Easy Jerk Chicken At Home

The Ultimate Oven Jerk Chicken.

From: Carribeanpot.com

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A bit of a bold statement and I’m sure my Jamaican friends are scratching their heads pondering why this “Trini” making such bold claims. One taste of this succulent jerk chicken after it comes out of the oven and you’ll know why it’s an “Ultimate” dish. Following on the other “Ultimate” recipes I’ve shared in the past, this one will not disappoint (search “Ultimate” on the right side of the page to see the other recipes in this category).

Yes, traditional jerk is made on the grill with pimento wood as it’s base of flavor and while you can’t duplicate this in the oven, this one is very convenient for people who don’t have a grill or live in northern climates and have to deal with bitter cold winters. Personally a little snow and minus degree temperatures can’t keep me away from my grill, but lately I’ve found that I don’t brave the outdoors as much as I used to in the winter.

NOTE: For the marinade for this you’ll need to refer to:  A Classic Jamaican Jerk Marinade.

You’ll Need…

6 chicken legs (with back attached) about 4-5 lbs
1 lemon or lime (or 1/4 cup vinegar)
1 cup Jerk Marinade

Tip: Line your baking dish with aluminum foil to make the clean-up after easier.

Trim off the excess skin and fat off the chicken (but leave most of the skin – you can remove it later before eating), then pour the lime or lemon juice (or vinegar) over the trimmed chicken. Then rinse off with cool water and drain. Now take a pairing knife or fork and pierce the chicken pieces. This will allow the marinade to penetrate the meat and really “juice” it up. Now you’re set for marinating the chicken. In a zip lock bag or bowl with a lid, pour the jerk marinade and mix everything well. Now seal and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours. I used a large baking dish, which I sealed with plastic wrap. This way when I’m ready, it can go directly into the oven.

After 2 hours take it out of the fridge and pour everything (including all the marinade) into a baking dish and let it come up to room temperature while you oven heats up. I had mine marinating in the baking dish already, so I was good to go.

Preheat your oven at 375 degrees.

Place the baking dish with the chicken on the middle rack and allow this to cook for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. The chicken should be cooked after that, so if you want to add some rich colour to the finished dish, you may need to turn on your broiler for a few minutes.

If you want you can place some aluminum foil over the dish the first 30 minutes of cooking, but I find that leaving it exposed (open) works great. While this cooks in the oven your home will be blanketed with the lovely scent of rich Caribbean spices and herbs and you’ll be counting down the minutes until you can devour a succulent piece of the Ultimate Oven Jerk Chicken. Here I have it served with some rice and creamy coleslaw. BTW, the sort of sweet and creamy flavours of the coleslaw complements this jerk chicken wonderfully

Chinese Vermicelli.. Lets Cook

Homestyle stir fried rice vermicelli (chow mee hoon) 家常炒米粉

Rice vermicelli 米粉 (mee fun, mee hoon or fine rice noodles) can be a pain to stir fry. If anyone finds rice vermicelli always clump together, broken into bits and sticking to the pan/wok, you may find this post useful.

To make delicious stir fried rice vermicelli, there are a few rules to follow.

• the noodles must be soaked with cold or lightly warm water, never use boiling water.
• noodles must not be over soaked.
• unless you pan or wok is guaranteed non stick with whatever you throw into it, one must not stir fry the noodles together with the vegetables or meat or you will find the noodles stick very quickly to the pan or wok.

Here is picture to show the noodles are nicely separated and not broken at all using this method.


Below is the recipe how I normally do it if you like to give it a try. You can use various different vegetables and meat/prawns you have at hand. I always add egg to fried noodles.

Other vegetables can be used are woodears, shitake mushroom, pak choi, Chinese cabbage, onion, leeks, Sichuan preserved vegetable (zha chai), jicama (mungkuang), fresh green beans. All vegetables to be shredded quite fine.

For a vegetarian version, can sub meat and egg with fried or super firm tofu or seitan


Stir fried rice vermicelli


Ingredients:

This qty makes a big plateful, enough for 3 - 4 people generously.

250g dried rice vermicelli or mee hoon (I like the superfine type, you and use any type you like)

2 large eggs, beaten

3 - 4 cloves garlic chopped
about a third cup minced (ground) pork, beef, chicken or roughly chopped prawns
about a third to half cup sliced/shredded Chinese sausage (lap cheong), ham any type or bacon, for non pork eater can use Chinese fried fish cake or leftover roast beef, chicken or lamb or peeled cooked prawns
1 medium carrot shredded (I used the mandoline)
about 4 leaf of cabbage, finely shredded (about 1.5 cup)
about 1.5 cup beansprouts
about 3 - 4 stalks of spring onion (scallion), chopped
few tbsp light soy sauce, to taste
1 tsp of chicken stock granules/bullion (optional)
some ground pepper.

cooking oil


Method:

1. Soak the dried noodles with cold or lightly warm tap water till soften. Drain with colander and shake the noodles to release as much water as you can. Leave aside for 10 minutes before stir frying.
2. Prepare the other ingredients.
3. When wok is hot add about 1 - 1.5 tbsp oil, spread oil around the wok. When almost smoking hot, add in the egg spread it evenly to form a thin omelette. Brown on one side, flip over and break the omelette into small bitesize. Remove and set aside.
4. Add about 1.5 tbsp of oil in wok, when wok is really hot add half the chopped garlic follow by the noodles. Stir and toss with chopsticks, to loosen and stir fry till noodles are hot. Drizzle on some light soy while stirring to evenly mix soy with noodles. Stir till noodles are cooked through and hot. Remove and set aside.
5. Add more oil in wok (about 1.5 tbsp) and the remaining garlic. Stir then add meat/prawn and lap cheong or bacon (if using cooked meat, fish cake or prawns, add in a little later till raw meat is cooked. Stir till meat is cooked and fragrant. Add dash of light soy.
6. Add cabbage and carrot, stir till vegetables are soften. Add more soy and chicken stock granules to taste. Can add a little water to create steam to cook the vegetables. When vegetables are soften add beansprouts. Stir briefly.
7. Add in omelette, stir briefly.
8. Turn off heat. Add in spring onion and noodles. Add ground pepper. Tease and toss the noodles, so the noodles are loosen and mix evenly with the vegetables, meat and egg. When done, if noodles are somewhat cooled down, turn the heat on, tossing the noodles while stirring. Heat till noodles are hot or when starting to stick to the pan/wok turn heat off. Ready to eat.