3.2/5 rating (6 votes)

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Fiery Marinaded Chicken

  • Heat Hot
  • Serves 4
  • Dietary Info HEALTHY
  • Prep 10 mins
  • Marinade 3 hrs
  • Cook 30 mins

Every country has a classic meat marinade and in Jamaica it's Jerk and its awesome!

Hari says

Jerk chicken is a all about BBQ's, sunshine, fun and hot chillies. This dish incorporates all the classic Jamaican flavours and boy it has a kick to it. The scotch bonnet is a very fiery chilli so please do be careful when you cook with it (you may need to use gloves).

It has a very distinct flavour that comes through this marinade because of the strong acidity of the chilli. If you choose to use a different chilli I would suggest adding a little vinegar to your marinad to help get that jerk flavour.

Ideally cook this on a BBQ to get the smoked flavours that jerk chicken is famous for. Serve with lots of salad, creamy coleslaw, grilled corn on the cob, rice and peas and obviously some rum punch - happy summer!

  • Ingredients
  • Method

Jerk Marinade

  • 8- 10 pieces of legs and thighs
  • Juice from 1 lime
  • Salt and pepper to season
  • ½ tbsp cinnamon, ground
  • 1 sprig of fresh thyme / 1 tbsp dried
  • 3 medium spring onions
  • 2 scotch bonnet peppers
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
  • 1 tbsp allspice, ground
  • 1 tbsp fresh ginger
  • 1 tbsp black peppercorns
  • 1 tbsp oil

 

Method

Jerk Marinade

  1. Trim chicken of excess fat and pat dry with a cloth or paper napkin. Slice though the skin fo the bone. Rub the chicken with a little lime, salt and pepper
  2. In a food processor blitz the cinnamon, thyme, spring onions, chillies, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, grated nutmeg, allspice, fresh ginger, peppercorns, oil until smooth.
  3. Smear the chicken with jerk marinate and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight. The marinade is very hot so you may want to use gloves.

To Grill

  1. Remove the marinaded chicken from the excess marinade and place on a griddle pan or hot BBQ. 
  2. Cook chicken for 20-30 minutes, until the meat is tender and the juices run clear (the internal temp should be approx. 72-75ºC),  the chicken will be smoky and charred. 
  3. In a small saucepan simmer the remaining marinade, you can add a little pineapple juice  and serve with the chicken.

Served with

Lots of salad, creamy coleslaw, grilled corn on the cob and rice and peas.

This goes well with

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