Jerk Chicken

Someone else posted this at the WKC as a way to move past the cold weather. I picked up 7 lb of chicken leg quarters (on sale 59¢/lb!) and had everything else needed. Tonight I prepared the marinade using "Phrasty's REAL Jerk recipe. (Copied here.)

1°F, sunny and wind moderate at 10 mph. I'm using our new recyclable bin as a wind block.

For the rub I made a double recipe and made some substitutions.

8 green onions and a medium yellow onion. (Should have been 12 green onions.)

4 tsp allspice berries

2 tbsp fresh thyme (or as much as I dared trim from the plant on the window sill.)

4 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp grated nutmeg (~1/2 whole nutmeg grated.)

2 tsp brown sugar

3 tsp salt

2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 C half and half rice vinegar and white vinegar (didn't have 1/4 cup malt vinegar.)

2 tbsp peanut oil

juice of two limes

I put the wet rub on the leg quarters about 10:00 PM the night before the cook. Total marinade time is about 17 hours. The plan is to cook indirect until nearly done and then crisp the skin over the coals.

I'll do this in the 26 kettle so I can spread the chicken parts out. Better to have more space than not enough. A couple fire brick ob edge will provide for indirect cooking. Stubb's briquettes will be providing fire. The fire is started - a chimney full - about 2:10 PM. I grabbed a couple chunks of what I believe to be apple for smoke flavor.

time	temp	comment
2:35 PM	°	Poured lit briquettes out of the chimney and added the apple chunks. Temp went up pretty fast to about 350°F on the cooker. I'll let it settle a few minutes before putting the chicken parts on.
2:55	425°	Meat on! And no extra space on the grate. Good thing I went with the 26.
3:40	450°	Flipped the pieces over. They seem to be cooking pretty evenly across the the grate.
4:25	325°	Chicken probing at 150° and more. Time to add more briquettes and crisp the skin!
4:40	350°	Spread lit charcoal out and put chicken on it skin side down.
4:50		Meat off!

Results: chicken was delicious! I'll be doing this one again.

What to do differently next time. The only weak spot was that the skin still was not crispy. Tasty, but not crispy.