Recipes

Jerk chicken with mango salsa

Donal Skehan’s jerk chicken with mango salsa

Donal Skehan
Sat Jun 24 2017 - 06:07
Serves: 6
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 0 hr 45 mins
Ingredients
  • Serves 6
  • For the chicken:
  • 1 large free-range chicken, cut into breasts, wings and legs
  • 2 scotch bonnet chillis, finely minced
  • 3 limes
  • 4 garlic cloves, finely minced
  • 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, minced
  • 3 tsp of all spice
  • 1 tsp of ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp of dried oregano
  • 6 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 2 tbsp of honey
  • 6 tbsp of tomato ketchup
  • For the salsa:
  • 2 ripe mangos, peeled, stone removed and roughly chopped in chunks
  • 1/2 cucumber, centre removed and diced
  • 4 spring onions, finely chopped
  • 1 small chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 2 tbsp of olive oil
  • Sea salt and ground black pepper
  • A good handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

This Jamaican marinade/rub is guaranteed to make you feel totally tropical and infuse the chicken meat with intense and rounded heat. It’s worth sourcing scotch bonnet chillies for this, their intense heat is what sets this marinade apart. For the salsa, make sure to source tender and sweet mangos that just hold their shape.

Place the chicken in a large resealable bag and add in the rest of the chicken ingredients. Seal the bag and give it a good shake until everything is completely combined and the chicken is evenly coated. Leave in the fridge to marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight if you have the time.

Combine all the ingredients for the salsa (except the coriander) in a mixing bowl and season with sea salt and ground black pepper. Mix through the coriander when you’re ready to serve.

Remove the chicken from the fridge 30 minutes before you are ready to cook. Get the barbecue to a medium-high heat and cook the chicken pieces for 15 minutes turning only once during the cooking time, until the chicken is completely cooked through.

The different pieces will take slightly different cooking times so a good way to check if they are cooked is to insert a meat thermometer at the thickest part and check that it registers 82.2°C for drumsticks and thighs and 73.9°C for breasts. Serve the chicken with the mango salsa.

LATEST STORIES