Oven-Baked Jerk Chicken & Coconut Rice

📝 Ingredients

• 800 g boneless, skinless chicken thighs (about 8 pieces of 100 g each)
• 5 spring onions (4 for the marinade, 1 for serving)
• 2 fresh red chillies (about 10 g each)
• 3 garlic cloves + 15 g fresh ginger
• 2 limes (1 juiced for the marinade, 1 cut into wedges for serving)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce + 1 tbsp light brown sugar + 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 tsp ground allspice + ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 tsp dried thyme (2 for the marinade, 1 for the rice)
• 2 red peppers (about 150 g each)
• 280 g basmati rice
• 200 ml reduced-fat coconut milk + 280 ml water
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Blender or food processor
• Mixing bowl
• Baking sheet + parchment paper
• Saucepan with lid
• Fine sieve
• Cutting board and knife

📖 Steps

1. Make the marinade: cut 4 spring onions into chunks, deseed the chillies (keep the seeds for more heat), and peel the garlic and ginger. Blend everything with the juice of one lime, the soy sauce, brown sugar, oil, spices, 2 tsp thyme, salt and pepper.
2. Make 2 or 3 shallow cuts in each thigh so the marinade can penetrate. Coat them in the marinade in a mixing bowl, massaging it in well, then wash your hands immediately (chilli burns the eyes). Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 h, ideally overnight.
3. Preheat the oven to 220 °C. Line a baking tray with baking paper, spread the chicken out flat without crowding the pieces, then scatter the deseeded peppers, cut into strips, around it. Coat them in the rest of the marinade from the bowl so they take on the flavour.
4. Roast for 25 min on the middle shelf, then switch to the grill for 3 to 5 min to lightly char the edges, as on a barbecue. The chicken is cooked when the juices running from the thickest part are clear with no trace of pink (75 °C in the centre).
5. Meanwhile, rinse the rice in a sieve under cold water until the water runs almost clear: it will be less sticky. Tip it into a saucepan with the coconut milk, water, 1 tsp thyme and a pinch of salt, then bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring once.
6. As soon as it boils, turn the heat down to very low, cover and cook for 12 min without lifting the lid. Turn off the heat and leave to stand for 10 min, still covered: the rice finishes swelling in the steam. Then fluff it with a fork. If it sticks to the bottom, the heat was too high.
7. Leave the chicken to rest for 5 min out of the oven. Finely slice the remaining spring onion and cut the second lime into wedges. Serve the chicken and peppers on the coconut rice, sprinkle with spring onion and squeeze over a lime wedge just before eating.