Three Habaneros & No Regrets
Some of these meals have been simple and quick to rustle up. This one had a slightly more intimidating ingredient list and really should have been started the day before, but patience has never been one of my strongest culinary qualities!
I’ve always loved big flavours and a “decent” amount of spice, as long as it’s not in a curry I can handle some chilli and jerk chicken has always been a favourite. So for dinner I decided to make jerk chicken flats and drumettes.
From the little I know about Jamaican cooking, the marinade is where so much of the flavour comes from, and this one certainly wasn’t shy:
½ yellow onion, 3 habanero chillies, ½ cup spring onions, ⅓ cup lime juice, 3 tbsp soy sauce, 6 cloves garlic, 2 tbsp fresh thyme, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tbsp salt, 2 tsp black pepper, 2 tsp allspice, 1 tsp dried thyme, ½ tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp cumin and ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg.
All of these ingredients went into the blender until it became a thick, fiery marinade, then all over the chicken. Overnight would have been ideal, but I managed a few hours before deciding that was quite enough waiting.
A BBQ would have been perfect, but Glen and I still need to replace ours, so the oven was cranked up to 220°C instead. I put the chicken right near the top to encourage as much char as possible, taking it out roughly every 15 minutes to brush it with more marinade. I did that three times, building up those sticky, blackened edges and plenty of flavour.
And it was absolutely delicious. Spicy without completely blowing your head off, sweet, smoky, tangy and properly charred around the edges.
Glen loved it too, although he was already suffering from acid reflux, so three habaneros probably weren’t the medical intervention he required. Apparently it was worth it.
LYM🦩
