Jamaican Browning Sauce Is The Secret Weapon For Flavorful Chicken

Chicken shall be bland no more, but to make that happen we've got another condiment to add to your stockpile of seasonings.

According to Serious Eats and Immaculate Bites, browning sauce is a must-have item in any Jamaican and Caribbean kitchen. The sauce is basically made from brown sugar that has been cooked and liquidized until it's extra brown (almost black) with water and salt. This browning provides the sauce with an extra rich, smoky, and almost bitter flavor — pleasantly bitter, as Immaculate Bites describes — with a hint of molasses. It can be similar in looks and consistency to Worcestershire sauce, but the flavor is very different as the base is sugar rather than vinegar.

With a sweet and salty profile, browning sauce has a wide variety of uses and can be found in many Jamaican dishes and Caribbean staples. It provides a savory flavor to the gravy of several regional stews and creates a beautiful brown hue on chicken (per Serious Eats). However, its sweet side also makes it useful for a few cakes and other desserts, according to Immaculate Bites.

Ready to use this unique sauce in your cooking? According to Taste of Home, a ready-to-use bottle of browning sauce can be found in grocery stores near the gravy mixes and is easy to keep in your pantry and use whenever a recipe calls for it.

But if you would rather try your hand at making the sauce from scratch, the recipe is fairly straightforward. Immaculate Bites explains to make browning sauce melt brown sugar on low heat until it's frothy and dark brown then slowly add boiling water and stir until the sauce is ready. Just be careful to not let the sugar get too dark and burn, or else the sauce will be too bitter and unusable. The outlet says that any leftover sauce can be stored in any clean and airtight container, squeeze bottle, or glass bottle for six months to a year in the fridge.

If it's really that easy, we'll be adding this trick to our pantries and our list of go-to condiments to add to chicken.