Some notes on my 2024 attempt to make jerk chicken. There are so many recipes floating round it is very difficult to pick a right one. I picked one with a mistake in the recipe and used too much soy and Worcestershire sauce, the marinade became way too liquid. Although it still tasted okay, it wasn’t quite right. Normally I would have discarded the marinade and start over but I had to rush to work in the morning. I often cook early in the morning on working days.

What went okay was the brining. To make the meat tender before marinating I brined the chicken parts in: 4 cups of water, 75 grams salt, 60 grams sugar, 1 tablespoon whole allspice, 5 garlic cloves, crushed, 1 hot pepper, halved (in The Netherlands this will be either a madame jeannette or adjuma pepper), 1 piece of ginger, roughly chopped. I brined the chicken for 24 hours.

I marinated the chicken for about 36 hours, but next time I will find a different list of ingredients for the jerk. I did use the left over hot peppers to make a quick hot sauce. Just cut the pepper in small pieces, dice an onion and slice some garlic. Fry the pepper, onion and garlic in a little oil and then add some water and simmer for 15 minutes until the pepper is soft. Transfer to a food processor, add some vinegar, salt and sugar, and blitz until the sauce is smooth. You have to taste to adjust the amount of vinegar and salt, but the hot sauce on its own is almost too spicy to taste.

Despite of the not so perfect jerk marinade the result was very good. It missed some of the spicy tones, like pimento and pepper. Maybe the soy sauce in the marinade was too overpowering. The chicken was incredibly tender and had some sweetness because of the salt-sugar brine. I barbequed the chicken rather than smoke it since I don’t have a smoker, and certainly no pimento wood.

Jamaican original served with festivals.