(8/10 people)

Takes about 3 hours to prepare not including 12 hours marinading

2 Large Chickens

Jerk Mix:
10g Sea Salt (1 tablespoon)
10g Whole Black Peppercorns (2 level tablespoons)
10g Allspice Berries (2 level tablespoons)
5g Mace (1 tablespoon)
1/2 Cinnamon Stick broken in pieces
6 Chopped Scallions
2 Cloves Garlic
2 Teaspoons Fresh Thyme
5 Bay Leaves finely chopped
2 Fresh Chillies Chopped
1Tablespoon Brown Sugar
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
30g Butter
Juice of 2 Limes
To make this recipe successfully you will need a coffee grinder to grind the spices.

Put the sea salt,peppercorns,allspice, mace and cinnamon stick into the coffee grinder and whizz until powder.
(If you can’t get whole spices use fresh ground but by weight rather than by spoonful)
Put all the other ingredients of the Jerk mix into a food processor and process until pureed, add in the ground spices and process until well mixed.

Joint the two chickens and slash all of the joints once ,with a sharp knife, into the bone. Tip the chicken joints and the spice mixture into a large bowl and , with very clean hands , massage the spices into the slashed chicken joints. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a cool place for at least 12 hours to give the spices time to penetrate right into the chicken.
To cook,
Line a large roasting tin with tin foil and put in the chicken and spices.
Heat the oven to Gas 4,175C,350F.
Cover the chicken with foil and bake at this temperature for one hour.
Now remove the foil and continue cooking at this temperature for 45 mts to brown ths chicken.

This is great party food, serve with a large bowl of rice or Cous Cous.

I give the ingredients for enough spices for two chickens because it isn’t worth making just enough for one.
You can keep half of the spice mixture covered in the fridge for 10 days or so and it will freeze well.

Jerk chicken is delicious cold , it makes great picnic food.