Jamaican Jerked Chicken Breasts

Note from Cheri: The recipe and text below is reprinted, with permission, from Where There's Smoke There's Flavor by Richard Langer, 2001, Little Brown. This book teaches you everything you need to know to turn your backyard grill into a smoker cooker, including lots of delicious recipes. Click here to learn more about the book and for more sample recipes!

In the hot and spicy category, Jamaican jerked dishes have a long and enviable history of popularity on their native island. Only recently, however, has this fiery cinnamon-accented fare gained similar favor abroad. The traditional cinnamon and allspice seasoning of Jamaican jerk, often with considerable understatement described as "assertive," originally complemented meat preserved by sun drying on that tropical Caribbean isle, the spices serving to mask the odor and taste of victuals gone by much as they accomplished the same objective in Europe during the Middle Ages.

Today jerk seasoning is used purely for flavoring, and only the pleasant smells remain. The tamarind concentrate listed in the recipe is available in Asian markets, often in the form of the soup base canh chua me, which is enhanced with a bit of onion, shrimp powder, and other complementary flavorings.

Another form in which it’s found is the Thai keo me, or candied tamarind, spiced with sugar, salt, and hot chili pepper. Keo me is a surprisingly good candy — our kids love it — but if you use it in cooking, make sure you cut the pieces in half, for quite often they contain a seed.

Habanero chilies are now found at most supermarkets. The established way to mix jerk seasoning is by slowly pounding the spices to a powder with a mortar and pestle. Although there are times when I would endorse this preferred method of crushing spices, those used in jerk cooking are so flavorsome that I find a food mill can be substituted for the more old-fashioned instrument without detriment to their taste.

4 to 6 chicken breasts, about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pounds total The Rub 2 medium-size onions, chopped 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar 4 teaspoons ground allspice 2 teaspoons ground black pepper 2 teaspoons ground cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg The Sauce 2 cups chicken stock or 2 chicken bouillon cubes dissolved in 2 cups water 1/3 cup molasses 2 tablespoons tamarind concentrate 1 tablespoon minced fresh gingerroot a sliver of Habanero chili (optional)

Serves 4 to 6 Start the fire in your smoker about 1 1/2 to 2 hours before dinnertime. While the coals are heating, turn your attention to the chicken. Rinse the chicken breasts and pat them dry with a paper towel. Set them out on a platter that will give you some working room when you’re seasoning them. Put the onion, brown sugar, allspice, black and cayenne peppers, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a food mill and mix until you have a rough paste. Rub the paste into the chicken breasts, coating them thoroughly. You’ll find that even after you’ve covered the chicken pieces lavishly in spices, there will be some rub left. Scoop it off the platter into a small bowl and reserve it for the sauce. Transfer the chicken breasts one at a time to a piece of waxed paper laid out on your cutting board or butcher block. Cover the chicken with a second sheet of paper, then, using the smooth side of a meat mallet, whack the chicken breast until it’s about half as thick as it was when you started and the seasoning is well impressed into it. Add some wet smoking wood to the fire pan of your smoker and transfer the chicken from the waxed paper to the grill, placing about half the reserved rub in the smoker’s water pan along with the hot water before putting the lid on the cooker. Smoke the breasts for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, keeping the cooking temperature between 200° and 220 °F. While the chicken is smoking, start the sauce to go with it. Pour the chicken stock or bouillon into a small stainless steel or flame-proof ceramic saucepan and add the reserved rub along with the molasses, tamarind concentrate, and ginger. Stir well and simmer until the sauce is reduced by about one-half. For those with an asbestos mouth, a smidgen of Habanero chili can be added, as it is in Jamaica. But be careful with this one. It really is dangerously hot. Serve the pungent sauce on the side. Note: If you're new to smoking, click here for indirect smoking instructions.