Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Roughly chop the 6 Spring onions — white and green — and stem the 4 Scotch bonnet chillies. Strip the 6 Thyme from their stems. Peel the 6 cloves Garlic and the 4 cm Ginger and slice them so they pound easily. Toast 1 tbsp Allspice berries in a dry pan over medium heat until they smell of clove and pepper, about 1 min. Tip into a grinder with the 1 tsp Black peppercorns and grind to a coarse powder.

⚠ Tip: Leave the scotch bonnet seeds in: that is where the real fire lives.

⚠ Tip: Whole pimento berries lose their perfume fast once ground, so grind no more than you need today.

Pound the aromatics in a mortar, or blitz in a small processor in short pulses, with the 1 tsp Ground cinnamon, ½ tsp Ground nutmeg, 2 tbsp Brown sugar, 2 tbsp Dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp Distilled white vinegar and 2 tbsp Neutral oil. You want a sauce like wet sand, not a smooth purée: stop while you can still see flecks of scallion and chilli.

⚠ Tip: A food processor makes it smooth and dull; the mortar keeps the texture and the punch. If it looks dry, add a splash more oil — never water.

Pat the 1.5 kg Chicken legs bone-dry with paper towel. Slash each leg two or three times down to the bone so the rub reaches the meat and the fat can render. Rub the jerk paste all over the chicken and into every slash, then squeeze over the 2 Limes, season with the 1 tsp Salt and turn everything with your hands until the pieces are stained deep red-brown. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 4 h; overnight is better, 24 h if you have the patience.

⚠ Tip: Dry skin is the difference between crisp mahogany and pale, flabby jerk.

⚠ Tip: Marinate on a tray, not in a bag — the vinegar and chilli bite harder when the chicken isn't sitting in its own liquid.

Bring the chicken out of the fridge 30 min before cooking. Light the grill and set it up for two-zone cooking: coals glowing on one side, empty grate on the other. Aim for 160 °C at the grate under the lid. If you have pimento, bay or allspice wood, throw a few soaked chips on the coals now.

⚠ Tip: Jerk is a slow smoke, not a hot sear. If you can't hold your hand at grate level for five seconds, it is too hot.

Lay the legs skin side up on the cool side of the grate, close the lid and cook for 35 min, turning once at the halfway point. They are done when the skin is dark mahogany and a knife slips into the thickest part of the thigh with no resistance — 75 °C at the bone.

⚠ Tip: Chase the smoke: if it's gone pale, your fire is too hot or your lid is leaking.

Move the chicken over the coals for a final blast, turning every few seconds, until the skin blisters and blackens in spots, about 3 min. Stand back — the fat will flare.

⚠ Tip: This is the step that makes jerk jerk. Watch it like a hawk; seconds too long and the sugar in the rub turns to soot.

Move the chicken to a board, tent loosely with foil and rest for 10 min. The juices settle and the meat pulls cleanly off the bone.

Chop each leg through the bone into two or three pieces with a heavy cleaver, pile onto a platter and pour over every drop of juice from the board. Eat with your fingers, with rice and peas and a cold slaw on the side.