JERK CHICKEN BURRITO

This will get your taste buds zinging and fill your belly with the gorgeous fragrant juicy blackened jerk chicken stuffed in to a swiss chard leaf instead of a carb loaded wrap along with my son Oscar's homemade blow your head off habanero carrot salsa, pickled jalapenos and fresh bell peppers, wrapped up and topped with fresh guacamole, coriander, more habanero salsa and full fat sour yogurt.  This is one of those meals that delivers great goodness to you along with the freedom to enjoy all you favourite foods just without the carb loaded wrap!

My family love to prep, can and preserve our own sauces and seasonings at harvest time this is so our larder is stocked ready in advance with lots of produce at hand when ever we need it.  I whole heartily advocate cutting corners after all I am a full time mum, a taxi service and personal assistant to a very special teenager! but also encourage having the fun and rewarding sense of old fashioned times gone by with homemade foods.

Prep time 10 minutes / Cooking time 15 minutes / Can prep in cooking time too!

Ingredients

(serves 4)

JERK CHICKEN BURRITO 

4 chicken breasts 

1 tbsp coconut oil

4 tbsp jerk seasoning (recipe below)

4 chard leaves stalk removed

4 1/4 cups habanero salsa (recipe below)

4 tbsp pickled jalapenos

4 tbsp diced bell peppers

4 tbsp chopped coriander

4 tbsp guacamole (recipe below)

4 tbsp whole yogurt

The flowers are from my bolting salad 

GUACAMOLE

1 ripe avocado mashed

1 tbsp fresh coriander

1 tomato diced

1 tbsp bell pepper diced

1 spring onion diced

1 tbsp pickled jalapneos chopped

1/3 lime juice

Pinch sea salt and black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together, Ta da...that's it all done!

HOMEMADE JERK SEASONING

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp cayenne powder

1 tbsp onion powder

2 tbsp dried thyme

2 tbsp dried parsley

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp all spice

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp dried chillies

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp round cinnamon

Grind all ingredients together...that's it !

JERK CHICKEN

Take your chicken breasts and cover well with the jerk spices, heat a large skillet medium high, add the coconut oil and then the chicken breasts, you want to sear them well on both sides so don't be tempted to tourn the breasts until around 3 minutes so that you have a nice blackened, NOT burnt sear, then turn the heat down low and leave to finish cooking slowly for around another 5 minutes, take off the heat and leave to rest for a couple of minutes.

I like to roughly shred the chicken with two forks but you can chop or place the whole breast in your chard leaf, whatever suits you.  Lay your chard leaf on your plate and load with the chicken, habanero salsa, pickled jalapenos, you can if you have space stuff what ever you want in side!  Fold over the left and right side, turn 180 degrees and fold over the side in front of you then as you do roll the char over on to the far side so that in effect you have turned the parcel over, this is just for presentation of course, sometimes my burritos do not look this pretty!

Top with your habenero salsa, guacamole and sour yogurt, more pickled jalapenos and some fresh coriander and your good to go, enjoy.

HOMEMADE HABANERO SALSA

Beautiful blow your head off hot fruity habanero salsa, this has a gorgeous burn that graduates to a almost to hot to handle lips, tongue and gum pulsating burn, in all a marvellous salsa to have over your chicken, fish or steak and great as a dip with corn chips, for the more sadistic pallet.  Simple to make and can be stored on the side for months and once opened in the fridge for weeks.

Don't miss out if you want all this gorgeous flavour with a lower heat, just halve the chillies for a medium hot or halve again for a mild salsa, you won't loose any of the great flavour.  

Ingredients

(Makes approx 500ml)

1 tbsp coconut or nut oil

1 onion finely chopped

3 large carrots peeled finely chopped

2 cloves garlic rough chopped

500 ml water

1 tsp fresh chopped oregano (1/2 if dried)

1 tsp crushed coriander seeds

200ml White wine vinegar

4-6 habanero chillies, stalks removed

2 large tbsp of honey

Gently cook the onions until translucent, around ten minutes, add the garlic after five minutes, then add the carrots and cook for a further five minutes, add the water and habaneros, bring to a simmer and cook until the carrots have melted into a sauce, approx twenty minutes.  

Add the White wine vinegar, oregano, coriander and honey, bring back to a bubbling simmer until you have a consistency that coats the back of a spoon and when you draw your finger down the middle of the spoon you draw a clean line in the sauce.  Take off the heat.

Have your clean sterile jars ready to pop in the oven, to sterile your jars and lids just run through the dish washer or wash in hot soapy water and rinse well, dry thoroughly then pop in your pre-heated oven 180 degrees for seven minutes, take out and fill the hot jars with the hot sauce, pop on the lids immediately, leave to cool and enjoy hearing the ping popping sounds of the jars re-setting their safety pop up buttons as the jars cool, this is one of my favourite sounds in the world self sufficient living!  These when canned successfully will last a year on the shelf, once opened keep in the fridge and use within a week.