Caribbean Grocery Staples
A practical guide to the pantry staples that anchor Jamaican, Haitian, Trinidadian, Guyanese, and pan-Caribbean home cooking. If you're shopping at a Caribbean or West Indian supermarket for the first time — or stocking a kitchen for jerk chicken, oxtail, ackee and salt fish, doubles, or rice and peas — these are the ingredients to buy first. Need plantains, jerk seasoning, scotch bonnets, or salt fish? Browse Caribbean supermarkets near you to find a shop that stocks them.
We're adding more stores in this category. List your store to be featured.
Green for tostones/boli, yellow for fried sweet plantains (dodo/maduros), ripe-black for the sweetest fry.
Starchy root vegetables — boiled, fried, or in soups. The foundation of provisions on a Caribbean plate.
Jamaica's national fruit (canned by Grace, Linstead) — paired with salt fish for the iconic breakfast.
Salted cod — soaked overnight, then sautéed with onions and ackee, or used in fritters.
Walkerswood, Grace, Eaton's — wet rubs and dry blends for chicken, pork, and tofu.
Fruity, intensely hot — the heart of Caribbean heat. Fresh, frozen, or in pepper sauces (Matouk's, Susie's, Marie Sharp's).
Goya sofrito, recaíto — the green sauce base of Latin-Caribbean rice, beans, and stews.
Grace, Goya — for rice and peas, run-down, curry chicken, and rundown stews.
Bone-in oxtail (the iconic braise), salted/pickled beef and pork for soups and stews.
Jamaican hardo bread — for breakfast, toasted with ackee, or as a sandwich base.
Beef, chicken, vegetable — Tastee, Juici, Golden Krust — fresh-baked or frozen.
Chief, Indi, Betapac, JCS — Caribbean curry blends (not Indian) for curry goat, chicken, and chana.
Black, thick, slightly bitter — the Guyanese pepperpot ingredient.
Grace, Spur Tree — for color and depth in oxtail, brown stew chicken, and ginger beer.
Long-grain rice and canned/dried gungo (pigeon) peas for rice and peas.
Ting (grapefruit), Malta, ginger beer, sorrel (seasonal), Champagne Cola, Bustamante.
Green seasoning (Trinidad), epis (Haiti), culantro/chadon beni, thyme, scallions, garlic.
Jerk seasoning, ackee, salt fish, scotch bonnets, oxtail, browning, hard dough, escallion, thyme.
Epis, pikliz (pickled cabbage/carrots), djon djon mushrooms, scotch bonnets, plantains, Maggi.
Chief curry powder, geera (cumin), chadon beni, dhal, pepper sauce, dhalpuri roti, doubles ingredients.
Cassareep, brown sugar, pepperpot ingredients, Chief curry, cook-up rice ingredients.
If you can only buy ten things: plantains, jerk seasoning, scotch bonnets, salt fish, coconut milk, browning sauce, Caribbean curry powder (Chief or Indi), long-grain rice, pigeon peas, and oxtail. From there you can cook rice and peas, curry chicken, brown stew, and ackee and salt fish.
Caribbean and West Indian supermarkets, plus broader Latin and African-Caribbean markets. See our Caribbean Supermarkets Near Me directory.
Caribbean curry powder (Chief, Betapac, JCS) is yellow-orange and warm — heavier on coriander, cumin, fenugreek, and turmeric, lighter on chili. It's used in curry goat, chicken, and chana — not interchangeable with regional Indian masalas.
For authentic Caribbean cooking, yes. A habanero is the closest substitute (similar heat and fruitiness). Jalapeños and serranos lack the fruity tropical note that defines Caribbean heat.