Grilled Pickapeppa Chicken

  • Level: Easy
  • Yield: 4 to 6 servings
  • Total: 3 hr 5 min
  • Prep: 20 min
  • Inactive: 2 hr
  • Cook: 45 min
Mix together rum, pumpkin spice and Pickapeppa sauce with ginger, allspice, Scotch bonnet pepper and scallions for a chunky, jerk-inspired chicken marinade. Pickapeppa is a celebrated Jamaican condiment that adds a distinct punch to the perfectly charred, juicy grilled chicken.
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Ingredients

1/3 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup dark rum

3 tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 bunch scallions (white and green parts), roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 Scotch bonnet chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced

2 tablespoons Pickapeppa sauce (see Cook's Note)

1 tablespoon freshly grated peeled ginger

1 tablespoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 chicken halves (about 6 pounds)

Directions

  1. Pulse the vinegar, rum, brown sugar, scallions, garlic, chile, Pickapeppa sauce, ginger, allspice and pumpkin pie spice in a food processor to make a slightly chunky sauce. Heat the oil in a medium skillet and cook the sauce over medium heat, stirring, until the oil is absorbed and the sauce thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Cool.
  2. Rub the jerk paste all over the chicken halves, cover, and refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours.
  3. Prepare an outdoor grill with a medium-high fire for both direct and indirect grilling. Position a drip pan under the grate on indirect side. Place the chicken, skin side down, over direct heat and cook until skin crisps and has definite grill marks, about 4 minutes per side. Move to indirect heat over the drip pan and cook skin side up, covered, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 165 degrees F, about 35 to 40 minutes. Let the chicken rest about 5 minutes, then cut into pieces and serve.

Cook’s Note

Pickapeppa -- the celebrated Jamaican bottled sauce -- is a blend of tomatoes, onions, sugar, cane vinegar, mangoes, raisins, tamarind, peppers, and spices. Fans use this "Jamaican ketchup" on all manner of grilled foods. It adds a distinct punch to this version of the island's spicy jerk marinade.

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Jodi S.

Where's the use of pimento wood? You can't make authentic jerk chicken without smoking it over pimento wood. 

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