I’ve won contests with my jerk chicken. Now I make jerk jack fruit, but it is the jerk sauce that makes it amazing! I always make it two ways, mild and hot (although mild it is not)! Start with one habanero chili and add another to the final mixture until you are satisfied with the heat!
Warning, this is a recipe with a lot of ingredients. You will have to do a lot of tasting and adjusting so have something to sample it with. It might take a half hour but the sauce can last a month or two!
Jamaican Jerk Sauce
This sauce is very spicy and layered with complex flavors that are unique to the Caribbean! I thought I knew what Jerk flavor was until I went to Jamaica and tasted it for the first time. I have been making this sauce for 16 years now. I love it on baked jack fruit, oven fried cauliflower or plump oyster mushrooms!Habaneros vary in heat and size, ginger varies in size and spices vary in pungency depending on their age. For that reason I am including a taste and adjust step. I've put as many as 12 habanero's in one quart and as few as 1 because the heat varies so much. Don't substitute a milder pepper. The fruitiness of the habanero is unique and using another pepper will completely change the profile.
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Ingredients
- 1-10 Habanero Chile's See Recipe Notes
- 1 bunch Green onions
- 1 whole Scallion These look like an enlongated pink onion
- 1 Cup Sweet Onion - diced
- 6" Piece Fresh Ginger
- 1 Whole Red bell pepper Sub with orange or yellow pepper but not green.
- 3 TBSP Fresh Thyme - Or 1 1/2 TBSP ground thyme) Add ground thyme to jerk seasoning
- 3 Cloves Garlic
- 1/2 Cup Olive or Coconut Oil
- 1/2 Cup Fresh lime juice
- 6 OZ Pineapple Juice See Notes
- 1/4 Cup Dark Rum Optional. Sub Pineapple Juice
- 4 TBSP Dark Brown Sugar Sub 6 TBSP Coconut Sugar
- 1 TSP Himalayan Salt
- 1 TBSP Jerk Spice Blend (Immediately follows)
- 1 TSBP Cloves (Ground or whole)
- 1 TBSP Coriander (Ground or seeds)
- 1 1/2 TBSP Ground Allspice
- 1/2 TSP Nutmeg
- 3 Whole Bay leaves
- 1 1/2 TBSP Black Peppercorns
Instructions
- Grind together the last 6 ingredients to make your Jerk Spice blend.
- Slice 3 or 4 habanero's down the middle, remove the seeds, stems and membrane that holds the seeds. Set aside.I highly recommend wearing gloves when handling these peppers.
- Peel scallion, onions and garlic. Roughly chop and add to blender.
- Trim green onions. Roughly chop and add to blender.
- Use a spoon to peel the ginger. You want about 6" of peeled ginger but since the size can vary so much, put half that in the blender and set aside the rest for the tasting and adjusting.
- Strip the leaves from the fresh thyme and add to the blender. If you do not have fresh thyme you can add ground thyme. Just use half as much!
- Add lime juice, rum, sugar and salt.
- Add pineapple juice and olive oil or pineapple chunks (See recipe notes)
- Add 1 TBSP of the Jerk Spice blend.
- Blend on low 2 minutes then on high for 5 minutes until fairly smooth. It may take longer if you used fresh pineapple.
- Taste you sauce. You may be able to add another habanero, more ginger or more Jerk spice blend. This is a taste - adjust period. Add ingredients, blend, taste, adjust to what tastes good to YOU!
- Once you get the sauce to your liking, pour half into a jar and add more habanero to the remaining sauce in the blender. Usually two or three times what you used for the initial batch.
- Blend remaining batch until smooth. Pour into a second jar. Label your sauce as mild and hot.
- This sauce is intended to serve on the side. If you cook your food in this sauce I recommend making one batch of the mild and using that and still provide some sauce on the side for the pepper-heads in the group!
- Slice the red bell pepper down the middle, remove the seeds, stems and membrane that holds the seeds. Roughly chop and add to the blender.
Notes
A Snap Pea Sheep Recipe!
About those habaneros...
I once made a batch of jerk sauce and used three peppers for the mild and twelve for the hot. Both were a hit! The hot was really hot but so flavorful that it quickly disappeared at the party!
Another time I made the sauce, I started with 3 peppers and it was extremely hot. I ended up making another batch using one pepper and diluted the first batch with half of the first batch.
Not using oil? I wasn't oil free when I perfected this recipe. The oil gives the sauce some heft but can easily be replaced by using whole pineapple or a mango instead of the oil. If using mango, still add the pineapple juice to the recipe.
Not using rum? This doesn't get cooked so technically, your jerk sauce is alcoholic. but in such a small amount it won't be noticed. It imparts a flavor that is true Jamaican! You can leave it out if you don't want it, Add more pineapple juice of you need to for the liquid but leave it for the tasting to make that decision.
Sugar! Brown sugar is pretty key here for that molasses flavor. However I have used a combination of date sugar and coconut sugar to may satisfaction. Coconut sugar by itself if just not sweet enough so I end up using more of it than I would of brown sugar. You could try molasses, honey or maple syrup if you don't want to use brown sugar.
No Thyme? Add your thyme to the jerk spice blend. Thyme is a key ingredient in jerk sauce.
About the Jerk Spice blend! I adjusted my recipe every time I made it to include a little more of this spice or that. I finally had it perfected then threw out all of my spices and bought new organic spice. The first time I made jerk sauce with my new spices it was overpowered by the spice! I ended up making six batches without adding any more spice. It is for that reason that I have you make the spice blend and add it until you taste the exotic spices in your sauce. You can also use store bough jerk seasoning instead. Just check to see if it is missing an ingredient in my recipe and add it!
