• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Art of Improvisation

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Quick Meals
    • Breakfast
    • Starters & Snacks
    • Desserts
    • Breads & Baking
    • Pasta
    • Mains
    • Soups & Stews
    • From Scratch
  • Culinary Travel
  • Food for Thought
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
You are here: Home / Meat & Seafood / Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Filed Under: Mains, Meat & Seafood, Recipes November 7, 2020

Jump to Recipe

Jamaican style jerk chicken

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
  • 1/4 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
  • 1/2 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.

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.
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.

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

Jamaican jerk chicken

Print

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

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.
  • Author: Cristina
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 12
  • Total Time: 22 minutes
  • Yield: 8 1x
  • Category: Quick & Easy Meals
  • Method: Grill
  • Cuisine: Jamaican
Scale

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
  • 1/4 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
  • 1/2 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.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

You may also like

Previous Post: « Easy Mango Salsa in 10 Minutes or Less
Next Post: Classic Jamaican Rice & Peas »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆

Primary Sidebar

THE FACE BEHIND THE BLOG

photo me 4

Hi, my name is Cristina. I'm a Romanian from Toronto living in beautiful Amsterdam. I started this blog to share my love of cooking and food culture. What you'll find at the AOI are recipes and explorations of histories, techniques and flavours that bring the tastes of the world to your table.

Thanks for stopping by,

Cristina

Connect with the AOI Kitchen

  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Want new recipes in your inbox once a month?

Categories

Featured Posts

cinnamon and brown sugar pasta

Cinnamon & Brown Sugar Pasta

December 10, 2019 By Cristina 18 Comments

Cabbage roll soup with rice meatballs is all of the flavour of traditional cabbage rolls without the effort of rolling!

Cabbage Roll Soup with Rice Meatballs

January 18, 2021 By Cristina 9 Comments

Topics

15 minute meals (9) Amsterdam eats (9) bbq (2) beans (2) beef (4) cabbage (2) Caribbean (2) chicken (3) cookies (1) cooking classes (1) cooking with leftovers (5) dough (1) eating out (10) fennel (1) fish (9) ground meat (1) holiday baking (7) improvisation in the kitchen (17) Italy eats (1) Jamaican inspired (1) Jamaican style (1) meat (2) meat pie (1) Mexican inspired (1) noodles (1) one pot dinner (1) pastry (1) pies & tarts (7) puff pastry (3) recipe roundup (1) rice (1) romanian (13) salad (2) savoury baking (2) spices (1) thanksgiving (6) tomato (1) vegan (7) vegetarian (14) winter (1)

Footer

Recent Posts

  • Cabbage Roll Soup with Rice Meatballs
  • Slow Cooked Pork & Beans with Smoked Ham Hock
  • Plăcintă cu Carne | Romanian Meat Pie
  • Ciorbă de Perisoare | Romanian Porcupine Meatballs Sour Soup
  • The Easiest Creamy Bacon & Pea Pasta

Get new recipes in your inbox?

Categories

Some of my favourites

Homemade Jamaican beef patties with rice and peas in the background.
These fish tacos with mango salsa and creamy white lightning sauce are full of vibrant flavours layered together to create a perfect bite. Made with baked fish and lots of fresh ingredients, they’re healthy but they taste like pure indulgence. All for only 400 calories and 10 grams of fat per serving of 3. The best part is that they’re quick and easy to make. Fish tacos are the answer to boring weeknight meals.
Caramelized Roasted Cabbage Stuffed Phyllo Spirals
Homemade potato gnocchi with lamb ragu made from leftover roast lamb and mashed potatoes.

Contact

For collaborations and other inquiries please email

hello (at) theartofimprovisation (dot) com.

Copyright The Art of Improvisation© 2022

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok