James's Jamaican Chicken

A community recipe by James

Not tested or verified by Nigella.com

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Introduction

This recipe was kicked off from Authentic Jamaican Kitchen, by Lucinda Scala Quinn. After giving some carribean friends a serious "grilling" about their mums and wives way of making it I changed it somewhat to reflect how they prepared it. The washing and rinsing of the chicken in lemon or lime is de-rigeur in all chicken carribean cookery. No self respecting carribean I know would skip that stage. Beware this recipe can be very hot, but its a clean hot, if you know what I mean

Ingredients

Serves: 2-3

Metric Cups

5 bunches spring onions (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
2 bunches fresh thyme
3 scotch bonnet chilli pepper (to taste)
63 millilitres allspice (or pimento)
2 tablespoons black peppercorns (crushed)
1½ tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon mixed spice
250 millilitres water

5 bunches scallions (chopped)
3 cloves garlic (minced)
2 bunches fresh thyme
3 bonnet chile pepper (to taste)
2 fluid ounces allspice (or pimento)
2 tablespoons black peppercorns (crushed)
1½ tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
9 fluid ounces water

Method

James's Jamaican Chicken is a community recipe submitted by James and has not been tested by Nigella.com so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe.

Combine all and add the water to make a think paste. Now, I use a mortar and pestle to crush the spices so itâ€™s a little rougher that shop bought ground stuff. Its very tiring, all the chopping and crushing, but its worth it in the end.

Portion 2 whole chickens into 8 pieces, wash in lemon or lime juice and water, rinse, then again squeeze the juice of two lemons or limes over the chicken, leave to soak for half an hour or longer, drain, then add all the marinade to the chicken pieces ( reserving a cupful for later ) and leave covered in fridge over night. I use a big steel bowl as the marinade is quite potent. Heat oven to 180.

Place chicken pieces in roasting tray, spoon marinade over and pop in oven. Every half hour or so turn the pieces and spoon over your remaining marinade over chicken and cook for 1 Â½ to two hours.

Pop a Bob Marley CD in the player and serve it all up with a cool green salad, I also like to serve it with natural yoghurt with some grated cucumber and a teaspoon of mint sauce mixed in, like a Raita, to cool the mouth.

Place chicken pieces in roasting tray, spoon marinade over and pop in oven. Every half hour or so turn the pieces and spoon over your remaining marinade over chicken and cook for 1 Â½ to two hours.