Pineapple Salsa & Jamaican Jerk Chicken – Ya Mon!

Close your eyes and imagine a white sand beach, blue-bird sky, waves softly lapping and sunshine warming you to the core. That’s where FFTA’s Pineapple Salsa and Jamaican Jerk Chicken will take you: straight to the Caribbean.

And believe me, we are ready for just about anything to remind us of the tropics, or at least something other than winter, which keeps hanging on well into mid-May in the high Rockies. What better way to revive, revisit and recharge with some West Indian flavors!

This is our reality today and why John and I need the sweet West Indian food melodies playing piquant piccolos on our palates at dinner:

Witness more spring weather: John thought he’d go for a quick motorcycle ride up Berthoud Pass before dinner last night and this is what he recorded:

I have interpreted this recipe from The Turtle Bay Cookbook: A Feast of Flavors from Latin America and the Caribbean. Although written back in the ’90s. Google Books still describes these as, “Favorite recipes from Monterey Peninsula (California) restaurants.” I have enjoyed many of the recipes in this book and I recommend this oldie but goody. You will find you need to tweak your recipes here and there to use more modern techniques or products, e.g., in one recipe it asks you to boil sweetened coconut in water to make coconut milk. Nowadays you can buy coconut milk in a can — or in a coconut — in most grocery stores.

Pineapple Salsa & Jamaican Jerk Chicken – Ya Mon!

Serves 2

• 2 chicken breasts with skin on
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon peanut oil
• 1 tablespoon Jamaican Jerk Spices (recipe below)

Pineapple Salsa

Makes about 1 1/4 cups

• 1/2 cup diced fresh pineapple
• 1/4 cup diced jicama
• 1/4 diced tomato
• 1/2 serrano or jalapeno chile, minced
• 2 tablespoons diced red bell pepper
• 1 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Combine all the salsa ingredients together in a non-reactive bowl and refrigerate.

Jamaican Jerk Spices – Wet

Makes about 1/2 cup

Be Careful: Do not breathe in the spices or touch your eyes while making.

• 1 1/2 to 3 jalapenos or 1 habanero chile, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons ground allspice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoona ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons molasses
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 tablespoon chopped green onions
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1 teaspoon mango chutney, tamarind paste or molasses

Combine all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until well mixed and a paste forms. This mixture keeps in a sealed jar for about one week.

To prepare the chicken, rub the chicken with the peanut oil. Rub the Jamaican Jerk Spices over both sides of the chicken. Place in a plastic bag or sealable container and refrigerate for 4 hours to let the jerk flavors penetrate the meat.

To Grill: Add the chicken to a 500 degree Fahrenheit grill, skin side down, until it begins to crackle and crisp – about 3 minutes. Lower the heat to low/medium and turn the chicken and move it to a cooler part of the grill (the shelf) and continue cooking another 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the thickness of your chicken breast, or until the juices run clear.

Serve with pineapple salsa, beans and rice.