JERK!

One of my colleagues has a weekly cooking show. I enjoy editing his recipes for the website (and by editing, I just mean for grammar, style and consistency. I’m not a professional recipe tester — yet). But the best part about his show is I get to taste nearly everything he makes. When I tasted his Jerk Chicken, I immediately knew it was one of his best. (The Seafood Pot Pie and Brunswick Stew are neck-and-neck, too).

A few weeks later, I had three habanero peppers on hand, and they were the inspiration for making Ken’s jerk marinade at home. Most of the other ingredients are pantry staples around my house — allspice, cloves, cinnamon. I put the jerk marinade on chicken *and* baby back ribs … because what’s better than pork?

The ribs marinated for two days before they took a trip to the oven and then the smoker. What was left of the marinade was boiled down, then pureed. It made a nice dipping sauce in contrast to its caramelized counterpart on the ribs.

I highly recommend serving the ribs with applesauce (if you read my last entry, you know where that came from). It may not be island authentic, but the applesauce really cools down the heat from the jerk. And the combination of pork + apples never gets old.