Essay Sample on Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Introduction

Even the country has various cultures that make them unique. However, Jamaican culture tends to have a lot of traditions and customs. If an individual has not visited the nation or already has, they still need to go back because the nation has numerous cultures that someone cannot explore in a day. Some of the exciting cultures that attract them to numerous people are the music and the beautiful cuisines like the Jerk Chicken and numerous Caribbean recipes. Also, the other cultures of the Jamaicans are language, clothing, and religion (Wilkes, 2019). The customs and traditions of any nation are essential because it plays a role in the character and civilization of the community and citizens. Despite the primary cultures and traditions in Jamaica, this paper will focus on the cultural importance of the Jerk Chicken, its nutritional adequacy, and unique aspects.

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Jamaican Jerk Chicken

The Jamaican Jerk chicken is spicy meat that undergoes grilling in association with the Jamaican culture. However, Jerk is the cooking style where the primary ingredient is chicken, but other meat like pork, goat, beef, seafood, or even vegetables can also be applicable. The chicken is slow-cooked and coated with numerous spices on a grill or fire that comprises of green pimento wood whose positioning is above burning coals (Goldschmidt et al., 2018). The smoke that comes from burning coal is the key to a sweet flavor to the dish. The cuisine originated from Taino, whose work was the development of the jerk method and teaching other African slaves who ended up adapting to creating the chicken. In the nation of Jamaica, the jerk chicken is the most famous due to its pungent marinade, whose marking is done by Scotch bonnet peppers and allspice. The side dishes that accompany jerk chicken are plantains, cornbread fritters, rice, sweet potatoes, and beans.

Cultural Significance

The Jamaican jerk chicken is essential because it identifies the nation as well as shows the cultural heritage of the Jamaicans. For instance, Italy’s identification is pizzas, yet they eat various foods. The same case applies to the jerk chicken that people identify with the Jamaicans. The Jamaican jerk chicken has been passed from one generation to another from early in the days (Taylor & Kneafsey, 2016). Through the making of the jerk chicken, it shows that the people are proud of their ethnicity and know how to handle home sicknesses when they are in another nation. Through the Jamaican jerk chicken, the world can see the uniqueness in their values, history, beliefs, and lifestyle. Also, food is a way of connecting in various communities. Once a community figures out that they share the same food patterns, they are likely to have a good relation. In this case, the Jamaicans and Caribbean share the jerk chicken, which enhances their relation.

Nutritional Adequacy

The Jamaican jerk chicken entails numerous vitamins. These vitamins are vitamins A, C, D, E, B-6, and B-12. Apart from the vitamins, it also contains minerals like iron, calcium, folate, manganese, copper, magnesium, phosphorous, niacin, zinc, selenium, pantothenic acid, thiamin, and riboflavin. The diet also contains carbohydrates, whose amount is 2.4 grams, and the protein quantity is 30 grams (Goldschmidt et al., 2018). The diet has less cholesterol, potassium, and sodium. All of them do not even amount to one gram. The calories in the Jamaican jerk chicken is 184 grams (Wilkes, 2019).

Despite the diet being a healthy one, it has one shortcoming, which is having a lot of fat. The total amount of fat in the diet is 5 grams. The meal is healthy because, through the grilling of the meat, which entails much heat, it minimizes the risk of some diseases like cancer. Also, margination helps a lot, which takes 24 hours before cooking. Moreover, its accompaniments are many, and one can choose salad if they want a healthy meal or even sweet potatoes. Also, the meal has low carbohydrates hence making it a healthy meal because the consumption of many carbohydrates turns into far and stored in the body (Taylor & Kneafsey, 2016). Due to that, people tend to have chronic illnesses like hypertension. Finally, the meal is spicy, and according to research, nations that eat spicy meals cannot experience strokes and heart attacks.

Unique Aspects of Jamaican Jerk Chicken

The Jamaican jerk chicken is unique from numerous other chickens of other cultures. The first unique way is the method of preparation. The chicken if first marinated for 24 hours before being grilled (Wilkes, 2019). The other uniqueness is its pungent marinade that was marked by Scotch bonnet peppers and allspice that are the same to habanero chili peppers. Also, its side dishes are numerous; unlike most chicken dishes, their main accompaniments are just rice and salad. The final thing about the Jamaican jerk chicken is that its name is said to have originated from Spanish charqui that means meat dried strips.

Conclusion

Each nation has its traditions and culture that they follow and which enables people to identify them. In the Jamaican country, the Jamaican Jerk chicken is among their identification. The meal has numerous nutrients and vitamins, which makes it healthy. However, it tends to have much cholesterol. Also, the meal has numerous unique aspects like the mode of preparation and its pungent marinade.

References

Goldschmidt, J., Sankavaram, K., & Udahogora, M. (2018). Advancing cultural competencies: Applying the dietary exchange list system to Jamaican foods. Health Science Journal, 12(3), 1-9. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kavitha_Sankavaram/publication/326296186_Advancing_Cultural_Competencies_Applying_the_Dietary_Exchange_List_System_to_Jamaican_Foods/links/5b993a80299bf14ad4d53fd7/Advancing-Cultural-Competencies-Applying-the-Dietary-Exchange-List-System-to-Jamaican-Foods.pdf

Taylor, E., & Kneafsey, M. (2016). 11 Food tourism and place identity in the development of Jamaica’s rural culture economy. Food Tourism and Regional Development: Networks, products, and trajectories, 177. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=aQs9DAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA177&dq=jamaican+culture+and+tradition+of+jerk+chicken&ots=MEZVKrgIFK&sig=GUNOlIg7eGk3Y32w3U8iD26RKks

Wilkes, K. (2019). Eating paradise: food as coloniality and leisure. Annals of Leisure Research, 1-17. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/11745398.2019.1579102