First day of a new challenge and tonight we have a family favourite, Jerk Chicken with Rice and Kidney beans. Normally I would cook this with Black beans, but as they’re twice the price of tinned kidney beans, and there’s not much difference in flavour. We opt for the cheaper beans. We wash the sauce off them first before we add them to the rice.

I also use fresh herbs from my garden when possible, and as it’s spring time and my flowerpots are growing nicely that saves even more money. I just need to keep the slugs off my vegetables this year and we should have lots of tomatoes and courgettes too.

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Breakfast
Toast or Porridge

Lunch
Cheese salad sandwich

Dinner
Jerk chicken with rice and beans

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RECIPE

Jerk Chicken legs with rice and beans
Recipe by Jamie Oliver

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 chicken legs
1 tablespoon honey
Few springs of rosemary
Few springs of thyme

Ingredients for the Jerk Sauce

1/2 spring onion
Handful fresh thyme
2 fresh bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon  ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3 tablespoons rum
3 tablespoons wine vinegar
1 tablespoon runny honey
1 chilli
2 cloves garlic

Ingredients for the Rice and beans

1/2 spring onion sliced
1 small cinnamon stick
200g rice
400ml chicken stock
1/4 tin of kidney beans

Method

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C or Gas Mark 5.

Then make up your Jerk sauce by chopping up the spring onions a bit and put them in a blender with all the other sauce ingredients and whizz for a few minutes.

Oil a griddle pan, or a normal pan if you haven’t got a griddle, and get it roasting hot. Put the chicken legs skin-side down in the hot pan and then leave it alone for about 5-6 minutes. Don’t poke it about because you want the skin to go crispy and charred a bit.

Pour your whizzed jerk sauce into an oven dish. Then remove the chicken from the pan and place skin-side up in the pool of sauce.

Drizzle over, if you like, an extra tablespoon of honey, more salt and pepper and sprigs of thyme and rosemary and cook on a high shelf for 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

While the chicken is cooking you can make the rice and beans by slicing the spring onion then fry this with a little oil and a cinnamon stick and salt and pepper for a few minutes.

Then add the rice and chicken stock. Then drain and rinse the kidney beans and add to the pan.

Bring to the boil then simmer for 15 minutes with the lid on. After this time the liquid should have absorbed. Season to taste and serve with the chicken and a side salad.

I always save back a little rice and sauce heated for my lunch the next day.