Jerk Chicken Breasts

w/ Rice & Peas, Sweet Potato Salad and Fried Plantain

Serves 2

Cooking Time ~40 minutes (plus marinating time)

This is a great summer dish. It's slightly sacrilege to do this with Chicken Breasts and not on a barbecue, but if you grill the Chicken under a grill you'll get the same charred smokey effect. For best results, you want to marinate the Chicken for 24h. If you don't have the time, 4h will do.

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Ingredients:

Jerk Marinade:

3x Spring Onions

2x Scotch Bonnet Chillies

1x Garlic Clove

1tbsp Soy Sauce

1tbsp Lime Juice

2tsp Ground Allspice

1tsp Ground Bay Leaves

1tsp Ground Cinnamon

1tbsp Brown Sugar

1tsp Dried Thyme

2x Chicken Breasts

Sweet Potato Salad:

2x Sweet Potatoes

2x Large Gherkins

1x Stick Celery

2x Spring Onions

1tsp Paprika

75ml Mayonnaise

2tbsp Natural Yoghurt

1tbsp White Wine Vinegar

1tsp Grated Lemon Zest

Rice & Peas:

½ Tin Kidney Beans (drained and rinsed)

3x Spring Onions

1x Red Chilli

1x Garlic Clove

75g Creamed Coconut (chopped)

300ml Boiling Water

1 sprig Fresh Thyme

250g Long Grain Rice

Fried Plantain:

1x Plantain

Ground Ginger

Chilli Powder

Vegetable Oil

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Method:

Start off with the Jerk Marinade. Chop your Spring Onions and Scotch Bonnets (de-seed these unless you're feeling brave). Add them to a blender/food processor with all of the other Ingredients (minus the Chicken) and some Salt & Pepper.

Whizz these for a good while - it may take some time to come together so you could add a splash of Oil if this is the case.

Coat the Chicken in the Marinade, cover with Cling Film and pop in the fridge for 24h.

For the Sweet Potato Salad, dice your Sweet Potatoes and add them to some salted Boiling Water. Boil these for around 15/20 minutes or until tender. You want the same texture as a regular Potato Salad so make a judgement call. When they're a good level, drain them and run them under Cold Water for a while to stop the cooking process. You want these cold so keep doing this, drain them again and chuck them in the fridge while you get on with the rest of the salad.

Preheat your Grill on your Oven to about 200ºc - this is for the Chicken later.

For the rest of the salad, dice your Spring Onions, Celery and Gherkins and add them to a bowl with the Paprika. Season with Salt and Pepper.

In a separate bowl, mix together the Mayo, Yogurt, Vinegar and Lemon Zest.

When you're satisfied the Potatoes are cool enough, mix all your ingredients together with some additional Fresh Red Chillies and Fresh Parsley for colour. Add the Mayo/Yogurt mixture in slowly as you don't want to overdo it. It should look like this:

Now for the Rice and Peas.

Dissolve the Creamed Coconut with the Boiling Water and add to the Rice. I couldn't find Creamed Coconut anywhere last time I made this so I used Coconut Cream. It's not the same but it will do fine - you'll just have to cook the Rice down for longer. Add the Thyme to the Rice too.

While the Rice is cooking, fry off the Chilli, Garlic and Spring Onions in a pan. Once fried, mix with the Kidney Beans and set aside.

When your Rice has about 10 minutes to cook, get the Chicken on an oiled baking tray and place under the grill. You'll want it pretty close to the grill to emulate the charred smokiness you get from a barbecue.

The Chicken should take about 5-7 minutes on each side, but just cut one of the breasts open to be sure when it's done.

When your Rice is done, mix the Kidney Bean mixture into the Rice. Keep stirring as you want the starchiness of the Beans to mix with the Rice. Put a lid on this and keep it to one side.

Lastly, the Plantain. Slice it up and add a some Ground Ginger and Chilli Powder to the slices. Get a frying pan filled with Vegetable Oil on a fairly high heat and drop the Plantain in. You'll probably want 3-4 minutes on each side but keep a close eye on it as it does turn pretty quickly. Once it's done, place on some kitchen roll to drain off and add Salt.

Plate up! Slice the Chicken and lay across your Rice. Add the Plantain and Potato Salad and tuck in.

Enjoy. If you fancy sharing your effort, then please tag @wellgoodgrub on Instagram.

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