This is a recipe I received from a friend several years ago. It is incredibly good and with Pineywoods' scotch bonnets making their way to various destinations I thought I would post it. Enjoy!
Ed’s Jerk Marinade
[Works on chicken and pork]
Fixin's:
2 whole chickens or 4-6 whole pork loins (the "junk")
1 Whole onion, FINELY diced.
1 Bunch of scallions (green onions) FINELY diced.
1 cup Cider vinegar
1 cup Soy sauce
1/4 cup Oil
1 tbsp Thyme (preferably fresh)
1 tbsp Ground cinnamon
1 tbsp Ground allspice
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Minced garlic
1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg
1 minced scotch bonnet pepper (these things are WICKED hot, with a scoville rating of 300,000 as opposed to a jalepeno @ 10,000. If you like hot, but have never used scotch bonnet peppers, please be careful) solaryellow's note You can use less hot peppers to suit to your own taste.
Preparation:
Go ahead and just mix all this crap together in a BIG bowl being careful not to touch your eyes (seriously, the pepper oil will stay on your hands for 20-30 minutes unless THOROUGHLY washed). Take one to two cups and set them aside as your basting marinade.
If you have chicken: Kick your chicken's a$$ in half with a big cleaver, right down the center of the breast, (Traditionally Jerk chicken is prepared using halved chickens. I have found they cook better this way, but if your lazy, or just don’t like the carnage, you can buy your chicken with its a$$ 'pre-kicked' into a bunch of little pieces.
If you are using pork loins, all you have to do is rinse them off. - DON'T slice them yet! Leave them whole.
Drown your junk in the marinade for NO LESS than 8 hours. It’s a strong marinade, and if left for more than 16 or so hours, flavor gets really strong. 10-12 is best I have found. Keep turning your junk so they get good even coverage. I use large Ziploc freezer bags to keep the mess under control.
Cook the junk over slow coals, never NEVER letting flames touch the meat. Turn it about every 5 minutes basting with each turn, the idea is to cook it really slow and constant turning helps. Get some twigs from an apple tree and let them smoulder on top of the coals. If done properly, it should take about 45 minutes to an hour to cook. Jerk almost NEVER dries out, because the acetic acid in the vinegar keeps things just right. The sugar will however turn the chicken SUPER BROWN. When finished, any liquid from an opened piece of chicken should run clear, and the skin should be a rich chocolate brown or dark caramel color.....bordering on looking burnt....keep your fire smoky. Jamaicans argue as to whether or not you should cover it or not. I don’t, unless the chicken starts flaming, then its only to keep the flames out......solaryellow's note Despite the claims above, trying to do this low and slow like we are used to will dry out the pork in a hurry. I usually build a pile of coals to the two outsides of the meat and feed apple chips to the coals throughout the cook. I have tried to smoke it twice with the end result being dry stringy loins.
This marinade can be kept in a jar for a month in the refrigerated. Due to bacterial transmission, do not store marinade that has been used! It’s probably not a good idea to baste with used marinade either.
Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.
Ed’s Jerk Marinade
[Works on chicken and pork]
Fixin's:
2 whole chickens or 4-6 whole pork loins (the "junk")
1 Whole onion, FINELY diced.
1 Bunch of scallions (green onions) FINELY diced.
1 cup Cider vinegar
1 cup Soy sauce
1/4 cup Oil
1 tbsp Thyme (preferably fresh)
1 tbsp Ground cinnamon
1 tbsp Ground allspice
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Minced garlic
1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg
1 minced scotch bonnet pepper (these things are WICKED hot, with a scoville rating of 300,000 as opposed to a jalepeno @ 10,000. If you like hot, but have never used scotch bonnet peppers, please be careful) solaryellow's note You can use less hot peppers to suit to your own taste.
Preparation:
Go ahead and just mix all this crap together in a BIG bowl being careful not to touch your eyes (seriously, the pepper oil will stay on your hands for 20-30 minutes unless THOROUGHLY washed). Take one to two cups and set them aside as your basting marinade.
If you have chicken: Kick your chicken's a$$ in half with a big cleaver, right down the center of the breast, (Traditionally Jerk chicken is prepared using halved chickens. I have found they cook better this way, but if your lazy, or just don’t like the carnage, you can buy your chicken with its a$$ 'pre-kicked' into a bunch of little pieces.
If you are using pork loins, all you have to do is rinse them off. - DON'T slice them yet! Leave them whole.
Drown your junk in the marinade for NO LESS than 8 hours. It’s a strong marinade, and if left for more than 16 or so hours, flavor gets really strong. 10-12 is best I have found. Keep turning your junk so they get good even coverage. I use large Ziploc freezer bags to keep the mess under control.
Cook the junk over slow coals, never NEVER letting flames touch the meat. Turn it about every 5 minutes basting with each turn, the idea is to cook it really slow and constant turning helps. Get some twigs from an apple tree and let them smoulder on top of the coals. If done properly, it should take about 45 minutes to an hour to cook. Jerk almost NEVER dries out, because the acetic acid in the vinegar keeps things just right. The sugar will however turn the chicken SUPER BROWN. When finished, any liquid from an opened piece of chicken should run clear, and the skin should be a rich chocolate brown or dark caramel color.....bordering on looking burnt....keep your fire smoky. Jamaicans argue as to whether or not you should cover it or not. I don’t, unless the chicken starts flaming, then its only to keep the flames out......solaryellow's note Despite the claims above, trying to do this low and slow like we are used to will dry out the pork in a hurry. I usually build a pile of coals to the two outsides of the meat and feed apple chips to the coals throughout the cook. I have tried to smoke it twice with the end result being dry stringy loins.
This marinade can be kept in a jar for a month in the refrigerated. Due to bacterial transmission, do not store marinade that has been used! It’s probably not a good idea to baste with used marinade either.
Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.
