25 Well-known Jamaican Dishes and Foods

Goat curry is a staple at Jamaican parties and special occasions, showcasing the rich Indo-Jamaican culinary tradition.

Brought to the island by Indian and Chinese immigrants, it’s prepared Caribbean-style, stewed with a unique blend of spices, featuring onions, garlic, peppers, and potatoes.

Typically served with steamed rice, dal bhat, or roti, the curry guarantees a satisfying meal.

Oxtail and beans is an adaptation of Jamaica, inspired by British culture and cuisine. The delicacy is made by braising local ingredients and spices to reflect the island’s flavor and identity.

Cooked either with a pressure cooker or simmered on the stovetop, this dish offers a tender texture, accompanied by a savory sauce.

Jerk chicken is a traditional Jamaican dish served at many restaurants in this country. This food was created by a tribe from Peru who settled in Jamaica 2500 years ago.

With its rich flavor and distinctive spicy taste, this jerk chicken was created by seasoning wild meat with spices and drying it with charcoal.

Nowadays, you can elevate this dish to a whole new caliber by serving jerk chicken with compatible foods like coconut rice, classic potato salad, maque choux, etc.

Mannish water is a traditional goat soup of Jamaica made from various parts of the animal. Renowned for its aphrodisiac qualities, it has a history of over 300 years, particularly in Maroon celebrations.

The dish is richly seasoned with local herbs and spices, and brimming with vegetables and provisions. Traditionally served to grooms on their wedding night, mannish water holds a special place in Jamaican culture and is frequently mentioned in literature about the island.

Brown stew chicken is a Jamaica savory specialty, featuring tender, savory chicken, meticulously seasoned and slow-cooked.

The thick, delicious gravy that accompanies the stew makes it an exceptional choice for serving with bread or rice.

Rundown, or run-dun, is a beloved stew in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago coming from Latin America with the arrival of Afro-Jamaican immigrants.

This stew, primarily made with mackerel, simmers in coconut milk until it reaches a creamy consistency, offering an irresistible smooth flavor.

While cooking, people will try to avoid overcooking the fish, ensuring it retains its beautiful texture and taste.

Ackee and saltfish is Jamaica’s national dish, combining the unique flavors of ackee, a fruit brought from Ghana, and salted codfish. Ideally, ackee must be fully ripe before consumption due to its toxicity.

This dish is crafted by sautéing salt cod and boiled ackee with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and a blend of spices.

Traditionally served as a hearty breakfast alongside breadfruit, bread, dumplings, or bananas, ackee and saltfish can also accompany rice and peas or plain rice.

Escovitch fish is a Jamaican dish that involves seasoning, marinating, and frying fish, typically red snapper or another firm white fish. The fish is then topped with a spicy, vinegar-based dressing.

This combination of flavors creates a vibrant and tangy dish that is aromatic. Escovitch fish is often served for breakfast or during special occasions and is celebrated for its aphrodisiac qualities.

Rum cake, or black cake, is a Jamaican delicacy, celebrated for its rich, moist texture and the distinctive flavor imparted by rum and butter syrup. This syrup not only enhances the cake’s taste but also preserves it for an extended period.

The cake is laden with dried fruits such as raisins, cherries, and prunes, which are soaked in wine and rum and incorporate browning or molasses for a deep color. Typically baked in a bundt or tube pan, rum cake is served without frosting or glaze.

While it is a quintessential treat during the Christmas season, it is also a popular choice for weddings, birthday parties, and other celebrations. In Jamaica and across the Caribbean, people even soak fruits in cherry brandy or rum to make black cake, a variant of rum cakes.

Jerk shrimp is a national dish in Jamaica with a unique flavor that’s hardly found anywhere else in the world. The Amerindians of the Taino and Arawak tribes invented this incredible food.

These shrimps offer a spicy taste, often grilled or sauteéd for a smoky profile along with a crunchy texture.

Fried plantains are a popular snack in Jamaica, along with many countries in the Caribbean region. These slices of bananas are often fried to a vibrant golden brown until the outer surface becomes golden brown. Once fried, these pieces are seasoned with salt and cinnamon before serving with jerk chicken or curry goat.

Bammy is one of the iconic dishes of Jamaica made using cassava flour. It is also known as cassava cake, made by frying the ground cassava root and coconut milk.

These beautiful golden brown cakes were first made in pre-Columbian times. This incredible food is often mixed with callaloo, a spicy stew, to create a taste-stimulating combo for diners.

Coconut bread, often referred to as coco bread, is a beloved Jamaican staple known for its slightly sweet flavor and starchy texture, achieved by incorporating milk or coconut milk into the dough.

This bread is designed to be easily split in half, creating the perfect pocket for stuffing with a Jamaican patty or other fillings to make a hearty sandwich.

Coco bread is a common sight in school cafeterias and bakeries across Jamaica, frequently served for dipping sauces. Today, coconut bread enjoys widespread popularity in the Caribbean and among Jamaican communities.

A Jamaican patty is a Jamaican baked pastry with a golden yellow and flaky shell made from turmeric or egg yolk dough. This delicious turnover boasts various fillings and spices, but seasoned ground beef is usually preferred.

Other fillings include pork, chicken, shrimp, veggies, seafood, or cheese. The locals either pair these patties with coco bread and enjoy them as a full meal or make them into bite-sized pieces to serve as cocktail patties.

Outside Jamaica, these yummy turnovers are famous in Costa Rica, Panama, and other Caribbean countries.

Saltfish fritter, widely known as “stamp and go” is a favorite Jamaican breakfast dish. Plus, it is an excellent snack possessing an eye-catching golden brown color and a crispy bite.

Its name, “stamp and go”, is associated with 18th-century English boatmen. The captains would shout “Stamp and Go” when they wanted to speed things up.

Festivals are a deep-fried bread of Jamaican cuisine, known for their slightly sweet flavor. These delightful side dishes perfectly complement savory meals like fried fish, escovitch fish, or jerk chicken.

Made from a dough that combines wheat flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, milk powder, sugar, and water, festivals are then deep-fried in neutral cooking oil until golden brown.

They are cherished for their crispy exterior and soft, fluffy interior. Served hot, festivals add a deliciously sweet balance to the spicy and savory flavors typical of Jamaican dishes.

Fried dumplings are a common meal of the Jamaican diet, dating back to the colonial and slave times when workers would carry fried biscuits for long trips to work.

Also known as “journey cake” or “Johnny Cake”, the food is often served with callaloo and kidney.

The fried dumplings with a clear and eye-catching yellow color offer a crispy shell along with a tender inside.

Bulla cake is a popular sweet treat, especially among schoolchildren in Jamaica. This flavorful cake consists of molasses, ginger, and nutmeg. It has a round and flat shape and can be dark or light in color.

Characteristically flat and round, Jamaicans usually enjoy bulla cake with butter, cheese, or avocado.

Besides being a wonderful snack or dessert, you can also enjoy bulla cake as a delicious breakfast at many food stalls in Jamaica.

Gungo pea soup is a brothy and heaty creation of Jamaica. To nail the flavor, the dish comes with pigeon peas, vegetables, and dumplings, offering a wonderful flavor and distinctively thick texture.

This delicious dish is a fabulous Jamaican specialty often served as on special occasions.

Callaloo is a Jamaican stew made from a plant of the same name, cooked with various ingredients. This dish is a fusion of West African and Taino culinary traditions.

In Jamaica, callaloo typically refers to a local variety of amaranth, which is steamed alongside saltfish or other meats and seasoned with a blend of garlic, carrots, tomatoes, salt, peppers, onions, scallions, thyme, and pimento.

Renowned for its versatility, callaloo can be enjoyed as a side dish, a hearty breakfast, or incorporated into patties, rice dishes, or fritters.

Gizzada, also known as “pinch-me-round” or “grizzada,” is a traditional Jamaican pastry. This sweet treat consists of a flaky, buttery crust formed into a tart shell, which is then filled with a spiced coconut filling.

The filling features a combination of grated coconut sweetened with sugar and flavored with spices such as ginger and nutmeg. The edges of the gizzada crust are often pinched to create a decorative pattern.

Originating from Portuguese influence on Jamaican cuisine, gizzada is a popular snack and dessert in Jamaica, enjoyed by people of all ages.

A spiced bun is a sweet, dense bread that is a staple in Jamaican cuisine, particularly popular during the Easter season but enjoyed year-round. This bun is richly flavored with a spice that often includes molasses or honey for sweetness.

The bun also comes with Ingredients like dried fruits (raisins, currants), and sometimes stout or red wine is added to enhance its flavor and moistness.

The bread is typically served sliced and buttered, often paired with cheese. Better yet, the Jamaican version has evolved to include local flavors and ingredients.

Ital stew is a Jamaican vegetarian creation, closely associated with the Rastafarian movement. The stew is made with vegetarian elements like simple vegetables in the country.

Some people even think that iodized salt is also considered a forbidden ingredient in this food. The food has a variety of flavors when it contains many different components, being able to swap out for each other.

Hummingbird cake is a standout among Jamaican desserts, originating in the 1960s and initially known as Doctor Bird cake.

While some believe its name reflects the bird’s yellow plumage, others attribute it to the cake’s sweetness, which purportedly attracts hummingbirds. . It’s known for its unique combination of flavors, including bananas, pineapple, and pecans, all spiced with cinnamon. The cake is typically layered and frosted with a creamy cheese icing,

Rice and pea is a dish in Jamaica of rice cooked with coconut milk and kidney beans. It is seasoned with thyme, scallions, garlic, allspice, and Scotch bonnet pepper.

This straightforward specialty often serves with jerk chicken, curry goat, or fried fish. Brought to Jamaica by the Akan tribe, it is considered a staple in the country.

The combination of rice and peas appears at almost every Jamaican lunch or dinner. In addition, on special occasions and Sunday dinners, it is an indispensable component.