Thursday, May 7, 2009

Jamaican Jerk chicken... crock pot style

I really should not be writing this.

I'm in the midst of a very big project, I'm supposed to be working on a LONG self-paced training session, I've got scripts to read, and a newsletter to lay out.

Sigh.

But I had to share this recipe with you.

My family recently moved to a nice new neighborhood, and my husband had the good fortune to try out Zankou chicken. He had never eaten hummus, or tabbouleh, or anything like that, and I got jealous because I was missing all sorts of ethnic foods.

First, I want to mention that if you do want to try out some more ethnic recipes, try out Raman Prasad's cookbook here. I've been meaning to do a proper review but my food tolerances have only recently gotten to the point where I can actually try some of the recipes I really want to try.

But anyway, I started poking around on the Internet and I stumbled across Jamaican Jerk chicken.

I read several recipes before deciding to attempt it. I made it at first in a skillet without marinating it first, because I didn't have time for that. It was OK.

But then the long traditional marination time struck me as something useful for a crock pot.

Of course it's not barbecued like true Jamaican Jerk chicken would be, but it's still pretty good.

The interesting thing is, my son LOVES this chicken. It's spicy as all get out, but then I realized that most of the heat is in the sauce. In the crock pot, this dish becomes extremely saucy. So as long as I went easy on the sauce when I served it to my guy, he was fine and ended up eating three bowls!

By the way, if you've never gotten smoked paprika, you are missing out. It's delicious. I buy the big McCormick brand at Costco. It's not spicy but it helps to impart a smoky flavor. Yum!

JAMAICAN JERK CROCK POT CHICKEN

4-6 fresh chicken thighs with bones (about 3 pounds)
6 cloves garlic, thrown in whole
1-2 onions, chopped
2 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp original Tabasco (only the original is SCD legal)
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp honey
1-2 tsp allspice (I did not have this)

Put all ingredients in the crock with the chicken on the bottom. Cook on high for about six hours. Done!


Personally I think putting some spinach in the crock would taste really good, but there wasn't enough room in my crock to do that (I have a 4 quart one).

As I mentioned, I did not have allspice. Until recently I thought allspice was a blend of spices. Well, it isn't! It's a single spice and as we know, single spices without additives are legal. Allspice is a traditional jerk chicken spice.

Oh, and one more thing -- you'll probably need to add more salt at the end to the individual bowls of food. When you cook anything for a long time with salt added, the salty taste fades, even though the sodium content of the food remains the same. So you end up adding way more salt than you need to if you add a lot at the start of cooking.

Enjoy!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

We should make plans to go to Penzeys one of these days. :)

Unknown said...

I knooooooow... I would make a huge list. I've already found some recipes for Mexican spice mix. I am dying to make some little SCD legal taco things... or SCD legal taco salad.

Tracee said...

Always good to find another crockpot recipe. I work full time and have an ASD son that's SCD 100 percent and I have to limit my gluten free grains to one of two serving a day. So, needless to say I spend alot of time in a cubicle or in a kitchen. Crock pots are a girls best friend! I enjoy your blog. I just started a blog to get my recipes and reserch online. I've got a decent chili powder blend.

Unknown said...

Hi Tracee and welcome!

I also work full time and my son and I are both 100 percent SCD, so I'm right there with you.

I have one chili powder mix so far, but I'm not totally thrilled with it yet. :)

Let me know when you get your blog up and running so I can add it to my links! Thanks!

Susan

Caitlin said...

I am not a jerk, I am not Jamaican, and I certainly am not crocked!!!

ms. chicken
( a little lol from caitlin )

Comfy Tummy said...

hi,
i just came across your blog. this recipe looks really great. i love Jamaican Jerk Chicken. will have to try it. thanks for posting it.

Unknown said...

Caitlin, you are a goofball, missy. LOL.

Hi Comfy Tummy! I hope you like it; I've been making it every week for something like two months now. :)

Susan