Ajiaco

Ajiaco

Chicken poaches with onion, garlic and herbs into a clean, golden broth. The first potato (sabanera, or floury maris piper) drops in to start; the small yellow papa criolla follows to break down and thicken; pastusa or red potatoes go in last to hold shape. Cobs of sweet corn cook in the same pot. Guascas, the dish's signature herb, adds at the very end. Each bowl tops with shredded chicken, avocado, capers and a generous spoon of cream; rice on the side.

Colombian 1 hour 40 minutes Serves6
Andhra Chicken Curry

Andhra Chicken Curry

Chicken thighs are marinated briefly with turmeric, ginger-garlic paste, yogurt and a pinch of red chilli. A dry-roast of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coconut, fennel, coriander and dried red chillies is ground with a splash of water into a coarse paste. The base is built with shallots, curry leaves and tomato; the chicken is browned in stages; and the masala paste is folded in for the long, gentle simmer. Tamarind and a curry-leaf temper finish.

Indian 1 hour 35 minutes Serves4-6
Bahamian Souse

Bahamian Souse

The Bahamas' Saturday-morning hangover cure, the breakfast bowl that arrives steaming in fish shacks and family kitchens across the islands the morning after a wedding or a heavy Friday. You poach bone-in chicken pieces (legs or wings) in lightly salted water with onion, celery, allspice, bay and a whole goat pepper for an hour or so, until the meat falls easily from the bone and the broth has taken on the perfume of the spice. Potatoes go in for the last fifteen minutes so they cook through but hold their shape. Off the heat, you acidify the souse hard with the juice of four or five limes (the souse is meant to taste sharply citric, not gently lemony) and a final tweak of salt. Ladle into deep bowls with the goat pepper floated on top for whoever's brave, and serve with johnnycake or grits on the side to soak.

Bahamian 1 hour 30 minutes Serves4-6
Bahamian Stew Chicken

Bahamian Stew Chicken

A dark, brown-roux-thickened stew that sits closer to Louisiana gumbo than to Jamaican brown stew chicken, a tell of how strong the Gulf Coast crossover is in Bahamian cooking. The dark roux is the defining step: flour cooked in oil until it goes the colour of cocoa or dark caramel, building toasted-nut depth that the rest of the dish leans on. The flavour profile is layered savoury: thyme as the dominant herb, smoked paprika for smoke, allspice (in the seasoned salt) for Caribbean lift, a single Scotch bonnet for fruity heat, lime juice at the end to wake everything up. The vegetables make it a complete dish, sweet potato, cassava, carrot, corn-on-the-cob pieces and yellow plantain, all hearty and starchy, all picking up the dark sauce. Smell is roasted flour, thyme, and slow-cooked tomato. Not hard but not quick, the roux needs unbroken attention for 5-8 minutes to avoid burning, and the rest is patient stewing. A Sunday-lunch staple across the Bahamas, traditionally served with rice and Johnny Cake (a Bahamian cornbread), and the kind of dish where the leftovers on day two are arguably better than day one.

Bahamian 1 hour 15 minutes Serves4
Bunjay-Style Curry Chicken

Bunjay-Style Curry Chicken

A dry curry rather than a saucy one, "bunjay" is Trinidadian patois for "fry-down", the technique of cooking meat in its own juices until the gravy completely disappears and the spices coat the surface of the meat in a sticky, glaze-like crust. The flavour is concentrated rather than diluted; nothing's been thinned with water or coconut milk, so what you taste is bone-in chicken, rendered chicken fat, and toasted spice. The spice mix is the East Indian Trinidadian signature: turmeric for colour and earth, roasted geera (toasted cumin, ground) for nuttiness, anchar masala for tang, regular curry powder for breadth. The pan oil splits and separates around the chicken at the end, which is the visual cue you're looking for. Smell when the curry powder hits hot oil is deeply aromatic, almost incense-like. Not difficult but it requires attention during the cook-down phase; if you walk away the curry burns onto the bottom of the pan. A Trinidadian household staple, eaten across the country with white rice and dhal, and a clean example of how Indian indentured labourers' descendants in the Caribbean evolved a distinct curry tradition over 150 years.

Trinidadian 2 hours 50 minutes Serves6
Cheesy Jerk Chicken Nachos

Cheesy Jerk Chicken Nachos

A Caribbean-American fusion that works because both food cultures speak the language of "everything on one tray". The base is American nachos: tortilla chips, melted cheese, black beans. On top sits jerk-marinated chicken thigh, which carries the dish's flavour, allspice, Scotch bonnet, nutmeg, cinnamon, thyme, soy and brown sugar blended into a wet jerk paste, marinated into the meat overnight, then oven-baked and sliced. The fresh element on top is a Trinidadian-style fruit chow: diced mango, pineapple, red bell pepper and red onion dressed with lime juice and cilantro. The chow is what makes this work; without it the nachos are just spicy meat-and-cheese, with it the dish has acid, crunch and sweetness to cut through the richness. Smell is melted cheese hitting jerk seasoning, with a citrus-tropical lift from the chow on top. Not difficult but it's three components running on different timelines, so plan ahead. A modern party-and-Super-Bowl-tray dish rather than something a Kingston grandmother makes, popularised by Caribbean-American food bloggers in the 2010s.

Jamaican 5 hours 30 minutes Serves4
Chicken Cafreal

Chicken Cafreal

A vivid green masala is ground from coriander leaves, mint, green chilli, garlic, ginger, cumin, peppercorns and clove with palm vinegar. Chicken pieces are slashed and marinated for at least 4 hours (ideally overnight). The pieces are pan-fried in the marinade-paste over high heat until the herb crust dries out and chars at the edges, with a small splash of water added halfway through to keep the chicken juicy. Served with a wedge of lime and a salad of onion and tomato.

Goan 45 minutes Serves4
Chicken Inasal

Chicken Inasal

Chicken inasal is the pride of Bacolod City on Negros Occidental, where streetside grill houses serve nothing else: trays of chicken parts skewered on bamboo, smoking over long coal pits, with the cook brushing on bright orange annatto oil every few turns. The marinade is what marks it as Filipino: calamansi (a small, sour citrus halfway between lime and tangerine), cane vinegar, ginger, lemongrass, garlic and a generous slug of black pepper. The annatto oil (atsuete) is just neutral oil warmed gently with annatto seeds until it stains a vivid orange-red; this is the dish's signature look and a mild peppery flavour. Basting starts halfway through cooking so the colour goes onto skin that's already partly cooked, and continues right up to the moment the chicken leaves the grill. Difficulty for a home cook is low; the only special ingredients are calamansi (lime juice plus a touch of orange juice substitutes well) and annatto seeds (sometimes sold as achiote, found in any Filipino or Latin American shop). The flavour profile is sharp, herbal, slightly smoky, with a peppery edge from black pepper rather than chilli, and ribbon-thin lemongrass perfume running through everything. Service is non-negotiable: a heap of garlic rice (sinangag), a saucer of toyomansi (soy-calamansi-vinegar dipping sauce with sliced chillies), and the cook's pot of warm annatto oil for the table.

Filipino 4 hours 50 minutes Serves4
Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

I’m a big fan of Thai chicken satay with peanut sauce. Although it isn’t necessary, it is best to marinate the chicken for at least a day. You could get away with 30 minutes but a longer marinating time will get you much tastier results. As the chicken soaks up that incredible marinade, it not only tenderizes it but makes it much juicier when cooked. This recipe could be used with thinly sliced pork or beef, both are also popular at Thai restaurants and takeaways. Pork is the meat of choice in Thailand but chicken is the most popular in the UK. I also like to serve this dish with cucumber and chilli relish.

Starters 35 minutes Serves6
Gai Yang

Gai Yang

Gai yang ("grilled chicken") is one of the cornerstones of Isaan cooking, the cuisine of north-eastern Thailand that has spread across the whole country and into Thai restaurants worldwide. The defining flavour is coriander root, an ingredient barely used in Western cooking but central to Thai marinades. Pounded in a granite mortar with garlic, white peppercorns and a pinch of salt, it forms an aromatic paste that's then mixed with fish sauce, oyster sauce and a touch of sugar. The chicken is butterflied (spatchcocked) so it lies flat on the grill, marinated for at least 4 hours, then cooked slowly over moderate charcoal. The proper Isaan technique is patient: 30 minutes or more, turning often, sometimes pressed flat between two bamboo splints, so the skin slowly crisps and the meat takes on smoke without burning. The flavour is savoury-funky from fish sauce, peppery-warm from white pepper, deeply garlic-and-herb from the paste, with no chilli in the marinade itself; heat comes from the dipping sauce. Difficulty is low for the home cook: a good mortar or a small food processor makes the paste in 2 minutes, butterflying a chicken is a single cut down the backbone, and any covered grill or kettle does the cooking. Eaten by hand with balls of sticky rice and dipped into nam jim jaew, the toasted-rice-and-tamarind dipping sauce.

Thai 5 hours Serves4
Grilled Jerk Chicken Thighs

Grilled Jerk Chicken Thighs

The dish lives or dies on the jerk marinade and on whether the chicken takes a proper char without drying out. The marinade here is jerk seasoning (homemade or Walkerswood, which is the canonical bottled brand) thinned with full-fat coconut milk and brightened with lime; the coconut milk is the technical move, it tames the heat, lubricates the meat, and helps the surface caramelise rather than blacken. Flavour is warm-piney from thyme and allspice, fiery from Scotch bonnet, slightly sweet from the browning sauce, deeply savoury once it hits high heat. Smell is unmistakable jerk: allspice smoke and pepper. Quick to cook once the marinade has done its work overnight, 15 minutes on a hot grill, 5 minutes rest. Originated on the eastern end of Jamaica (Boston Bay in Portland) where the Maroons, descendants of escaped enslaved Africans, developed a dry-rub-and-slow-smoke method over pimento wood; the modern grilled version is the home-kitchen adaptation that doesn't require a pimento-wood pit.

Jamaican 30 minutes Serves6
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