Simon Demands Jerk

I was given Jamie's 30 Minute Meals as a gift and I do enjoy the book. However I, like many others, do struggle to complete the recipes in 30 minutes: perhaps because my kitchen isn't equipped with certain mod-cons like microwaves.

In the past, I have enjoyed cooking and eating the Curry Rogan Josh and the Piri Piri Chicken with the accompanying Dressed Potatoes (the potatoes are pretty tasty). Didn't have much luck with the Trapani-Style Rigatoni - not sure who was to blame for this disaster me or Jamie.

Each time I pull this particular cook book out to have a browse my husband, Simon, demands I make the Killer Jerk Chicken. I always dismiss this recipe, generally out of laziness. To me there seems to be too large a number of ingredients (particularly ingredients not already in my cupboards). However, on Tuesday Simon moved to Dubai for a year to work, so it only seemed fair that I met at least some of his demands before he left.

Firstly, allow me to apologise, this recipe doesn't appear on the web (at least that I can find). I aim only to blog about my own recipes, which I can publish, or recipes that appear elsewhere on the web.

I only made the Killer Jerk Chicken aspect of this recipe. I served with wholemeal rice and a kos lettuce and cress salad.

Deviations from the recipe: I used chicken thighs not breasts, I didn't have golden rum so used dark rum instead and I didn't add any oil to the chicken before cooking. None of these were to the detriment of the recipe and with cooking you have to be dynamic, rigidly sticking to recipes is boring and you won't learn much.

I made the Jerk Sauce in my Magimix Food Processor (Cuisine Systeme 4200 - possibly my favourite kitchen gadget). Although this recipe could be made even if you don't have a food processor: I'd substitute the spring onions for grated onion and mix the Jerk Sauce ingredients in a bowl, easy.

The Jerk Sauce was delicious. I love this combination: crispy chicken, sauce with a kick and wholesome rice and salad.

What would I do differently next time: add more chilli to the sauce (for the chilli's I had and with my taste buds, I maybe needed another half a chilli or so) and not forget that I had also planned to serve the dish with corn (I found this still boiling on the hob 50 minutes after serving, ooppppsss).