Jerk Chicken

Right before I got married, I received an email from a reader (Laura) asking about a Jerk Chicken Recipe. This couldn’t have been a better time to ask for this recipe as I was heading to the Caribbean for my Honeymoon. While on VayCay, I ate a lot of Jerk Chicken. I thought all of it was amazing, but one stood out. It had a great combination of thyme, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. You could taste all of the individual spices. I experimented to try to recreate this masterpiece. After a few variations I finally determined the ratios.

Roughly chop up the scallions, garlic, and onion. Place them into a blender for preparing the sauce. Add the sugar, thyme, allspice, pepper, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and dry mustard to the blender.

Add the lime juice, orange juice, soy sauce and olive oil to the blender.

Next remove the stem and seeds from the habanero peppers and place them into the blender. I recommend using rubber gloves when doing this. The heat from the peppers will stick with you for a long while. The last thing you need is to accidentally touch your eye 4 hours after cutting up one of the spiciest peppers known to man.

Pulse the blender until everything is smooth.

Place the chicken into a 1 gallon plastic zip top bag and cover with the marinate. Place the chicken in the refrigerator and let marinate for 4-24 hours. The longer it marinates the more flavorful the chicken will be. Make sure to turn the chicken a couple of times while it marinates.

Preheat your grill to medium/high. If using charcoal make sure to place the coals to one side making an indirect heat area on one side.

Cook the chicken for 15-20 minutes over the medium/high heat. Make sure to turn the chicken so that it gets browned on all sides.

Once the chicken is browned, turn off one of your burners and move the chicken so that it cooks over indirect heat. Close the lid and continue to cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the juices run clear.

Serve the chicken over rice with your favorite sides.

This was an amazing jerk chicken. It was reminiscent of the great chicken I had in the Caribbean. I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did. It totally brought me back to the Caribbean.

— Rex

Jerk Chicken

Caribbean jerk chicken with homemade marinade featuring scotch bonnet peppers, allspice, thyme, and citrus. Marinated and grilled to perfection.

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 5 scallions roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves roughly chopped
• 1 small onion roughly chopped
• 3 Scotch Bonnet or Habanero Peppers seeded
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar packed
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves or 2 teaspoons dried
• 2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon dried mustard
• 2-3 lbs chicken

Method

 

1. Roughly chop scallions, garlic, and onion. Place into blender.
2. Add sugar, thyme, allspice, pepper, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and dry mustard to blender.
3. Add lime juice, orange juice, soy sauce, and olive oil to blender.
4. Remove stem and seeds from habanero peppers and add to blender. Wear rubber gloves when handling peppers.
5. Pulse blender until marinade is smooth.
6. Place chicken into a large zip-top plastic bag and cover with marinade.
7. Refrigerate chicken for 4-24 hours, turning chicken a couple of times while it marinates.
8. Preheat grill to medium-high. If using charcoal, place coals to one side for indirect heat area.
9. Cook chicken 15-20 minutes over medium-high direct heat, turning to brown all sides.
10. Move chicken to indirect heat side, close lid, and cook another 15-20 minutes until juices run clear.
11. Serve over rice with favorite sides.

Notes

The longer the chicken marinates, the more flavorful it will be. Use rubber gloves when handling habanero peppers to avoid skin irritation. This recipe is inspired by authentic Caribbean jerk chicken.