Jerk Chicken
A Caribbean dinner built around chicken thighs and drumsticks and scotch bonnet peppers — on the table in 90 minutes.
✓ USDA-verified nutrition data
482 calories
63g protein
10g carbs
21g fat
3g fiber
Ingredients
- 3 lb Chicken thighs and drumsticks
- 3 Scotch bonnet peppers
- 6 Scallions
- 3 tbsp Fresh thyme
- 2 tbsp Allspice
- 2 tbsp Brown sugar
- 0.25 cup Soy sauce
- 2 Lime
- 3 tbsp Vegetable oil
Steps
- Blend the Scotch bonnets (seeds in for heat, out for mercy), scallions, thyme, allspice, brown sugar, soy sauce, lime juice, oil, and salt into a thick, dark marinade. Wear gloves — Scotch bonnet oil on your fingers will remind you of itself for hours.
- Score the chicken deeply and massage the marinade into every cut. Marinate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. Jerk without a long marinade is just spicy chicken.
- Grill over medium heat, turning every 5 minutes, for 30 to 40 minutes until charred at the edges and the juices run clear. Real jerk cooks over pimento wood smoke; a hot grill with the lid down gets you close.
- Rest 10 minutes so the juices settle back into the meat.
- Serve with rice and peas and fried plantains, with extra lime wedges. The char, the smoke, the heat — this is Jamaica’s gift to the world.