Faux Jamaican Jerk Chicken Sandwiches

This sandwich is great hot or cold, in summer or winter and whether you’re looking to eat light or if you have the appetite of a linebacker. For a less exotic (but still pretty delicious) recipe, you can omit the fruit altogether and substitute a couple slices of jack cheese and use blue cheese dressing instead of lime-poppy seed dressing. 

Recipe makes 6-8 sandwiches

Prep time: 1 cocktail

6 TBSP olive or vegetable oil

1 medium onion, sliced into thin rings or half rings

1-2 bell peppers, sliced into thin strips (color doesn’t matter)

2 8-ounce packages seitan, unflavored/traditional, rinsed and patted dry

10 cloves garlic, minced

2/3 cup jerk paste (or to taste) (click here for recipe)

2 TBSP soy sauce

1 tsp cayenne (or more to taste), optional

¼ cup plain, full-fat yogurt

Hoagie or Kaiser bread

2 mango, peeled and cut into silver-dollar-sized hunks or strips (or chunks of pineapple)

A batch of ime-poppy seed dressing (click here for recipe)

Add half the oil to pan on medium high heat. As the oil warms up, break the seitan into bite-size chunks, if necessary. Toss in the seitan in the hot pan and saute until the outside gets a bit browned and crispy on the edges, about 6 minutes. Then, transfer to some paper towels and pat excess oil off. Let cool. 

While seitan cooks (or while it cools), heat the remaining oil in another frying pan. Add onion and bell pepper. Sauté until onion becomes translucent and pepper softens, about 7-10 minutes. Add garlic and sauté another 3 minutes. Add jerk, soy sauce, and cayenne. Sauté another couple minutes. Stir in yogurt and simmer another minute. Remove from heat and stir in seitan.

Salt seitan/veggie mixture to taste. If you’re having the sandwich hot, lightly toast the bun or bread. Make sandwiches with a heap of the veggie/seitan mixture, a few pieces of mango, and a healthy drizzle of lime poppy seed sauce.

Jamaican Black Bean Burgers

My buddy Arturo has been nagging me since I started this food blog to post this recipe. So I think I better dedicate this one to him.

This one isn't nearly as spicy as some of my other jerk recipes. It just has a nice, full Caribbean flavor. Along with the cucumber and papaya, this makes an absolutely delicious meal (ignore the radishes and lettuce in the picture--I ate all the cucumber before I got around to photographing).

The mayonnaise and Pickapeppa are also totally indispensible in this recipe. If you don't already know and love Pickapeppa, I can tell you that it is the single greatest substance known to man. Seriously. It's a Jamaican barbecue sauce made with cloves, mango, and other delicious tidbits. Pickapeppa is available at any large grocery store or natural food market. It makes everything delicious--from eggs to steak to Jamaican sushi. And for Chrissakes, make your own mayonnaise. It takes less than 2 minutes and is far better than the garbage you buy at the store.

Note that if you wish to save some time, you can use store-bought jerk paste, but the spiciness and saltiness of different varieties varies significantly, so be sure to taste as you go.

Prep time: 2 cocktails

1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil, divided
2 cans drained black beans, drained, rinsed, and mashed by hand or in food processor
1 egg, beaten
¾ cup bread crumbs
½ cup oatmeal (not instant)
¼ cup white flour
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup jerk paste (click here for recipe)
½ tsp salt
Pepper to taste
1-2 papayas or mangoes, peeled, seeded, and sliced
1 cucumber, sliced
Mayonnaise, homemade (click here for recipe)
Pickapeppa
6-8 buns

In a large bowl, combine 1 TBSP of the oil, beans, egg, bread crumbs, oatmeal, flour, onion, garlic, jerk, salt and pepper. Stir well. Let sit 10 minutes.

In a large frying pan, heat the remaining oil over medium heat. When hot, scoop out a half cup of the mixture and form with your hands into a patty shape (if you have wet hands, this will be easier… and if dough is still too sticky to work with, add another TBSP or two of flour, until it becomes workable). Cook for 5 minutes on each side, or until browned, firm, and a bit crisp. Add more oil, to the pan, if necessary.

Serve on buns with slices of papaya, cucumber, mayonnaise, and Pickapeppa.

Rasta Pasta

Holy crap, I love this dish! Many years ago, I worked at a Jamaican fusion restaurant in Fort Collins. This is my take on their namesake dish--though my preparation is a lot better, I have to say. Maybe it's because I'm typically not as high as the cooks at the restaurant when I make it(?).

Anyway, the recipe calls for jerk paste. I provide the homemade recipe here, and it’s pretty quick and easy to make. But you can also purchase pre-made jerk paste (sometimes called wet jerk) at many gourmet shops and larger natural food stores like Whole Foods in the condiment aisle. Note that all storebought jerk pastes will vary in intensity and saltiness, so adding a little at a time is a good idea. And make sure you purchase paste and not powder.

Because this dish is pretty hot, you'll want to enjoy it with juice, a sweet cocktail, or a beer--preferably a ginger beer.

Prep time: 2 cocktails

1/3 cup canola oil
1 head garlic, minced (yes--an entire head!)
3 TBSP red wine
3 TBSP soy sauce
3 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 pinches dried basil
2 pinches dried oregano
1 tsp Cajun seasoning (optional)
1/3 cup jerk paste (click here for recipe)
½ red bell pepper, chopped
1 very petite zucchini, chopped
1 small broccoli floret broken up by hand
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced or mandolined
½ cup purple cabbage, chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
1 serving Incredible Jerk Tofu (click here for recipe)
2 handfuls pre-cooked pasta—use only penne or spirals
The top (green) third of a medium bunch of green onions, chopped
Pineapple pieces for topping, optional

Combine oil and garlic in food processor or blender. Puree well.

Heat a large frying pan on medium high heat. Add garlic oil mixture. Sauté until it begins to turn gold--but not brown, about 30-60 seconds. Add wine. Continue to cook for 20 more seconds.

Add soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, tomato, basil, oregano, Cajun seasoning, and jerk paste. Stir frequently for about 8 minutes. Taste and add salt or jerk, if necessary—it should be very strongly flavored!

Add all the veggies EXCEPT the green onion. Reduce heat to medium and sauté another 5 minutes or so, until the veggies become a bit tender, stirring occasionally.

Add tofu, pasta, green onions, salt and pepper to taste (salt may not be necessary if your jerk paste already has some). Sauté 1 more minute stirring often.

Remove from heat and serve with pineapple on top, if using.

Incredible Jerk Tofu

Anytime somebody tells you that they think tofu sucks, tell them I said they're an ass. Then make this. It'll shut them up for good.

Note that this preparation tends to make a bit of a mess out of your frying pan. I highly recommend that you use a well-seasoned cast-iron frying pan for this recipe, as the clean-up is immeasurably easier.

This is also a fantastic way to prepare tofu for any cuisine, just change the spices from jerk to whatever is appropriate to fit your cuisine.

Prep time: 1 cocktail

1 pinch dried oregano
1 pinch dried basil
3 TBSP jerk paste (click here for recipe)
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1-2 TBSP soy sauce
1/3 cup red wine
½ cup orange juice or pineapple juice
3 TBSP peanut or non-toasted sesame oil
1 brick extra firm tofu, cut into 1” cubes
2 TBSP sesame seeds

In small bowl, whisk together oregano, basil, jerk paste, Cajun seasoning, Worcestershire, soy sauce, red wine, and juice. Set aside.

Heat oil in an 8- to 10-inch frying pan over medium-high heat. When it gets hot, add tofu. Stir very gently and very frequently with spatula being careful to avoid breaking the tofu (it can be tricky to keep your tofu intact depending on brand and moisture content, this is why using extra firm is critical). Fry until the tofu begins to become golden brown. This can take from 10-20 minutes, depending on the moisture content of the tofu. If your tofu is sticking to the bottom of the pan, add a bit more oil and be sure you're flipping it around every few seconds with the spatula.

Once tofu is golden-brown, add wine/juice mixture. Bump your heat up one notch and occasionally stir everything. Cook until all the moisture has cooked off, about 5-10 minutes. Toss in the sesame seeds and then transfer the tofu to a plate. Place in refrigerator and allow to cool completely before eating or using in another recipe.

Jerk Paste

Jerk is one of the cornerstones of Jamaican cuisine. It is either a paste or a dry rub of brown spices, garlic, peppers, ginger, and thyme that dates back to colonial times. It combines the flavors of the old world and the new in a fantastic, unusual way. Jerk was used as a means of preserving meat in the days before refrigeration—much the way that very spicy rubs or salts have been used in other parts of the world. As such, it is pretty potent stuff (spice wimps should probably be cautious with my Jerk recipes). Today, jerk is ideal either as a marinade (especially good for grilling tofu, vegetables, meat, and fruit) or as a sauce. Jerk is one of those things that can be made a thousand different ways. This is my recipe.

Also note that if you wish to save time, there are commercially-available jerk pastes that work well for my recipes as well. I most highly recommend Neera’s; it’s long been my favorite. You can find it in a small jar in the condiment aisle of many gourmet and natural food stores, as well as online. But one word of caution: if you go with a store-bought paste in any of my recipes, be warned that these are often more potent than my recipe. As a result, it is probably a good idea to start with about a third of what my recipes call for and add additional jerk slowly, tasting as you go, in order to avoid overdoing it. And because these pastes often contain varying amounts of salt, the same is true for salt in my recipes that use jerk paste.

1 TBSP ground allspice
¾ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1.5 tsp ground clove
3 TBSP vegetable oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 Habenero or Scotch Bonnet chilies (heat wimps can use 2 peppers)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 TBSP dried thyme
2 teaspoons salt
1-2 TBSP fresh ginger
5 scallions, chopped
1 TBSP brown sugar
3 TBSP fresh lime juice
¼ cup white vinegar

In small dish, combine allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves.

Heat oil in a small frying pan on medium. Add the garlic and sauté, stirring constantly, until the garlic just begins to turn light golden—about 1 minute. Add spice combination. Stir constantly another 20 seconds and remove from heat. Transfer immediately to a bowl.

Now combine all other ingredients, along with the spice/garlic mixture, in a food processor or blender. Process until it is a smooth liquid.

Stores in the refrigerator for months.