What is Jerk Chicken?
Few Jamaican dishes are as popular and iconic as classic jerk chicken. In fact, you can easily find it prepared and sold throughout the island nation from high end restaurants to small roadside shacks. And while recipes for making jerk chicken can vary from place to place there are a number of similarities that are specific to the dish.
For starters, jerk chicken always begins by either marinating the meat or rubbing it with jerk seasoning. And the most common ingredients used include allspice, scotch bonnet peppers, and thyme. But many recipes also contain green onion, soy sauce, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, garlic, and even ginger. It all depends on personal preference.
The second key for making traditional jerk chicken is the way in which it’s cooked. Specifically, over the coals of pimento wood which gives the dish its distinct smokey flavor. Unfortunately pimento wood is pretty hard to come by unless you live in Jamacia. But you can still get a similar result by cooking your chicken over hot charcoal.
Tips, Tricks & Suggestions
- I prefer to use a quartered whole chicken so that everyone has the option of dark meat or white meat. That being said feel free to use only breasts, legs, or thighs if you prefer. Just make sure to get roughly 3 pounds of chicken.
- Traditional Jamaican jerk chicken is meant to be a spicy dish. But since everyone has different heat tolerances I have decided to leave the amounts for the scotch bonnet/habanero up to you. So if you really don’t like spicy food then use only 1 pepper in the marinade with the seeds removed. But if you love spice then make sure to use 3 to 4. 🙂
- While it’s not necessary I like to save the remaining marinade and use it to bast the chicken while it cooks.
- If it’s too cold outside to grill you can always make this in your oven. To do it simply place the chicken pieces on a baking sheet and cook in an oven for 30 to 45 minutes at 375 ℉.
- I like to serve my jerk chicken with a side of coconut rice.
Jerk Chicken Recipe
Prep time: 1 day (for marination)
Cook time: 30 minutes
Servings: 6 to 8
Ingredients
1 Whole chicken, quartered
Jerk marinade:
¼ Cup of brown sugar
2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
1 Tablespoon of white or apple cider vinegar
8 Green onions, roughly chopped
6 to 8 cloves of garlic
1 to 3 Scotch bonnet or habanero peppers, depending on how spicy you like it
1 Tablespoon of fresh ginger
2 Tablespoons of dried thyme leaves
2 Teaspoons of allspice, ground
1 Teaspoon of cinnamon, ground
½ Teaspoon of nutmeg, ground
2 Teaspoons of salt
Optional scotch bonnet sauce:
2 Teaspoons of reserved jerk marinade
4 Green onions
⅛ Cup of pineapple juice
⅛ Cup of white vinegar
1 Scotch bonnet or habanero pepper
1 Tablespoon of brown sugar
1 Teaspoon of salt
Instructions
- Make the marinade: Add all of the ingredients for the jerk marinade to a food processor or blender. Process all of these ingredients until the mixture forms a type of paste.
Set this marinade aside.
- Make the optional sauce: Place all of the ingredients for the scotch bonnet sauce into another food processor or blender. Blend until smooth and then pour into a jar.
This sauce can be stored in your fridge for a couple of days.
- Marinate the chicken: Add the quartered chicken to a shallow baking dish. Pour the jerk marinate over every piece and use your hands to rub it into the chicken.
Cover this dish and let it marinate in your fridge for at least 4 hours but preferably overnight.
- Grill chicken: Let the chicken get to room temperature by taking it out of the fridge 30 to 45 minutes before grilling. While that’s happening preheat your grill to medium heat. Once that’s done place each piece of chicken skin side down on the grill.
Let this chicken cook undisturbed for 5 minutes and then flip it over. Keep cooking and periodically flipping the chicken pieces until they are nicely charred and have an internal temperature of 165 Fahrenheit.
This should take about 30 minutes.
- Take the chicken off the grill and serve immediately, enjoy.
Jerk Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Whole chicken quartered
Jerk marinade:
- ¼ Cup of brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon of white or apple cider vinegar
- 8 Green onions roughly chopped
- 6 to 8 cloves of garlic
- 1 to 3 Scotch bonnet or habanero peppers depending on how spicy you like it
- 1 Tablespoon of fresh ginger
- 2 Tablespoons of dried thyme leaves
- 2 Teaspoons of allspice ground
- 1 Teaspoon of cinnamon ground
- ½ Teaspoon of nutmeg ground
- 2 Teaspoons of salt
Optional scotch bonnet sauce:
- 2 Teaspoons of reserved jerk marinade
- 4 Green onions
- ⅛ Cup of pineapple juice
- ⅛ Cup of white vinegar
- 1 Scotch bonnet or habanero pepper
- 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar
- 1 Teaspoon of salt
Instructions
- Make the marinade: Add all of the ingredients for the jerk marinade to a food processor or blender. Process all of these ingredients until the mixture forms a type of paste. Set this marinade aside.
- Make the optional sauce: Place all of the ingredients for the scotch bonnet sauce into another food processor or blender. Blend until smooth and then pour into a jar. This sauce can be stored in your fridge for a couple of days.
- Marinate the chicken: Add the quartered chicken to a shallow baking dish. Pour the jerk marinate over every piece and use your hands to rub it into the chicken. Cover this dish and let it marinate in your fridge for at least 4 hours but preferably overnight.
- Grill chicken: Let the chicken get to room temperature by taking it out of the fridge 30 to 45 minutes before grilling. While that’s happening preheat your grill to medium heat. Once that’s done place each piece of chicken skin side down on the grill. Let this chicken cook undisturbed for 5 minutes and then flip it over. Keep cooking and periodically flipping the chicken pieces until they are nicely charred and have an internal temperature of 165 Fahrenheit. This should take about 30 minutes.
- Take the chicken off the grill and serve immediately, enjoy.
