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This recipe brings back memories. As a young cook in New York City, food was my obsession. Of course, cooking high-end food was rewarding, but I was always drawn to the bold flavors of ethnic cuisines.

Take chicken and rice, for example. I'd walk into any Jamaican, Dominican, or Puerto Rican restaurant, and enjoy a shockingly tasty meal for only six dollars.

In fact, those chicken and rice dishes were so good that it started to bother me.

Because at the time, I thought I was a pretty good cook. I thought, "This restaurant just knocked my socks off by making a stunning dish with cheap ingredients. Why should anyone pay $50 for my scallops and foie gras?

“What’s their secret?”

It turns out, there is none. Actually, all the ingredients for chicken and rice are easy to find, and very affordable. And by using some simple techniques, you can make this Caribbean glazed jerk chicken with rice and beans at home in just 1 hour.

Why is it called "jerk" chicken? The word jerk reportedly comes from the Spanish charqui, which means dried strips of meat; like what we call "jerky". But there's nothing dried or jerky-like about this dish. The recipe uses a spiced glaze that browns and caramelizes as the meat cooks. It's juicy and flavorful - perfectly paired with steamed basmati rice and black beans.

This recipe recommends cooking chicken under an oven broiler, but you can also use an outdoor grill. The oven broiler is a good option for year-round cooking when it's too cold to grill outside. But if you use a grill, I recommend cooking the chicken halfway without the glaze, to prevent burning. Then brush it with glaze and finish cooking.

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Counting your macros? See the macronutrient count at the bottom of this page, and follow the easy plating instructions.

Cooking time: 1 hour

Serves 5

Tools you'll need

• Chef's knife

• Cutting board

• Mixing bowls and containers

• Sheet pan

• Rice cooker

• Tongs

• Blender

• Brush

• vegetable peeler

• Measuring cups and spoons

Ingredients

• 1/2 yellow onion, roughly chopped

• 5 cloves garlic

• 2 oz ginger, peeled and rough chopped

• 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice

• 1 cup ketchup

• 3 tablespoons soy sauce

• 1 teaspoon red chili flakes

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs

• vegetable oil pan spray

• 1 1/2 cups basmati rice, rinsed

• 1 small can black or kidney beans, drained

• 1 tablespoon kosher salt

• Half of 1 pineapple, finely diced

• Half of 1 red onion, finely diced

• 1 small bunch cilantro, stems removed, chopped

Procedure

For the chicken: Preheat the oven broiler to high heat. In a blender, combine the first 7 ingredients until smooth. Spray the surface of the sheet pan with the pan spray, and lay the chicken thighs out in one even layer. Use the brush to evenly coat the chicken with a thick layer of the glaze.

Place the chicken on the top oven rack under the broiler. Cook to an internal temperature of 165 degrees, turning once. Remove from the oven and let cool.

For the rice and beans: Place the rice and 3 cups of water in the rice cooker with 1 tablespoon of salt. Cook until rice is done, and let steam for 20 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork and place in a mixing bowl. Gently mix the cooked rice with the drained black beans.

For the pineapple salsa: In a mixing bowl, combine the diced pineapple, diced red onion, and chopped cilantro.

To finish: Spoon rice and beans mixture into bowls, and place one serving of chicken on top of each. Top each portion with 3 spoonfuls of pineapple salsa.

Counting your macros?

Pack your meal containers with these amounts:

8 oz cooked rice and beans mixture

6 oz cooked chicken

3 oz pineapple salsa

Calories per serving: 568

Carbohydrates: 64g | Protein: 43g | Fat: 13

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