Satisfy Your Jerk Chicken Fix

When you get a craving for jerk chicken, it needs to be satisfied immediately. It becomes not just a food you want, but the only food you want. To answer that need for sweet, savoury, spicy meat, I have two go-to spots in Ottawa: Bananas in the east; and The Caribbean Cruiser representing the westside. As spoiled as I am with these choices, I rely on a version of the recipe found in one of my favourite cookbooks for the days I don't want to go out in public to eat; it may take a while to complete this dish, but it is worth it. It definitely puts to shame the "jerk" roast chicken offering currently being sold at a local supermarket; your craving deserves better than that.

Ingredients:

20 whole allspice berries
10 sprigs thyme
5 whole cloves
3 star anise pods
2 habaneros, seeds and ribs removed, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled, roughly chopped
1 bottle cola
juice of 1 lemon and 1 lime
1 whole nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick
1 5 cm piece ginger
1.4 kg chicken thighs, bone in, skin on
170 g packed brown sugar
15 g kosher salt
15 g browning seasoning, optional (look for it in the "international" section of your supermarket)
canola oil

1.  Place the chicken thighs in a bowl and cover them with kosher salt. Pour cola in the bowl until the chicken is covered, stirring to dissolve the salt. Place the entire bowl into the refrigerator, covering it with plastic wrap for 12-24 hours.
2.  Combine and grind until fine the nutmeg, allspice, star anise, cinnamon stick, and cloves using a blender (a spice grinder or mortar and pestle can also be used). Place the ground-up spices in a small pan over low heat to toast, moving them constantly for about 2 minutes. When the spices are nice and fragrant, pour them into a blender.
3.  Cut the ginger root in half lengthwise, with the skin still on. Char the root until the skin is blackened (on the grill, under the broiler, in the toaster oven - you figure it out), then roughly chop it, and add it to the spices in the blender, along with the brown sugar, the citrus juices, the peppers, the garlic, the browning seasoning (if using), the thyme, and the salt, and blend on high until everything is smooth.
4.  Take the chicken from the fridge, and place the chicken in a large resealable bag. Add the marinade, seal the bag, and allow the meat to get covered. Put the bag in the fridge and allow the thighs to marinate for at least 8 hours or up to two days.
5.  Get your grill ready for medium-high heat. Grease the grates or your grill pan with the canola oil, and place the thighs, skin down onto the grill over direct heat or in the pan. Cook for about ten minutes, or until the skin releases itself from the cooking surface. Flip the thighs over, and cook for another ten minutes, or until the juices run clear, or you get a reading of 74°C from a meat thermometer.

My Favourite Cookbooks

The local literary world is buzzing about "Ottawa Cooks", a cookbook featuring recipes from some of the city's best chefs. While I usually rely on the Internet when it comes to finding recipes, there's something about cookbooks that still appeals to me. Here are some of my favourites:

	Cooking for Geeks My love for this cookbook can be found throughout this blog, and for good reason, as it reads less like a cookbook and more like an interesting textbook. It's the perfect book for people who consider the kitchen their personal laboratory and should be required reading for anyone teaching an elementary or high school Home Ec class.
	DC Super Heroes Super Healthy Cookbook This is the first cookbook I've ever followed a recipe from. Given how popular superheroes are these days (in spite of things like "Batman vs. Superman", ironically enough), it's a bit surprising it is still out of print.
	The 4-Hour Chef For people who want to do things better, and do it in as short a time possible, look no further than this book, not surprisingly from the author of "The 4-Hour Workweek".
	The Joy of Cooking You could get by with just this cookbook for the rest of your life and be happy with your results. A must-have for a cook of any skill level, whether you're a millennial, a baby boomer, or anyone in between.
	The Laws of Cooking A protege of the mad scientist of the cooking world Alton Brown, Justin Warner breaks down cooking into combinations based on familiar foods (ie. bitter+fat+sweet=the Law of Coffer, Cream, and Sugar), that teach why certain flavors work better than others, with recipes that force you out of your cooking comfort zone whether you like to or not.