As part of a promotional program with The Mommy Factor and French’s, I received product samples for review purposes. No other compensation was received. Views expressed are always 100% my own.

—

Chicken and I have a love/hate relationship.  For a Caribbean woman who doesn’t want chicken with a “fresh” taste, there is a whole lot of rigmarole that goes into cooking a chicken dish.  So for this review, I had a decision to make.  Big chicken or little chicken (cornish hen)… big fuss or little fuss.

I chose little fuss.

Seasoning jerk chicken usually takes 24 hours in the fridge.  I was interested to see if this could work in just 10 minutes.  After all I have to do to clean a chicken, anything to make the process shorter is a plus, right? Right.

I chose this little cornish hen. Isn’t it cute!

I wasn’t about to use a lime on this little bird AKA “Little Fuss”, so I used lemon juice and salt to clean it.  Rinsed it under cold water.  It only took a few minutes… sweet!

This is the French’s 10 Minute Marinade Flavor Infuser™ bottle – Caribbean Jerk flavor.  I removed the cap, removed the foil seal, and got started.

There’s no valve or anything to make it stop dispensing if you aren’t squeezing it, so you had better have a plan for where you plan to inject the marinade.  There’s not a lot in the bottle, so you don’t have any to waste.  It cannot be reused.  Since it has the tube shape, you can’t set it down on the counter to reposition your bird, so really – have a plan.  You can’t replace the cap and set it down that way, because like I said… no valve.

I didn’t have too much of an issue because I picked Little Fuss.  With a bigger bird, be prepared to be more strategic.  I gave it two shots in the breasts, two shots under the wings, one in each thigh, and one in each leg.

Sometimes it would plump up and make a bubble like I was giving the bird botox.  That was amusing, but I didn’t have time to laugh… I kept on infusing.

After I was all done, I let Little Fuss rest for 10 minutes with some foil over it, while I cut and salted some onions for the cavity.

Here’s Little Fuss before…

…and here’s Little Fuss after. Looked and smelled really good.  Not much like Jerk Chicken, but good nonetheless.

Look at this itty bitty leg.

So here was lunch.  Rotini with cheese and Jerk cornish hen!  Now the verdict…

Baby Girl – “I wonder if these corny hens know they taste so good.”

Mr. Social – “Cornish hens are good mommy… what is this in it? A1?”

Big One – “This is a small chicken.”

Mom – “This is really good, Eva.”

Everyone liked it, myself included, but no one recognized it as jerk chicken, and we are a family well versed in the smell and taste of some jerk.  It didn’t have any real spice, and I used the whole bottle on just one cornish hen.  Even though it is supposed to season three to four pounds of meat, I would be concerned that it wouldn’t add enough flavor for a whole chicken.

It didn’t have any “heat” to it either. I was expecting a little kick, but there wasn’t one.  The kids appreciated the mild flavor, but I was looking for a little something different.

Nice flavor, yes. Family friendly, yes. A good example of “Caribbean Jerk”? No.

Things that French’s would like you to know about their 10 Minute Marinade Flavor Infuser™, Caribbean Jerk flavor:

• It does not contain gluten or allergens.
• It does not need to be refrigerated before use, but it cannot be reused.
• There are four flavors: Sweet and Tangy Teriyaki, Classic Steakhouse, Zesty Italian, and Caribbean Jerk.
• MSRP: $2.99 each
• The Jerk flavor was recommended for pork loin (I chose chicken because I don’t eat pork.)

Have you used a method like this to flavor meats before?  Could you tell the difference?

For more information on this product, visit the French’s website or French’s Facebook page.