Cooking
Lean into the long weekend with jerk chicken and coconut rice, hot dogs, a big tomato salad and no-bake cheesecake bars.
Good morning. I’m back in hard shoes after two weeks of flip-flops and Xtratufs, back to the subway shuffle, back to restless news scrolling and an overflowing inbox. Memories of the big fish that turned toward my herring fly are fading, as are the bramble scratches on my arms. You miss me? I’m cooking over gas again, instead of wood.
Part of the time, anyway. Labor Day weekend, where I’m from, marks the annual West Indian American Day Parade on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. That means jerk chicken (above) is on the menu all over the borough, cooked low and slow in smoky grills filled with glowing charcoal and fired with soaked fruitwood chips. (The authenticity police will tell you that only Jamaican pimento wood should be used for smoking proper jerk chicken. This is not true. The authenticity police can be actual jerks.)
Featured Recipe
Jerk Chicken
View Recipe →
I like mine with coconut rice on the side, into which I stir a can of pigeon peas, along with skillet fried plantains and cabbage that I smoke-steam alongside the chicken before shredding into slaw dressed lightly with butter and flavored with salt, garlic, onion powder and a few sprigs of thyme. You may prefer Shaun Lewis and Gabrielle Hamilton’s version, with pickled bananas, Harold Dieterle’s jerk pork ribs or Millie Peartree’s sheet-pan jerk salmon. You could even fly into the no-recipe recipe zone and slather some pressed firm tofu with store-bought jerk seasoning (Walkerswood is terrific), then sear it hot and crisp in a pan. This weekend, there’s a jerk for everyone.
But I’m not going to be bossy about it. You may prefer one of these easy grilled chicken recipes we’ve assembled for the holiday celebration, or lots of corn on the cob and a big tomato salad. Hot dogs play a role in Labor Day festivities as well, with potato salad, perhaps, and no-bake cheesecake bars for dessert.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.