Review: Nanny's Jerk Marinade - Mild

With the Fancy Food show behind us, I finally have the time to get back to doing some more reviews. It can be nice to stay in a fancy hotel and have meals prepared by a chef at a hoity-toity restaurant, but I find that both my budget and my patience are tested each day by the bland restaurant food, too soft bed, and the $50 a day for parking…It’s good to be home!

Initial Impression: I’m a big fan of Jamaican Jerk. When I saw this bottle I definitely smiled. I have not had a decent jerk chicken since the Caribbean Zone shut its doors years ago. Nanny’s looks like a quality product and I am excited to try it. I think I will break out the new tumble marinator I got for ChristmaKwanannukah; let’s not leave anyone out!

Ingredients: Organic onions, water, organic soy sauce, organic green onions, organic hickory smoke flavor, garlic, distilled vinegar, habanero peppers, allspice, salt caramel color, organic cane juice, thyme, chili powder.

Hey, there are a lot of organic ingredients in here. Do you think this stuff might be organic? Are the peppers organic? It doesn’t say. Hmmm? Well, the ingredient list looks great; no funky stuff, no fillers, preservatives or colors. Me Likey!

Appearance: Nanny’s has sort of a strange look for a bottled product. It looks like brown pulp in water. It doesn’t really stay together; rather the pulpy stuff settles together and sticks to the sides. This looks more like a homemade recipe than something you would expect to see in a bottle. When I poured it over the chicken in the marinating hopper I got the same results; the liquid went to the bottom and the pulp collected on the meat. Well, it’s nothing that bashing around in the marinating hopper under a vacuum for 20 minute won’t fix.

Aroma: Wow, when I opened the cap and inhaled the savory bouquet it was not at all what I had expected. Nanny’s Jerk marinade smells like a fine steak or BBQ sauce. It is rich and sweet smelling with hints of garlic and onion, and a smooth toasty finish. I was expecting the usual overpowering smell of clove and pimento that so many of these sauces have. I was pleasantly surprised.

Taste: As I expected an out of the bottle taste was not so pleasant. It was a little salty and the flavor was flat and oniony. There was not much else going on. This is not really an appropriate taste test for this kind of product since it needs the magic chemical reaction of heat to make it all work. We’ll have to wait for the Food test before we can really know!

The Food Test: Now that the chicken breast tenders are done flopping around in their Caribbean fun house, it’s time to cook! I opted for the indoor grill, since it is cold and raining here. These tenders cooked up nicely in this marinade. Some of the pulp that was on the chicken formed a savory and delicious crust where it hit the grill. The flavors defiantly developed during this process and the saltiness that we detected in the bottle was gone. The flavors of the crust, along with the onion, and the spices, came alive and were now a complex and pleasing blend; that happily dance on your tongue.

Conclusion: Nanny’s Jamaican Kitchen Jerk Marinade is a wonderful change from the over sweetened and over perfumed jerk marinades and spices you usually find. This feels like the real deal. If you went to someone’s home in Jamaica and were served an authentic Jerk meal I bet it would taste just like this. Since this was the mild version there was very little heat to speak of, but they make a spicy version and I fixed mine with some Caribbean Red habanero sauce. “Dis ees a real winna mon!”

Packaging 9/10 – Looks Authentic
Aroma 9/10 – Savory & Delicious
Appearance 6/10 – Strange & Pulpy
Taste 10/10 – “It make everyting Ire”
Heat 0/10 – Mild Flavor N/A

Overall 9/10