I’m all for spicy/savory meat marinades and when I found recipes for Jamaican jerk chicken I knew I had to give it a try. I found a few good recipes but since I couldn’t find some of the ingredients I had to switch things around a bit. Lots of jerk recipes require scotch bonnet peppers and rum but I had neither. I substituted bonnets for serrano peppers and rum with molasses and I thought those worked out pretty well. The chicken was great; the vinegar in the marinade broke down the protein and made the meat tender. I was surprised that the sauce didn’t caramelize on the chicken since I saw plenty of pictures that showed this. I would guess there wasn’t enough brown sugar and molasses to get that glazed look. It turned out fine though and I ended up not minding that at all.
Jamaican Jerk Chicken
(Makes 2 Servings)
Printable Version
Ingredients:
- 4 Chicken thighs, skin on
- 1 serrano pepper, seeded and chopped (or scotch bonnet, habanero, or jalapeno peppers)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 green onions, minced
- 1 tbsp thyme
- 1 tbsp allspice
- 3/4 tsp nutmeg
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus more for brushing
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp molasses (or dark rum)
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 1/2 lime (juice and zest)
- salt to taste
Directions:
- Mix the thyme, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, pepper in a small bowl.
- In another bowl mix the vinegar, minced garlic, brown sugar, molasses, olive oil, orange juice, lime juice/zest, and soy sauce together.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the liquid and whisk together.
- Pat the chicken thighs dry and rub with a little olive oil.
- Pour the marinade over the chicken and add the minced pepper and green onion.
- Marinate the chicken 5 hours to overnight.
- Bake in a preheated 375F oven for a 25-30 minutes, turning once during the middle.