I'm writing this to you with a full belly. If the letters trail off or I smash random words in as my forehead hits the keyboard because of a food coma, please forgive me! On this episode of Fat Girl Kitchen - Real Deal Jerk Honey Chicken (no grill required)!!
One of the things I love about this family is its creativity. There isn't one person that I know of that doesn't have some kind of creative magic about them. Last year, pre-Covid we started playing around with the idea of flavored honey's. The Kae's line had put out cinnamon creamed honey around the fair and it was a huge hit! We wanted to build on that and I offered to play around with different flavor combos. With the onset of the pandemic, we had to put things on pause and focus on what was important, but some of the results were worth hanging on to! A few months ago, I got a phone call from the Farm, it was Kortney who said "Amy wants to try Jerk Honey, could we make that work? What would we use?"
Now, she didn't ask me this because I'm an expert on Jerk anything..I'm just a southern girl from Lake Butler, but I did marry into a Jamaican family. My husband, bless him, didn't have any idea how to cook anything Jamaican, so I started learning from the ladies of the family and trying out recipes. I tested lots of them on my wonderful in-laws, and when I finally found the ones that got their seal of approval, it was happiness for everyone. I don't make Jerk often because it takes half a million onions, but when I do make it, I make A LOT .... because we eat it on everything!!! How to go about making Jerk honey was a whole new ballgame. I wanted to make sure I honored my in-laws culture as much as I wanted it to taste really really good. And we all agreed that we wanted to give you a product that was still made with our amazing raw honey, but was low maintenance and didn't require refrigeration or special handling. Through a little trial and error, our Real Deal Jerk Honey was born.
If you've caught some of the awesome Facebook spots that Kara and her team at Flip the Switch Media has done for Thomas Honey featuring this treat, I'm sure your mouth was watering (If you didn't here's a little sample of their gorgeous images!).
Ugh! Drool worthy, right?!?! And summer is coming so most of you will be firing up that grill and seasoning up those wings, and I am here for it!!
But, wait.....what was that you said?? "Emily, I don't have a grill...now what??"
No problem...I got you! Full disclosure, the following images were taken in my kitchen on my iPhone...so no judging. I don't work for Kara, but I tried to do her proud!!
Ok, so let's start with ingredients. We're going to pan fry some boneless skinless chicken breasts and then broil them for a few minutes to get that super yummy char (you can use any type of chicken you would like for this recipe, this is just what I had in my freezer).
First step is to prep your chicken. I like to butterfly mine so they cook faster, but you can do them however you wish. You're going to save your Jerk Honey for last because we DON'T want it to burn in the frying pan (this applies to grilling too)!!
In my pan, I'm going to add a teaspoon of butter to some olive oil and let that heat while I'm getting my chicken ready. Then, I'm going to season both sides of my chicken with Garlic and Onion powder, plus salt and pepper to taste. (And I plan to season my plate with a little adobo rice and black beans on the side because...why not?!?!)
When my pan is nice and hot, I'm going to add in my chicken and let it cook for about 5-10 minutes per side (depending on the thickness). I'm looking for a nice golden crust, and keeping my heat around medium to make sure I don't burn anything. If you don't know about this butter + oil trick let me tell you something. The richness that just a teeny bit of butter will add to your dish is nuts - oil to cook, butter to flavor!! But, if you're not into that part...it's totally ok to skip it, I promise your chicken will still be amazing!
While we're here, go ahead and turn on your oven to broil, we want it to be nice and hot when our chicken is done because we just want to caramelize the honey (not actually cook anything).
I'm going to press pause for a second to say, if you are NOT a fan of meat dishes that are sweet, you can mix your Jerk Honey into your favorite barbeque sauce, with some soy sauce, or even hot wing sauce for a more savory taste. Don't be afraid to play around with different ingredients and flavor combos!
Ok, back to our chicken...
Once all of my chicken breasts are cooked, I'm laying them out on a foil lined pan and slathering both sides with Real Deal Jerk Honey. Then I'm going to pop them in the oven on the MIDDLE rack. (If you put them on the top rack, that's not a deal breaker, just keep a real close eye on them! Broiling is top down heat, meaning they’ll be closest/exposed to more heat). You want to stay near your oven, do not go do laundry or dishes, or give the kids a bath. Honey is a natural sugar and it WILL burn very quickly under the broiler. We're talking, 3-4 minutes under the broiler max. You want to see it getting bubbly, and caramelized (it will even smell a teeny bit like caramel).
Once its out, let it rest for a few minutes (if you have the patience) and then dig in! This chicken is so so good. It's got a little heat, it's got a little salty, it's sweet, and it got a little bit of that grill char even without the grill. What's not to love??
Lord have mercy, I will never be skinny! I hope y'all love it like we do. Happy Eatin'!
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