Jamaican Chicken

We are rapidly reaching the end of the school holidays. The uniforms are all washed and ready to go. Stationary is labelled and hidden so they can’t use it between now and next Monday. And new shoes have been bought.

The boys are excited about going back. Mr 7 can’t wait to see his friends and Mr 4 is happy he is going to be a proper ‘big school boy’ and get to go to chapel each week with his class. I think that is because he is convinced they sing the Banana Song every week. Fingers crossed that Pastor Richard gets it in during that first week or I may have one very disappointed 4 year old on my hands!

It is wonderful they are looking forward to school going back but it does mean the hols are coming to an end and our summer adventures are over for another year. We are still trying to cram things in. Today we are off to the aquarium and yesterday we had an evening play, swim and barbie down at the estuary.

It was beautiful, we were the only ones there, the hint of a breeze made the 37 ºC day bearable, the boys ate every bit of food they were given, we had a sunset swim water fight before heading home for baths and sparklers left over from Australia Day.

Bundling two tired and mucky boys into the car with just their towels on, I managed to leave the boys clothes hung on a bush! But they were still there when Dad and I drove back a couple of hours later. The late night jaunt gave us a chance to spot a frogmouth owl, a very tame frogmouth owl as he sat happily whilst I grabbed a couple of shots with my phone.

So tired and happy we all headed to bed, with the temperature still hitting 30ºC we expected a warm muggy night ahead, but the summer rains fell and this morning I am sat looking out at beautiful blue skies and inhaling a clean fresh after the rain smell. Doesn’t get better than that!

Last night on the barbie we had the usual homemade extra large beef burgers and sausages but I also made some Jamaican chicken. I cooked it in the oven before we went and had planned to just place it on the barbecue in some foil to heat through, yes I am the crazy lady who has the oven on when the house is already struggling to stay cool! But in the end it was eaten cold and I can tell you it is as good cold with salad as it is hot with rice.

That makes it a great dish to make for dinner and then use leftovers for lunch. Stew has gone off to work this morning with leftover salad and leftover chicken! Don’t feel too sorry for him, at least he hasn’t got to go out in the heat and buy lunch.

This chicken is hard to describe, it is aromatic, sweet, sour and spicy, it isn’t blow your head off spicy as I have tamed the spice quite significantly. No point eating something that is unenjoyable, but it still pretty spicy. If you love things as spicy as they come then add in 2 extra chillies. Scotch bonnet are the ones they use in Jamaica and if you can get them, they will definitely give you a spicy kick. But I warn you, this is not a gentle boot to the bottom, this is a flying kick that will send you into next door’s garden! They are hot hot hot!

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Jamaican Chicken

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

1 hrs

Total Time

1 hrs 10 mins

 

Jamaican Chicken. A spicy and aromatic chicken dish, that is simple to prepare and cooks easily in the oven

Course: Main

Servings: 4

Calories: 530 kcal

Author: Claire | Sprinkles and Sprouts

Ingredients

• 1 spring onion
• 2 red chilli (Add an extra 2 if you love your food with a major spice kick)
• 2 cm piece ginger
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 bunch coriander
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tsp ground mixed spice
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tsp raw unprocessed honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 chicken marylands (see notes)
• 1 whole lime

Instructions

1. Roughly chop the spring onion and chillies and place in the bowl of a food processor.
2. Peel the garlic and ginger and add to the processor.
3. Cut the stalks off the coriander and add the stalks to the processor. Keep the leaves for later.
4. Give this a quick pulse then add the fresh and dried thyme, mixed spice, chilli flakes, lime juice, honey, salt and olive oil.
5. Process this until you have a smooth(ish) marinade.
6. Place the chicken pieces into a large non-metallic bowl and add the marinade.
7. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
8. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan forced/Gas mark 6.
9. Line a baking tin with cooking paper and arrange the chicken so they aren't overlapping.
10. Roast the chicken for an hour.
11. Remove from the oven and serve sprinkled with fresh coriander and plenty of lime wedges.

Recipe Notes

 Chicken marylands are what we call the cut of chicken that includes the thigh and the drumstick. Sometimes called chicken quarters.