Jerk Chicken with Cilantro Mango Salsa

While on our honeymoon, our boat was re-routed after a hurricane hit St. Maarten and we ended up going to Jamaica for half a day. While there, we ate at a tasty little local place called the Pork Pit. They had some of the best tasting Jamaican Jerk Pork/Chicken that either of us ever tasted.

In attempts to re-created the tasty memory of what we shared together, and, to complete my goal of making 3 gluten free receipes this month, I made this yummy Jerk Chicken recipe last night. It has a nice blend of the spices/brown sugar and enough punch to satisfy Chas' desire for fire hot food. The mango salsa was a nice touch because, for wimps like me, it tamed down the hotness of the jerk spices.



Enjoy!

Recipe from www.glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com

JERK CHICKEN WITH CILANTRO MANGO SALSA (from Karen Robertson's always-great Cooking Gluten-free!, p. 59):


2 whole chicken breasts
1/ 2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/4 cup brown sugar, tightly packed


Combine all the spices. Coat the chicken breasts in the spices. Ideally, you should grill them. But since I don't have a barbeque, or a place to keep it, I sauteed them in the pan with good olive oil. Damned juicy. Especially good if you top it with the cilantro/mango salsa:


2 cups peeled, chopped mango
1/4 cup chopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
juice from 1 lime.


BLACK BEAN SALAD (ALSO FROM COOKING GLUTEN-FREE!, p. 130)


2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
4 scallions, finely chopped (those are green onions, in case you are confused)
1 cup red and green peppers, finely chopped
1 cup of corn kernels
4 tablespoons of finely chopped cilantro
2 jalapeno peppers, finely minced
juice of 2 limes
2 avocadoes, chopped
Mix it all together. Salt and pepper to taste. That's it.


Note: I ended up mixing both the ingredients from the black bean salad and the mango salsa together, and it wad delicious! I also used a vegetable mix since I didn't have just corn, and I think it still worked just fine.