Jerk chicken with rice and peas

This dish was the last week of my Cooking Around the World course. I've always loved Caribbean food's smell (I used to babysit for a family whose dad would cook said food before going to work for the kids' tea, just walking into the house made me hungry!) but have never known/been brave enough to try it. I thought it would be really hard. This dish is simple enough to brave a new meal but complex enough (courtesy of the jerk marinade) to amaze people. This was requested numerous times in the weeks after I brought it home and will probably make its way onto a meal plan in the near future.

·         1 chicken thigh (although other pieces of chicken such as breast can be used)

Jerk marinade;

·         Small amount of spring onions, roughly chopped

·         Small, finger sized piece of ginger, roughly chopped

·         1 garlic clove

·         ¼ small onion

·         ½ chilli (deseeded if you want less heat)

·         ¼ teaspoon dried thyme

·         Juice ¼ lime

·         2 tbsp soy sauce

·         ½ tablespoon vegetable oil

·         1tbsp brown sugar

·         ¼ tbsp ground allspice

Rice and peas

·         50g basmati rice

·         100g can coconut milk

·         Small bunch of spring onions, slices

·         ½ tspn dried thyme

·         1 garlic glove finely chopped

·         ¼ tsp ground allspice

·         ¼ can kidney beans, drained.

To make the jerk marinade, blend or dice all ingredients very finely and mix together. Taste the mixture – it should taste pretty salty but not unpleasantly so. To make it spicier add more chillies, the make it less salty and sour add more brown sugar. Make a few slashes in the chicken and pour the marinade over the meat, rubbing it into all the crevices. Cover and marinate overnight.

To cook, heat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas mark 4. Put in a roasting tin with lime halves and cook for 45 minutes until tender and cooked through.

Prepare the rice and peas while the chicken is cooking. Rinse the rice in plenty of cold water, then tip into a large saucepan with the remaining ingredients except the kidney beans. Season as required, add 75ml cold water and set over a high heat. Once the rice begins to boil, turn it down to a medium heat, cover and cook for a further 10 minutes. Add the beans to the rice then cover with a lid. Leave off the heat for 5 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.