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.

　　

Ingredients

makes 4 servings

　　1 tablespoon slivered or minced garlic

　　6 scallions, trimmed and minced

　　1 jalapeño, habanero, or scotch bonnet chile, seeded, stemmed, and minced, or chile paste (see Notes) or hot red pepper flakes to taste (start with about 1/2 teaspoon)

　　Salt and freshly ground black pepper

　　1/2 teaspoon ground allspice, or to taste (see Notes)

　　1 tablespoon peanut, grapeseed, corn, or other neutral oil

　　8 chicken thighs (about 2 pounds)

　　Juice of 1 lime

　　

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.

　　From Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes From the New York Times by Mark Bittman Copyright (c) 2007 by Mark Bittman Published by Broadway Books.Mark Bittman is the author of the blockbuster Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.