A friend’s birthday is fast approaching, and I’ve got her a Jamaican Cook Book as a gift. As I’ve thumbed through this book, I’ve noticed there are some fierce recipes! So I figure… As someone who’s as passionate about cooking as I am… She won’t mind if I get some use out of this before handing it over? I mean, her birthday isn’t until September, and I’m hungry for Jamaican now, so…

One of the many mouth-watering recipes in this book is
Red Stripe Chicken!

The easy to make, tender, delicious chickeny good time.

Ingredients
I slightly alternated from the book. I used

• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 3 chicken thighs, with skin and bone
• 500ml coconut milk
• 500ml of Red Stripe beer (I couldn’t find this in a single super market, not one!! Eventually I tracked it down in a “News and Booze” that sold it for a more than fair price and had a raffle game at the till. Loads of fun.)
  TOP COOKING TIP
  Cooking with beer? Buy loads, drink what doesn’t go in the pan.
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 large green bell pepper, deseeded and diced
• 1 red scotch bonnet chilli, sliced. This isn’t called for in the original recipe, I just fancied a kick!
  Make your choice.
• salt and ground black pepper

Chicken! You so tender, Jamaica me crazy!

1. Slice the meat from your chicken thighs. Keep the bone.
2. Heat your oil medium/high in a large skillet pan and chuck in the chicken (not the bones).
3. Once the chicken has browned, remove from the pan and pour out the oil. Then return the chicken AND the bones to the pan and add the coconut milk, Red Stripe and scotch bonnet. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.
   
4. After this, add the onion, green pepper and salt and pepper.
   
5. Simmer uncovered until reduced to a sort of gravy. Discard of the thigh bone, or give to someone to nibble the remaining meat from.
6. Unfortunately, I realised all too late the need for rice and pea with this! So I just whipped up some tingly potatoes.
   

I honestly couldn’t believe the extreme tenderness of this chicken! And the flavour POW! Scrumptious! I couldn’t stop eating! I made enough for a re-heat tomorrow but… It didn’t last. Cook this. IMMEDIATELY. You won’t regret it.

The only thing missing was some warm fluffy corn bread.
Do you have an idiot-proof corn bread recipe??
Share it with me!!