Menus & Cuisines
Jamaican Catering in Medellín
Medellin Elite Catering brings Jamaican cooking to Medellín parties: jerk chicken charred over charcoal, curry goat braised until it falls off the bone, and rice and peas cooked in coconut milk. We marinate, braise and bake in our own kitchen, then finish the grill work at your venue.
Our Jamaican menus suit birthday parties, pool days at fincas, Caribbean cultural nights and companies with teams from the islands, the United Kingdom or the United States. They also please Colombian guests from the coast, who recognize the coconut, plantain and fried fish straight away.
We have been catering events across the Aburrá Valley since 2019. Jerk is a dish where shortcuts show, so we keep to a 24-hour marinade, real allspice and a fire hot enough to blister the skin.
- Itemized quotes available
- Bilingual English and Spanish coordinators
Plan your event
Our Jamaican Catering
We serve Jamaican food as a drop-off buffet, as a staffed buffet with our servers, or as a live jerk grill with a buffet of sides. The food is casual by nature and works best at relaxed events: garden birthdays, pool parties, beach-themed office celebrations and long Saturday lunches.
For a party at a finca with a pool, combine the jerk grill with our pool party catering setup, which plans food that can sit safely in the heat and plates that are fine near water. For a milestone celebration indoors, the curry goat and rice and peas buffet travels well and needs no grill at all. Drop-off buffets reach homes and offices across the valley, including catering in Envigado, and rum punch can be added through our bar service using spirits with the Antioquia tax stamp.
Jamaican Menu
A Jamaican menu from our kitchen usually has one jerk meat, one stew or curry, rice and peas, plantain, a bread and a fresh drink. You can choose up to two mains for groups under 50 guests and three for larger events.
| Dish | What it is | How we make it |
|---|---|---|
| Jerk chicken | Bone-in chicken marinated in scallion, thyme, allspice and hot pepper | 24-hour marinade, roasted, then charred on charcoal |
| Jerk pork | Pork shoulder in the same marinade | Slow-cooked, then grilled and chopped |
| Curry goat | Goat on the bone in Jamaican curry powder with potato | Braised 3 hours until tender |
| Rice and peas | Rice cooked with red kidney beans, coconut milk, thyme and allspice | Beans soaked overnight |
| Festival | Slightly sweet fried cornmeal dumplings | Fried at 175 °C close to service |
| Fried plantain | Ripe sweet plantain slices | Fried the same day |
| Escovitch fish | Fried fish under a pickled onion, carrot and pepper dressing | Made with local tilapia or red snapper |
| Sorrel and ginger drinks | Hibiscus with ginger and spice; fresh ginger lemonade | Brewed the day before and chilled |
Goat is common in La Guajira and Santander but less so in Medellín, so we order it from a specialty butcher at least 5 days ahead. We do not serve ackee and saltfish, because ackee is hard to import into Colombia reliably, and we would rather offer saltfish fritters made with bacalao than a poor substitute.
For quantities, we plan one chicken leg quarter (about 250 g raw) or 160 g of cooked pork per guest, 150 g of curry goat when it is a second main, 150 g of rice and peas and two festivals. Plantain disappears faster than anything else, so we bring 30% more than the headcount suggests.
Jerk on the Grill
A live jerk grill means a cook finishes the marinated meat over charcoal at your event, so guests get it smoky, blistered and hot. In Jamaica jerk is cooked over pimento wood, which is not sold in Colombia, so we scatter soaked allspice berries and thyme over the coals to get the same fragrant smoke.
We bring a charcoal drum grill, a chopping station with a cleaver, insulated carriers holding the pre-roasted meat at food-safe temperature, and a fire extinguisher. The station needs about 3 by 3 m of flat outdoor ground, away from guest seating and downwind of the dance floor, and a canopy in the rainy months of April to May and October to November.
Many residential towers in El Poblado and Envigado do not allow charcoal on terraces, under the building rules set by their administration under Ley 675 of 2001. In those cases we switch to a gas grill, check the approval with the building before the date, and finish the char with a hand torch.
Caribbean Links With Colombia
Colombia has its own Caribbean coast and an English-speaking island, so Jamaican food is closer to home here than many visitors expect. On San Andrés and Providencia, the Raizal community cooks rondón, a coconut milk stew of fish, conch, yuca, plantain and dumplings that is a close cousin of Jamaican run down.
On the mainland coast, from Cartagena to Barranquilla, cooks serve arroz con coco, patacones, fried mojarra and coconut sweets that would look familiar in Kingston. These shared ingredients make a mixed Jamaican and costeño menu easy to build, and our suppliers in Medellín stock coconut, plantain, yuca and fresh fish every day.
If your guests want lighter bites rather than a full plate, our wing catering menu includes jerk wings that work well as a starter or a late-night snack.
Questions and answers
Jamaican Catering FAQs
How spicy is jerk chicken?
Traditional jerk chicken is hot, because the marinade is built on Scotch bonnet type peppers, but we can make it as mild as you like. Our standard version is medium, and we cook a mild batch with the same allspice, thyme and scallion but only a trace of chili for children and cautious guests. A bottle of extra-hot pepper sauce goes on the side for anyone who wants the full island heat.
Can you combine Jamaican and Colombian Caribbean dishes?
Yes, and the combination works naturally because the two cuisines share coconut rice, plantain, yuca and fried fish. A popular mix is jerk chicken and curry goat next to arroz con coco, patacones and a San Andrés style rondón. We label each dish so guests know which side of the Caribbean it comes from.
Reserve your date
Bring Jerk to Your Next Party
Tell us your date, venue, guest count and whether you want a live jerk grill or a delivered buffet, and you will have an itemized quote within 24 hours. Prefer email? Write to info@medellincatering.com.
- Itemized quotes available
- Menus, staff, tableware, setup and cleanup in one quote
- Food-handler certified team and labeled allergens on every tray
- Monday to Saturday
- 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
- Sunday
- Closed (events still run)