and/or different ingredients - so I just created my own which was a blend of others...a very happy, tasty middle ground.

Have fun cooking (and creating something new!)!

Oh, and Sharon - while it would probably be REALLY full, I bet you could fit all of this in a mini-chopper like you have.