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Jerk chicken with grilled pineapple salsa


Recipe by: Nikolaj Juel
Serves: 4

Procedure

I used to live in Nottinghill I West London, and the smell and taste of jerk chicken takes me right back there. It’s got to be one of my favorite things to cook when I have people over for a BBQ evening, and it always goes down a treat.

Grind all the spices and add them to a food processor, with the rest of the jerk ingredients.

Slash the chicken thighs with a sharp knife and place them in a tray. Add the marinade and massage the marinade thoroughly in the chicken flesh. Leave to marinate minimum 2 hours, preferably overnight.

Grilled pineapple salsa

Top and tail the pineapple and cut the skin off. Cut around the core, so you have 4 large pieces of pineapple.

Place the pineapple pieces on a hot grill, till you get grill marks on each side. Roughly chop the pineapple and place in a bowl.

Grill the chili whole till the skin blister. Remove the skin. Chop the chili and ad to the pineapple.

Add the chopped mint leaves and season with lime juice. Set aside.

Season the chicken thighs with salt and pepper and place them on a hot grill. Turn the often, so they don’t burn. The sugar in the marinade will burn quite easy, so keep an eye on the chicken.

Once the chicken has got a deep golden color with charred edges, you can move the chicken to a cooler part off the grill, to finish cooking.

Serve the chicken with some pineapple salsa and a wedge of lime.

Ingredients

  • 8 whole chicken legs
  • 4 tbsp allspice berries
  • 1 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1 tbsp black peppercorns
  • 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ ground nutmeg
  • ¼ tsp ground cloves
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 4 scotch bonnet chilies, cored and de-seeded
  • 1 thumb size ginger, peeled and chopped
  • 2 tbsp muscovado sugar
  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil

Grilled pineapple salsa

  • 1 pineapple
  • 1 handful mint leaves roughly chopped.
  • 1 red chili
  • 1-2 limes