Jamaican Grilled Chicken and Plantains with Rice & Peas

I’ve been catching some flak lately for the drastic increase in frequency of my restaurant posts and the impact it has had on my recipe posting.  Trust, the skills still exist, I just don’t showcase them as often. I’ve made a lot of repeat dishes lately so not as much to post about.  The past week has been filled with adventures in the kitchen though, because my latest kitchen toy arrived.  My cast iron grill!! The thing about living in a wonderful apartment building in NY is that even though we have outdoor space, we are not allowed to grill out there.  It’s summer though and I feel like breaking the rules.  Rather than doing that though, I bought a grill I could use in my apartment.  So far so good! I started by throwing anything I could on the grill.

The shrimp took a while but that’s because I didn’t let the grill heat up.  The corn was oh so sweet and tasted incredible. I then decided it was time to actually make some food so I started playing with my Epicurious app and found a recipe for Grilled Chicken and Plantains, Jamaican Style.  I decided that if I could get some grill lines on my chicken I would be a happy camper.

I missed a few ingredients in the recipe so I think mine came out a little different. I was happy with the taste, but I’d recommend following it as written.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 tablespoon finely chopped onion

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

1 large garlic clove, peeled

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

4 boneless chicken breast halves with skin

2 semi-ripe plantains, peeled, cut on diagonal into 1/3- to 1/2-inch-thick slices

I prepared this indoors, but the recipe was created with an outdoor grill in mind. If you’re using an indoor grill, make sure to turn it on while mixing your ingredients so it’ll be nice and hot by the time you’re ready to cook.  Puree molasses and next 7 ingredients in blender until smooth. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Spoon 1/4 cup sauce into pie dish. Add chicken; turn to coat.

Marinate 15 minutes. Grill chicken, skin side down. 

The cook time will depend on whether you’re using an outdoor or indoor grill and also how hot your grill gets.  You should turn it after about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it but make sure it’s cooked thoroughly before serving. No one wants to find that their food isn’t cooked all the way. The flavor in the chicken is incredible - I don't know if it's necessarily "jamaican" but I know it's delicious!  I couldn’t stop there though so I also made sure to cook some Rice & Peas.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon Vegetable oil

1 medium onion coarsely chopped

1 large jalapeno seeded and minced

1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice (10 ounces)

1 14-oz can unsweetened coconut milk

2/3 cup Water

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 15-oz can kidney beans

Hot sauce

In a large saucepan, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the onion and jalapeno and cook over moderate heat until barely softened, about 5 minutes. 

Stir in the rice.

Add the coconut milk, water and salt and bring to a boil. Stir in the beans, cover and simmer over low heat until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and fluff the rice with a fork. The rice is pretty spicy, especially if you leave the seeds in the jalapenos. YUM!

Still doubting my skills? Didn’t think so!

Hungry yet?

Dutchy Part Deux

On such a beautiful day, lunch outside is a must.  Lunch outside with Mr. G is a plus! I convinced Mr. G to try out the Dutchy.  As I said last time, I would go back for the curry chicken.

It was worth it :-) The chicken was very tender and juicy.  It wasn't as spicy as the jerk chicken which is unfortunate, but it was still extremely yummy.

I ordered a mini and Mr. G ordered a meal.  It was very enjoyable.  The mini was more than enough for me. I ordered a chicken pattie but I didn't have space in my tummy.  I ended up handing it over to my younger brother later in the afternoon.

Heading to RoCo (ha! who calls it that?!) tonight so stay tuned for at least one mama bear meal.

MoBay

After experiencing The Artist Is Present, (as Mr. K put it, we shared something special) we grabbed cupcakes at Crumbs then went to get ready for dinner and Ovo!  I recommended 5:30 or 6pm reservations for MoBay, because I am so skeptical about their service.  Luckily, this time was not as bad as most.  We were slow to get ready, mostly because we were still fully from lunch and cupcakes.

We decided to walk the 1/2 mile to the restaurant so that way we would burn off some of the lunch calories and make room for dinner!  When we arrived at 6:15, we waited at the door for a couple of minutes before anyone approached us.  Finally, a waiter or possibly busy boy walked over and asked how many.  We told him 3 and he walked away.  We expected him to come back, but instead he stood by the far end of the bar. Next a man that seemed like the owner or manager walked over and asked again how many.  We told him 3, then after giving Mr. K a strange look, he walked away looked in the back dining room then walked back over to us.  He said he was expecting two large parties to arrive and we would have to wait 15 minutes for a table in the dining room.  We told him we had a reservation.  He offered to sit us in the lounge/bar area.  We accepted the table, even though it was by the door.  After that little incident, it was pretty much smooth sailing.

Our waitress was very attentive and checked on us multiple times throughout the meal.  She started by bringing us cornbread with a pineapple cream sauce on top.  The cornbread was still warm which made it all the better.  The sauce was GROSS.  It tasted like pineapple and old cream.

I ordered the Jerk Shrimp, normally an appetizer, as an entree.  Boy was I thrilled.  Unlike the Dutchy's jerk sauce, this was plentiful.  My shrimp came in the same dish as my rice and peas and plantain.  Again, this rice and peas was much better than the Dutchy and it helped that the jerk sauce was easy to mix in.

The shrimp was fresh, tender and well soaked in the spicy and tangy sauce.  I also tasted Mr. K's jerk chicken and it was fall off the bone tender with the right amount of kick.  I wish Mobay would bottle it's sauce.  Despite still being full from our earlier meals, I finished every last morsel because it was too good to leave on the plate.

Overall, a delicious meal at Mobay despite the initially shoddy treatment at the door.  Oh btw, neither of the large parties ever arrived.  Hmmph.

The Jamaican Dutchy

Another meal at my desk, but at least I know the next one will be at The Stadium! Busier day today but not busy enough to prevent me from getting my eyebrows threaded at lunch and grabbing lunch from the Dutchy.

I've walked by the Dutchy's cart at 51st and 7th a number of times over the last couple of years, but never had time or the desire to wait in line and get some lunch.  I must admit that on more than one occasion, I have stopped for a few seconds to watch whatever video was playing on the flat screen tv attached to the Dutchy's cart.  That's right a flat screen TV, on a cart...gotta love New York!  Today, there was no TV, so maybe that's why the line wasn't very long.  Either way, I win.

I ordered a mini meal of jerk chicken, rice and peas and plantain (of course).  I also ordered a chicken patty...just in case the mini was not enough.  Turns out the mini was just right, at least the right portion.  This was definitely not the best meal I've eaten, what did I really expect from a cart though.

   

The rice and peas were extremely dry and it did not help that the man who served the meal only drizzled a few drops of jerk sauce on the chicken.  The chicken was dry, but definitely well seasoned and very spicy.  The main problem with the meal was that you had to deal with the bones in the chicken.  I've heard that the curry chicken doesn't have as many bones so I might try that next time...that's right, I plan to go back.  When I go back, I definitely will not order the patty.

Look at how greasy that bag is?! Gross.  The worst part is, as greasy as the bag was, the patty was extremely dry!  I had to take big gulps of water to wash it down.  Yuck.