Happy Memorial Day, on this day we honor and remember the brave service men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Memorial Day is the unofficial start of grilling season and summer. This is very easy to make, don’t let the long list of ingredients scare you most are already in your pantry, you literally throw all the ingredients for the jerk sauce in the blender and its done. You marinate chicken in the sauce for 4 hours and grill baby grill!! Here’s how to make it:

Jerk sauce

1 scotch bonnet pepper or if you don’t have/can’t find use a tbs of habanero hot sauce

2 jalapeno peppers cut in half (remove seeds to reduce heat)

1 tbs fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried

4 cloves garlic

2 tsp Jamaican allspice (whole berries preferred) ground in spice grinder, mortar/pestle or zip lock bag and hammer)

3 tbs brown sugar packed

2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp powdered ginger

1/4 c olive oil

1/4 c soy sauce

zest of one lime

1/4 c lime juice

1/4 c orange juice

1/2 c apple cider vinegar

2 lbs chicken, boneless, skinless breast and thigh (or just use breast or thigh meat) cut into pieces

bamboo skewers or skewers (if using bamboo soak in water for 30 minutes before grilling)

Cut peppers in half and remove seeds if you want less heat. Grind the allspice or crush in mortar with pestle. Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Note: in a pinch you can use regular allspice if you cannot find Jamaican.

Cut chicken into chunks, add to zip lock bag or a bowl and pour about half of the jerk sauce on the chicken, squish the bag or stir to ensure the chicken is thoroughly coated. Refrigerate 4 hours. Grill outside on your BBQ grill or on the stovetop. Coat grill or pan with some olive oil, baste olive oil and more sauce and depending on the size of your chunks of chicken it should take 3-5 minutes per side. I serve with grilled skewered cherry tomato, onion, pepper and rice. Note: if using both breast and thigh make sure you don’t mix as breast meat takes less time to cook and last thing you want is dry meat. Separate skewers for each.