Rice and peas

I love the concept of Jamaican jerk chicken, but often fear the intense heat that comes with the dish. Well, I found Busha Browne’s jerk seasoning at the local grocery and use it very sparingly to marinate chicken breast tenderloins along with an Island breeze seasoning from my local grocery.  

After referencing a couple Jamaican menus on the web, I noticed that jerk chicken is often served with coleslaw.  Makes sense, the coolness of the slaw would cut back on some of the heat. So, I texted friend for a recipe and I typically hate coleslaw, but this recipe is worth repeating!  I also made up some slaw with Tzaziki sauce because I had some left over.  Wasn’t too bad, makes me wonder if I can make a slaw dressing subbing yogurt for Mayo to create a lower calorie slaw.

 A long time ago, a co-worker introduced me to a dish called rice and peas. It is phenomenal for such a simple concept. I scoured the web and never found a recipe that inspired me to make the dish.  Flash forward a decade and the same friend that sent me the slaw recipe sent me a recipe for rice and peas.  I subbed the pigeon peas for black eyed peas and cooked it all together in the pressure cooker.  It was a little fail in that I burned the rice on the bottom and it didn’t cook.  But my oh my the flavors!!! Here’s a photo of flavor building in process: shallots, tomato paste and bacon.

So, in conclusion, here’s how the meal gets put together and cooked: 1. Cook the rice and peas using rice setting 2. Marinate chicken in zip lock. 3. Make coleslaw dressing 4. Portion rice into meal containers 5. Put chicken on top of rice right before cooking in microwave for 4 minutes. 6. Mix coleslaw salad blend with dressing 7. Top chicken and rice with coleslaw 

Delicious and worth repeating!