Once in martinique I ate at a restaurant that was so simple that almost all of the food—chicken, tuna, quail, pork, and veal kidneys—was grilled. Not only that; it was all served with the same thin, powerful sauce, made of lime, scallion, chile, and garlic, with loads of allspice. It was the allspice that made the sauce unusual, but there was more to it than that: the garlic and scallion looked uncooked but had lost their harshness and become easily digestible. Furthermore, the base of the sauce was not oil, but water. With the help of a friend who was born on Martinique, I was able to duplicate the sauce at home. It’s called sauce au chien, which means “dog sauce” (a fact I chose not to research too aggressively). And it’s great with almost anything grilled.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 4 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Start a grill or preheat the broiler. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce: Combine the garlic, scallions, chile, 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, the allspice, and oil in a small bowl. Add 1/2 cup of boiling water; stir and let sit.
Step 2
Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and grill or broil it, turning 2 or 3 times, until it is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Taste the sauce and add more chile, salt, pepper, or allspice if needed. Stir in the lime juice (which must be added at the last moment to retain its freshness). Serve the chicken hot or at room temperature, passing the sauce at the table.
Variations
Step 3
Serve the sauce with grilled fish or shellfish, especially shrimp; grilled ribs (or in fact grilled pork of any kind); or any grilled poultry.
Step 4
Add some chopped capers to the finished sauce to vary the flavor.
notes
Step 5
Scotch bonnet pepper, with its fierce heat and distinctive flavor, makes this sauce more authentic. But a small amount of Asian chile paste is fine, as is any other source of heat.
Step 6
If you have the patience to mince or grind allspice berries, the sauce will taste brighter; preground allspice will do the trick as long as it is reasonably fresh.
