Jerk Chicken with Spicy Cornbread and Pebre

Submitted by kywai

WEEK 7: Chile Peppers!

I was really stumped for this one. I've never actually worked with whole chiles before, dried, canned or fresh. My experience lies mostly in dumping Sriracha or Sambal into stuff, so I had to dig deep, and here's what I came up with!

Jerk Chicken

Ingredients

• For ~3 cups of jerk sauce (it'll keep about a month in the fridge):
• 4-5 habaneros/scotch bonnet peppers
• 2-3 dried arbol chiles
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 1/2 cup dark soy sauce
• 1/2 cup peanut oil
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 3 or 4 scallions finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme
• 2 tsp. Salt
• 1 tsp. Black Pepper
• 2 tbsp. Sugar
• 1 tsp. Allspice
• 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. Nutmeg

Chicken of your choosing (I used 4 bone-in chicken breasts)

1) Start by seeding and chopping your fresh chiles, but please, dear god, wear gloves. If you skip every other step in this recipe do not skip putting on the gloves because my hands are still burny 18 hours later. Alright, so, chop those up, crush the dried chiles, and put everything into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Put all your chicken into a bowl or large plastic bag and coat well with the jerk sauce. Leave in the fridge for for at least an hour.

Cornbread

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tbsp onion flakes
• 2-3 dried arbol chiles, crushed finely
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup shortening, melted

2) Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir well. Add in the shortening, milk and eggs and whisk until it's well combined. Pour into a 9-inch square pan or into a muffin tin for individual portions. This goes into a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Pebre

This has to be one of my favourite foods ever. My mom used to make it all the time, especially when there were guests over because it's ridiculously easy and it works as an appetizer and as sauce for the food we'd make. So good.

Ingredients

• 1/2 Spanish onion, chopped finely
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped (about 2 cups loosely packed)
• Juice of 1-2 lemons
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2-3 tbsp sambal oelek
• Salt to taste

3) Once the onion is diced, give it a bath of hot water to mellow out the sharp taste. Let it soak for 5-10 minutes, then rinse it in cold water for another few minutes to regain crispness. Combine with the other ingredients in a large bowl and stir well (I don't have enough cilantro in mine because I got it last minute at the corner store and it's a fuckin' rip off). Taste for salt and adjust as necessary. You can eat it right away but it's tastier if you let it sit for at least 15 minutes, preferably in the fridge.

As you finish the pebre, sneak a peek at the cornbread to see if it's ready yet! It smells so goood.

4) Take your now-delicious and burning chicken out of the fridge and, you're lucky enough to have a barbeque not buried in 4 feet of snow, grill for about 1 hour. If you do not have BBQ access, you can put it in a 350 degree oven on a rack for about 1 hour, turning halfway through.

Mm, cornbread.

Plate everything up and enjoy not feeling your face ever again! (But it's totally worth it)