Yeah, mon

While we were reminiscing memories of our honeymoon which occurred almost a month ago, I decided to try my hand at attempting one of the dishes we ate at the “Beach BBQ” our first night there:  Jamaican Jerk Chicken and Pasta.  We both can’t believe that it’s been almost a month since we got married (4 weeks exactly today although our “real” 1st month anniversary occurs on Monday!  So far, I don’t think it’s hit us that we’re actually married haha   Anyway, back to the recipe, here’s the breakdown…

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rotini whole wheat pasta
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 Jamaican BBQ Jerk Sauce (we used Island Spice)
• 8 ounces chicken breast, cut into pieces
• S+P

Directions:

• Mix tomato sauce and jerk sauce together until combined well.  Separate sauce into two portions.
• Place chicken in oven-safe casserole dish and pour 1 portion of tomato sauce/jerk sauce mixture over top stirring well.  Let sit for 30 minutes (as a marinade).
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Place chicken in oven and bake for 20-30 minutes, consistently stirring and flipping to ensure even cooking.  Check to ensure that chicken is fully cooked before removing from oven (your oven temp may differ from mine).
• While chicken is baking, boil water for pasta.  When you have a rolling boil, add pasta noodles and boil until al dente or desired result.
• Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat 2nd portion of sauce mixture to warm
• Strain pasta and serve onto plate.  Place baked chicken on top and divide 2nd portion of warmed sauce on top.  Season with salt & pepper.
• Enjoy!

This dish was a wonderful treat for Bill and I as we absolutely love jerk sauce and seasoning.  However, if you are not a huge fan of hot/spicy foods, you may want to scale back the amount of jerk sauce you use because ours was very hot.  Bill had to get up and keep getting additional glasses of water