35: Jerk Chicken

On Wednesday night we had our friend Karen over for dinner and a movie. This allowed me to implement my plan to make jerk chicken!

I made the marinade on Tuesday night. The recipe for the jerk marinade called for one or two Scotch Bonnet peppers but said I could substitute habanero. I’ve never bought hot peppers in my life, but I know that they can be dangerous if you don’t wash your hands after you cut them. I quartered one and scraped away the seeds, and decided I wanted to see just how hot habaneros are. I tasted a little – and it sure was a kick! At Meijer, the habaneros were sold in a little carton of nine. I decided to only use one in the marinade because I didn’t want it to be too spicy (for the benefit of others), so now I’ve got 8 little peppers left. I have to figure out something or other to do with them!

I cut three chicken breasts in half and put them in a zipper bag with most of the marinade. They were still half-frozen when I put them in the bag, but they thawed perfectly while they marinated for nearly 24 hours. I brushed some of the jerk onto some sweet potato fries that I was making as a side dish, and broiled the chicken.

I thought this was an excellent meal. The chicken was still juicy after I broiled it, and the jerk sweet potatoes were good too. It was also very easy to make since you do most of the messy work the night before (when you’re not impatient from hunger). I’ll probably make more jerk marinade and see how well it freezes  – and then I’ll only have 6 peppers left!