The Art of Jerking Chicken: A Guide to Perfectly Spiced Meat

When it comes to cooking chicken, Jamaican jerk seasoning is a popular choice for its bold and aromatic flavors. The secret to achieving perfectly spiced meat lies in understanding the traditional technique behind jerking, which involves poking holes in the meat to allow more flavor to penetrate.

To begin, preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. This will provide a gentle heat that allows the chicken to cook evenly without drying out. Next, take a whole chicken and remove its giblets. Rinse it under cold water, pat it dry with paper towels, and then use a sharp knife or kitchen shears to spatchcock the chicken. If you're new to cooking chicken this way, don't worry if it looks intimidating – it's actually quite straightforward.

Now that your chicken is ready, take a tablespoon of butter and rub it all over its surface, making sure to get some under the skin as well. Next, apply your favorite jerk seasoning blend evenly across the meat, making sure to cover every inch of its surface. If you want to take your jerking game to the next level, try using a homemade spice blend or experimenting with different flavor combinations.

Once your chicken is seasoned, it's time to cook it. Place the chicken in a hot oven and roast for 10 minutes on either side, while you prepare your side dish – in this case, rice and peas (or red beans, depending on your preference). The key to perfectly cooked rice is to use long-grain varieties that can hold their shape and absorb flavors easily.

Combine one cup of uncooked rice with two cups of water and a pinch of salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cover it with a tight-fitting lid. Let the rice simmer for about 20-25 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed, stirring occasionally. As you wait for your rice to cook, take a few moments to prepare your marinade – in this case, a mixture of chicken stock, coconut milk, and leftover jerk seasoning.

When your rice is cooked, combine it with the juices from the oven (as they'll be dripping onto the rice while it cooks). Now, add some flavor to your dish by stirring in some fresh herbs, lime juice, or even a sprinkle of chili flakes. The result should be a perfectly balanced flavor profile that showcases the deliciousness of jerk chicken.

But what's really key to achieving great results is understanding the science behind why we pierce holes in the meat. When you poke holes in the meat, it allows more marinade and seasonings to penetrate deeper into the flesh, creating a more evenly seasoned dish. This technique can also help prevent overcooking – by allowing excess moisture to escape, you'll end up with tender and juicy meat.

So there you have it – the art of jerking chicken in all its glory. Whether you're a seasoned cook or just starting out, remember that practice makes perfect, so don't be afraid to experiment with different flavors and techniques until you find your signature jerk seasoning blend. And if you do happen to try using beans instead of peas (or vice versa), feel free to share your experiences in the comments below – we're always eager to hear from our audience.

In the next video, we'll be diving into more chicken-related topics, including how to cook chicken to different temperatures and some fun ideas for leftover chicken. Be sure to tune in to see what other culinary adventures await us!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enlet me tell you the three things that you're going to get out of this video number one how to make a fantastic jerk marinade number two how to spatchcock a chicken and number three how to make the most incredible rice and beans using that chicken it's going to start with a marinade which okay spray up from we're going to cheat slightly with jerk seasoning okay which already has a blend of kind of chili and allspice a lot of herbs like thyme garlic onion things like that but then we're going to take it to a whole nother level a little bit okay so it starts off with the jerk seasoning and to it we're going to add tomato puree honey freshly chopped chili garlic and although allspice is in here we're going to add an extra teaspoon of allspice in to give that real kind of all slices jerk label so spatchcocking is a skill that you can learn that actually makes it easier to cook a whole chicken quicker certainly quicker easier basically buying a whole chicken is the cheapest way to buy chicken you can pretty much buy a whole chicken for the similar sort prices a couple of races and maybe thigh absolutely plus we all know the kind of chicken everyone liked it might have a piri piri sauce on it it is a one that your Nando my nan does yes yeah it's very popular and for that reason you're going to want to give it a go at home and it couldn't be simpler all you need to do is you've got your whole bird and then basically turn it over and cut out the backbone okay that's all you can do cattle the spine you can see what they call the pastures nose light end and basically just to the left of that and just to the right of that you cut down sharp scissors or the human eye whatever you're more comfortable with tape out shut up so basically the backbone comes out you can get rid of any extra excess fat because you can see sometimes you'll have that just that that is just chicken fat don't necessary need that much fat plenty of skin on it anyway and then turn it over and flatten it out and you get the wings you get the whole legs and everything is exposed to heat at the same time which is why it cooks quicker now at this point I'll say Tiffany yeah you stay clean but basically we're going to take this pace let it down with a couple of tablespoons of oil and rub it all in and around that chicken to the inside and the underside as well as the outside and all the skin now that's kind of what you're looking for by doing that some of the extra paper is going to fall into another dish which we're going to use in a moment when you've grabbed the tray from underneath because the best way to cook this is on a rack over a dish and there we go we've got ourselves a chicken now I said you were going to stay clean so if you can do a generous pinch of salt and pepper on top of the skin and the zest of that lime that smells incredible you got the fragrance of the line that sweetness to the honey and all of the spice now the last thing we do to jerk it is to poke holes in it because to jerk something when it comes to your meat is to poke holes in it and that enables more flavor to get into oh well let me go exert this it's a Jamaican spice blend you put this to jerk it had a verb - jerk - jerk something is to basically poke holes in it and to enable more of the flavor to penetrate the meat I can I appreciate where that penetrates work on is called a hole you're on your own mode to incorporate into a recipe we're joking but it's a fact to poke holes is to jerk I hate the Pearson shame is left it's now a solo act nope go faster just have you finished breasts legs and thighs all jerked both with a skewer and with the jerk spice blend it now goes into a pan with a knob of butter we're going to actually pre cook it 10 minutes on either side whilst we get our side dish ready outside this you guys said we should try and level up rice and Pete and confusing step number one is that there's no peas in it there's beans those red kidney beans and I haven't been able to find an explanation online as to why so if anyone can comment down below and let us know why we're using beans instead of peas but calling it peas instead of beans that would be great I think we should crowdsource an answer that I have no idea what I do know is that long grain rice a tin of drain kidney beans yeah by the way the rice we have washed in cold water combined with chicken stock coconut milk and our leftover marinade becomes delicious when it's cooked through any other and better still we're going to place our rack over the top so you also get the chicken juices dripping into our rice and now it needs about half an hour which is perfect because that's the same length of time as the rice underneath with preheated oven to 180 degrees Celsius and this needs to go in for about half an hour it will depend on the size of your chicken but this one's just under 2 kilo chicken half an hour should be fine where they're going to leave it to rest before we tuck in if we got it right the chicken should be perfect roasted the juices will drip into a rice which be perfectly cooked and absorbed and delicious look what done you could smell this right now you would be as happy as we are you've got the kind of blackened top for all the juiciness stays in the chicken and that does drip dry off into our rice and lo if we just fluff this up now the perfectly cooked rice all the flavors some of that jerk marinade we put in there the beans slight creaminess from the coconut milk I mean there's no piece in there it still looks fabulous you need to have a piece with Eve I need answers that's what I need now you can just serve it straight to table like that what we're going to do is pile it onto a plate and we're going to serve the whole chicken on top so we've shown you in this video how to spatchcock chicken but what I'd really like to know is what is your favorite way to cook chicken because I think there are hundreds of ways to cook chicken different parts so comment down below let us know what are your favourite bits of the chicken and how do you cook it when you put it in what flavors do you add to it going hi Jo hi let's get around it more the flavors that are in it that's lime chili some of the herbs you'll find in the jerk seasoning some thyme it's a mountain of food incredible the perfect kind of dish to share and because the way it's cooked from the timing is all about the same super easy to is our jerk chicken with rice and peas sorted first off rice and peas red beans great I'm going to try these rice and tea Shang beans mine isn't piece stroke beans I can go to the chicken but I'm rice is amazing it's a great on them blog channel night no we haven't cooked this jet chicken like over coals or him oh I can't I'm Nene yet can barely eat it oh no no such succulent juicy meat there's flavor in that bit and that bit is really difficult to get flavoring it's citrusy cooking it on the bone you know why why jerked it okay and that is to poke holes in it and what that means is those holes we stabbed into the meat I've already the juices I mean what's that word that is the verb to jerk yeah we've already have a holes on these occasions make it up we're going to keep eating this and you guys are going to come back on Sunday for an ultimate chicken battle oh yeah oh yeah Mike's gonna lose about time I lost one to be fair click on the left if you missed our last video or click on the right video for one of our favoriteslet me tell you the three things that you're going to get out of this video number one how to make a fantastic jerk marinade number two how to spatchcock a chicken and number three how to make the most incredible rice and beans using that chicken it's going to start with a marinade which okay spray up from we're going to cheat slightly with jerk seasoning okay which already has a blend of kind of chili and allspice a lot of herbs like thyme garlic onion things like that but then we're going to take it to a whole nother level a little bit okay so it starts off with the jerk seasoning and to it we're going to add tomato puree honey freshly chopped chili garlic and although allspice is in here we're going to add an extra teaspoon of allspice in to give that real kind of all slices jerk label so spatchcocking is a skill that you can learn that actually makes it easier to cook a whole chicken quicker certainly quicker easier basically buying a whole chicken is the cheapest way to buy chicken you can pretty much buy a whole chicken for the similar sort prices a couple of races and maybe thigh absolutely plus we all know the kind of chicken everyone liked it might have a piri piri sauce on it it is a one that your Nando my nan does yes yeah it's very popular and for that reason you're going to want to give it a go at home and it couldn't be simpler all you need to do is you've got your whole bird and then basically turn it over and cut out the backbone okay that's all you can do cattle the spine you can see what they call the pastures nose light end and basically just to the left of that and just to the right of that you cut down sharp scissors or the human eye whatever you're more comfortable with tape out shut up so basically the backbone comes out you can get rid of any extra excess fat because you can see sometimes you'll have that just that that is just chicken fat don't necessary need that much fat plenty of skin on it anyway and then turn it over and flatten it out and you get the wings you get the whole legs and everything is exposed to heat at the same time which is why it cooks quicker now at this point I'll say Tiffany yeah you stay clean but basically we're going to take this pace let it down with a couple of tablespoons of oil and rub it all in and around that chicken to the inside and the underside as well as the outside and all the skin now that's kind of what you're looking for by doing that some of the extra paper is going to fall into another dish which we're going to use in a moment when you've grabbed the tray from underneath because the best way to cook this is on a rack over a dish and there we go we've got ourselves a chicken now I said you were going to stay clean so if you can do a generous pinch of salt and pepper on top of the skin and the zest of that lime that smells incredible you got the fragrance of the line that sweetness to the honey and all of the spice now the last thing we do to jerk it is to poke holes in it because to jerk something when it comes to your meat is to poke holes in it and that enables more flavor to get into oh well let me go exert this it's a Jamaican spice blend you put this to jerk it had a verb - jerk - jerk something is to basically poke holes in it and to enable more of the flavor to penetrate the meat I can I appreciate where that penetrates work on is called a hole you're on your own mode to incorporate into a recipe we're joking but it's a fact to poke holes is to jerk I hate the Pearson shame is left it's now a solo act nope go faster just have you finished breasts legs and thighs all jerked both with a skewer and with the jerk spice blend it now goes into a pan with a knob of butter we're going to actually pre cook it 10 minutes on either side whilst we get our side dish ready outside this you guys said we should try and level up rice and Pete and confusing step number one is that there's no peas in it there's beans those red kidney beans and I haven't been able to find an explanation online as to why so if anyone can comment down below and let us know why we're using beans instead of peas but calling it peas instead of beans that would be great I think we should crowdsource an answer that I have no idea what I do know is that long grain rice a tin of drain kidney beans yeah by the way the rice we have washed in cold water combined with chicken stock coconut milk and our leftover marinade becomes delicious when it's cooked through any other and better still we're going to place our rack over the top so you also get the chicken juices dripping into our rice and now it needs about half an hour which is perfect because that's the same length of time as the rice underneath with preheated oven to 180 degrees Celsius and this needs to go in for about half an hour it will depend on the size of your chicken but this one's just under 2 kilo chicken half an hour should be fine where they're going to leave it to rest before we tuck in if we got it right the chicken should be perfect roasted the juices will drip into a rice which be perfectly cooked and absorbed and delicious look what done you could smell this right now you would be as happy as we are you've got the kind of blackened top for all the juiciness stays in the chicken and that does drip dry off into our rice and lo if we just fluff this up now the perfectly cooked rice all the flavors some of that jerk marinade we put in there the beans slight creaminess from the coconut milk I mean there's no piece in there it still looks fabulous you need to have a piece with Eve I need answers that's what I need now you can just serve it straight to table like that what we're going to do is pile it onto a plate and we're going to serve the whole chicken on top so we've shown you in this video how to spatchcock chicken but what I'd really like to know is what is your favorite way to cook chicken because I think there are hundreds of ways to cook chicken different parts so comment down below let us know what are your favourite bits of the chicken and how do you cook it when you put it in what flavors do you add to it going hi Jo hi let's get around it more the flavors that are in it that's lime chili some of the herbs you'll find in the jerk seasoning some thyme it's a mountain of food incredible the perfect kind of dish to share and because the way it's cooked from the timing is all about the same super easy to is our jerk chicken with rice and peas sorted first off rice and peas red beans great I'm going to try these rice and tea Shang beans mine isn't piece stroke beans I can go to the chicken but I'm rice is amazing it's a great on them blog channel night no we haven't cooked this jet chicken like over coals or him oh I can't I'm Nene yet can barely eat it oh no no such succulent juicy meat there's flavor in that bit and that bit is really difficult to get flavoring it's citrusy cooking it on the bone you know why why jerked it okay and that is to poke holes in it and what that means is those holes we stabbed into the meat I've already the juices I mean what's that word that is the verb to jerk yeah we've already have a holes on these occasions make it up we're going to keep eating this and you guys are going to come back on Sunday for an ultimate chicken battle oh yeah oh yeah Mike's gonna lose about time I lost one to be fair click on the left if you missed our last video or click on the right video for one of our favorites\n"