Jerk Seasoning

This past weekend I went to one of my favorite restaurants in Saskatoon: the Konga Cafe. It is a Caribbean Restaurant with amazing food and the best key lime pie I have ever eaten, but that's for another post. I was inspired to find a recipe for a jerk rub that I could use with various meats. I tried this blend with burgers, that will be posted in a few days, and it was great! Not quite that same as the Konga Cafe but still good!

Jerk is a style of cooking native to Jamaica in which meat is dry-rubbed or wet marinated with a very hot spice mixture called Jamaican jerk spice. Jerk seasoning is traditionally applied to pork and chicken. Modern recipes also apply jerk spice mixes to fish, shrimp, shellfish, beef, sausage, lamb, and tofu. Jerk seasoning principally relies upon two items: allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers, other ingredients include cloves, cinnamon, scallions, nutmeg, thyme, garlic, and salt.

2 tbsp dried minced onion
2 1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt

In a small bowl, stir together the dried onion, thyme, allspice, ground black pepper, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and salt. Use as a rub for chicken, pork or mixed with beef for burgers.