Jerk chicken is a perfect blend of spice, salt, acid and heat. The quick jerk marinade turns your regular chicken thighs into a super flavourful meal even on a busy weeknight. A good marinade is probably the easiest way to go from regular chicken to an exciting meal.
For this jerk marinade I adapted the Food & Wine Jerk Chicken based on the user comments - a little less salt and alot more flavour friends.
Ingredients
- 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 5 green onion stalks
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1-2 Scotch bonnet or habanero peppers, stems removed
- ¼ cup of soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons of lime juice (or lemon in a pinch)
- 1 inch piece of fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
- 1.5 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Chinese five spice powder
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 1.5 teaspoons ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- Small pinch of cinnamon
I used boneless skinless chicken thighs for this recipe. You can also use bone in skin on chicken thighs. Breasts could also work but won't brown as much due to a lower fat content.
You might like these other tropical dishes:
- Jamaican Rice & Peas
- Jamaican Beef Patties
- Coconut Lime Rice with Cilantro & Black Beans
- Easy Mango Salsa in 10 Minutes or Less
- Baked Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa & White Lightning Sauce
If you have a food processor or blender the easiest way to make the marinade is to just blend up all the ingredients. If not you'll need to do a bit of chopping. Then simply coat your chicken and let marinade for an hour. You can of course marinate for longer. Some people go up to 24 hours. But if you aren't always the best at forward planning for dinner then you can cheat like I often do and only marinate for an hour. It's still a whole hour! The flavour is still amazing even with only an hour long marinade.
After marinating for an hour or longer then grill for about 5-6 minutes per side or roast at 200 C / 400 F for about 45 minutes or until cooked through.
Garnish with grilled or fresh citrus and slivered green onion.
Jerk chicken is great with these other Caribbean inspired dishes:
- Jamaican Rice & Peas
- Coconut Lime Rice with Cilantro & Black Beans
- Easy Mango Salsa in 10 Minutes or Less
- Jamaican Beef Patties
Ingredients
- 8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 5 green onion stalks
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1-2 Scotch bonnet or habanero peppers stems removed
- ¼ cup of soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons of lime juice
- 1 inch piece of fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
- 1.5 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Chinese five spice powder
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 1.5 teaspoons ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- Small pinch of cinnamon
Instructions
- By hand: Finely dice the onions, garlic, peppers, ginger and thyme. Combine them with the rest of the ingredients and the chicken in a large bowl or zipper bag. Mix well so the chicken is fully coated.
- Food processor/blender: Throw everything but the chicken into your food processor or blender and pulse until it's a super fragrant brown slurry with some bigger chunks of green onion still left intact. Pour the mix over the chicken in a large bowl or zipper bag. Mix well so the chicken is fully coated.
- Marinate the chicken in the fridge for between 1 - 24 hours.
- Grill: Grill over high heat for 5-6 minutes per side or until cooked through.
- Oven: Roast at 200 C / 400 F for 40 - 45 minutes or until cooked through.
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