Allspice, thyme, scotch-bonnet heat (jalapeño-adjustable), and scallions blended into the Caribbean's most famous paste. Heat and perfume in equal measure.
2
🌶️ Jalapeño ›
or 1 scotch bonnet for the real thing
2 tsp
🟤 Cloves ›
ground allspice is traditional — use 1 tbsp if you have it
Mise en place
Before you start
Yield: Enough for 1 kg of chicken or pork
Prep checklist
Jalapeño — or 1 scotch bonnet for the real thing
Cloves — ground allspice is traditional — use 1 tbsp if you have it
Blend everything to a coarse dark paste.
Massage into chicken or pork and marinate 4–24 hours.
Grill over medium (not blazing) heat — jerk's sugar and spices want slow char, and the smoke is half the dish. Rest, chop, serve with rice and peas.
💡
True jerk is smoked over pimento wood. A handful of soaked allspice berries on the coals gets you surprisingly close.
Taste before serving and adjust salt and acid — the last 30 seconds of seasoning matter more than any single ingredient.
Afterwards
Keep, reheat & pair
Storage
Unused marinade keeps 5 days refrigerated. Once it touches raw protein, discard it — or boil 3 full minutes to serve as a sauce.
Freezing
Freeze protein IN the marinade: it seasons as it thaws. 2 months.
Reheating
Marinades aren't reheated — but boil any used marinade for 3 full minutes if you want to serve it as a sauce (it touched raw protein).
Make ahead
Mix up to 5 days ahead and refrigerate; marinate proteins in zip bags so cleanup is nothing.
Wine pairing
Follows the finished dish.
Beer pairing
Follows the finished dish.
On the plate
Serve it with
Sides
·
Applies to whatever you marinate
Garnish
Reserve a spoonful (before it touches raw meat) to finish the cooked dish
How long should I marinate?
Acidic marinades: 30 minutes–4 hours for thin cuts (acid "cooks" the surface mushy past that), up to 12 for thick cuts. Yogurt and enzyme marinades: 4–24 hours. Salt-forward soy marinades: 1–24 hours. Seafood: 15–30 minutes only.
Can I reuse the marinade as a sauce?
Only after a hard 3-minute boil — it touched raw protein. Better habit: reserve a clean portion before the meat goes in.
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