# The best traditional Jamaican dishes

Jamaica's essential dishes, from the national ackee and saltfish to Maroon jerk, picked from Jamaican food guides.

- 106 votes · 12 items
- Nov 17, 2025 · fitfam_victoria
- https://even.best/en/l/394/the-best-traditional-jamaican-dishes

## Top 10

1. **Curry goat** (16 · ▲16 ▼0) — Goat curry, legacy of 19th-century Indian indentured labourers.
2. **Jerk chicken** (15 · ▲15 ▼0) — Chicken in a scotch bonnet and allspice marinade smoked over pimento wood, a Maroon technique.
3. **Ackee and saltfish** (11 · ▲12 ▼1) — The national dish: salt cod with ackee fruit, which looks like scrambled eggs, eaten for breakfast.
4. **Rice and peas** (11 · ▲11 ▼0) — Rice cooked with kidney beans, coconut milk and thyme, the Sunday side.
5. **Jamaican patty** (5 · ▲7 ▼2) — Flaky golden pastry filled with spiced beef, chicken or vegetables.
6. **Festival** (5 · ▲7 ▼2) — Sweet fried cornmeal dumplings eaten with jerk or fish.
7. **Escovitch fish** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Fried fish topped with pickled onions, carrots and peppers.
8. **Bammy** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Cassava flatbread from the Arawak tradition.
9. **Callaloo** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Leafy greens steamed with onion and tomato, often for breakfast.
10. **Mannish water** (4 · ▲6 ▼2) — Goat soup served at celebrations, said to give strength.
11. **Brown stew chicken** (3 · ▲5 ▼2) — Chicken stewed in a browning sauce.
12. **Oxtail stew** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Oxtail braised with butter beans and spices.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.