x Melissa Thompson 🇯🇲 Jerk Chicken & Pork

Jerk as a stand-alone term describes the way in which meat is prepared, marinated and smoked, however the dish’s symbolism runs deep.

Jerk is central to Jamaican cultural identity; it tells the story of the island’s history and the passionate resistance of its people against slavery. Jerk is a true legacy dish.

Maroons, African people who had escaped enslavement and fled to the mountains in hope of freedom, formed resistance communities. They survived through agriculture and hunting wild animals, including pigs. With the remaining indigenous Jamaicans, the Tainos, they developed a way to cook the pigs in the ground with minimal smoke to avoid detection by the ruthless British who were trying to recapture them. They foraged for natural ingredients to season the pig, as much to preserve the meat as to flavour it.

Jerk is a beautiful dish of balanced flavours, a little bit of heat and loads of depth. The marinade penetrates the meat right to the bone, and the flavour intensifies during the smoking process, resulting in a full-on hit on the taste buds.

We have teamed up with food writer Melissa Thompson, author of Motherland: A Jamaican Cookbook, to create two jerk products featuring a whole spatchcock chicken and portions of pork belly ribs. Marinated in a mix of pimento (allspice), thyme, scotch bonnet chillies, garlic, ginger and black pepper for 24-hours, the meat is delivered to you ready to be cooked on the barbecue, though it can also be cooked in the oven.

Traditionally in Jamaica, jerk is cooked slowly over pimento wood, smoking and steaming under cover of more wood or zinc. Instead of pimento wood, Melissa lays a bed of bay leaves and thin bay branches onto the grill - away from the coals and direct heat - and puts the meat on top. She soaks a couple of tablespoons of whole pimento berries in water and throws them on the coals just before she closes the lid; the combined effect of the pimento berries and bay lends a flavour that is really reminiscent of cooking over pimento.

We recommend serving your jerk chicken or pork with Melissa's jerk gravy and ultimate hot sauce made with scotch bonnet chillies. Hot sauce is a permanent fixture at the Jamaican jerk pits that are spread across the island serving up jerk meat, fish and seafood alongside roasted breadfruit, plantain or festival dumpling.