Crispy, moist, flavorful chicken smothered in spicy jerk sauce that’s easy to make and a tastebud explosion! A Caribbean vacation right out of your oven.
Get excited!
I can see it coming. You will feel it after you take a bite. I love jerk chicken! Now who doesn’t? Most people who travel to the Caribbean will say it is the highlight of their trip. Well, second to coconut rum drinks – of course.
If you’ve never had the opportunity to try jerk chicken before, it’s a very popular Jamaican or dare I say Caribbean dish. It is a really spicy dish. However, it can be made mild to taste. I kept the recipe very mild. If you are a heat seeker, you can definitely add more scotch bonnet, to taste.
This comes together super fast especially after you have all the ingredients together. It is preferable to marinate the chicken overnight in the fridge for the flavors to come together.
Serve it with beans and rice featured here or this super easy oven baked rice.
Crispy, Moist, Flavorful chicken smothered in spicy jerk sauce easy to make and a taste bud explosion! A Caribbean vacation right out of your oven.
- I lime or lemon
- 8 chicken legs or 2 ½ - 3-pound chicken cut up
- 2 teaspoons creole seasoning replace with salt and pepper or chicken spice
- 1 or more Scotch Bonnet Pepper Habaneros
- 6 garlic cloves chopped
- ½ tablespoon cinnamon powder
- ½ tablespoon allspice coarsely ground
- ½ teaspoon coarsely ground white pepper
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1 medium onion coarsely chopped
- 3 medium scallions chopped
- 1 sprig of fresh thyme
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger chopped
- 1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
- 1/4-1/2 cup pineapple Juice or water
- 1- tablespoon bouillon powder optional
- Salt and pepper to season
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Trim chicken of excess fat and pat dry with a cloth or paper napkin. Rub with lemon, and 2 teaspoons creole spice or season with salt and pepper
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Heat oil in a skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Then add scotch bonnet pepper, garlic sauté until it turns brown about 2-3 minutes.
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Add nutmeg, brown sugar, all spice, cinnamon and continue stirring until the sugar melts and the mixture starts to clump together.
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Remove from the heat and let it cool
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Place the mixture in a food processor or blender, then add, thyme, white pepper, ginger,green onions, soy sauce, Maggi/bouillon, onion and pineapple juice . Pulse for about 30 seconds until blended
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Drench the chicken with jerk marinate, place in a zip lock bag and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. Try not to touch the jerk blend with your hands because it extremely spicy hot- If possible use gloves.
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When ready to bake, preheat oven to 425°. Remove chicken from the jerk marinade and remove excess marinate. Reserve the marinade
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Line a baking pan with foil; top with a wire rack. Arrange chicken legs out in a single layer. While the chicken legs are baking oil will slowly drip to the bottom of the baking pan.
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Bake chicken legs until cooked through and skin is crispy, about 45-50 minutes-rotate chicken half way through-roughly 20 minutes.
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In a small saucepan simmer the remaining jerk marinade and the one from the chicken for about 7 minutes. Serve with chicken or mix with chicken serve with beans and rice featured here
Instead of Chicken legs, can I use Chicken breasts as a substitute?
You sure can.
Thank you so much for this lovely recipe!
You’re always welcome, Connie! Hope you’ll also try some of my other recipes. Enjoy!
I am soooo excited about this recipe. Sunday can’t arrive soon enough!!!!
Love love love only had limited time so marinated 4 hours next time will marinate over night as I do all my meats to maximal flavor came out tasty with flavor an not just heat most recipes give u the heat. But lack the flavor will Be a go to may even experiment with mango an or fresh pineapple as didn’t have white pepper my hubby looked at it an said that’s looks like it’s gonna be good i after adding the remaining dripping along with the extra marinate I put it into the broiler to to give it slight crispness did the job now we are all mad we only had a small pk of chicken will be making this again real soon an let’s just say jerk is my favorite chicken I will never ever buy it again will be making them mArinade the night before as well An maybe gifting some
YESS! You can’t beat Homemade! Thank you so much!!!
Excellent recipe! I Forgot to buy green onions so I used a shallot instead. And I’m lazy so I added the lime juice and creole spice to the marinade. Made two versions – one with no scotch bonnet for my wife and younger son, the other with lots of scotch bonnet for my older son and me. Both came out great! Caribbean Rice and Beans was a winner too.
Fantastic! Thanks for taking the time to let me know.
If using bone in chicken breast, what temp do you recommend?
I would go with the same temperature – but cook it for a shorter time- cause chicken breast dries up pretty quickly.
Could you substitute ground beef uncross recipe?
Didn’t quite get the question. Do you mean replacing the chicken with beef?
Just made this with 2 habaneros instead of one… perfect marinade!
Awesome! Thank you so much Jarad!!!
Another excellent recipe Imma. Thanks. I Always used the jerk marinade in the jar, but no more. I used all the ingredient you listed except the pineapple juice and fresh thyme which I didn’t have at home, so I used water and dried thyme. I also used the light brown sugar, because that was what I had at home. It came out really great, and very spicy ( used 3 scotch bonnet), so I can imagine the flavour when I use the pineapple juice and fresh thyme next time I make it. What I love about your recipes is that, you use most of the ingredients and spices most of us already have in our pantry. Thanks again for sharing, and I look forward to making more of your recipes.
Great afternoon. I will be trying your recipe but I have a question concerning the scotch bonnet pepper. Before adding do I cut, slice etc.? And how many would you recommend for a medium to hot spice? Thanks in advance.
I wondered this too
The scotch bonnet peppers are used whole in this recipe. Usually, scotch bonnet peppers are on the very hot end of the spectrum. Unless you have a high spice/heat tolerance, I would recommend starting with just one or two. Just throw them in whole. Happy cooking!
Can I use light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar?
You sure can.
I made this with the Carribean rice and beans recipe that was suggested and it was a huge hit with my family! I used boneless skinless chicken thighs, habenero pepper (without seeds) and used water instead of pineapple juice for the marinade. Soooo good and flavorful!!! Can’t wait to make this again. Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe, Imma! Five stars indeed!
Yay!!!! Thank you so much!
Loved it!! My whole family did as well!! I cooked it in cast iron pan and it was amazing, even though I had to skip the marinara time! I can only imagine how much better it will be next time! Full of flavor oh, the only thing I wonder what happened with the heat,, mine wasn’t spicy at all 🙁 but we added it 🙂 I was thinking maybe, because I took the seeds out of the habanero?? Still was delicious! Thanks for sharing! God bless your cooking! One more thing I love how most of the ingredients were natural spices!
I gave 5 not sure why it has 4 🙁
this looks so good…I haven’t worked with habanero peppers before…how you prepare them before sautéing? Chopped finely?
Hi Massiel, It depends on your tolerance level, here I included it in the ingredients before blending. If you can tolerate heat then chop finely and include in your meals. I would say start with a tiny bit and keep adjusting as you proceed. A little goes a long way. So be forewarned it is spicy hot!
Hi Immaculate:
I’m a bit of a spice head, and was wondering how many scotch bonnets you would normally use to get a good kick from this??
Thanks.
Hi Graham!
I would say go say 2, one makes it spicy hot and two gives it that good kick.Please let me know how it works
About 1/4-1/2 cup pineapple juice.
Hi immaculate, how much pineapple juice do you add? It’s not listed on the ingredients for oven baked jerk chicken. Thanks so much for quick response.
Is this oven baked recipe for jerk chicken missing an ingredient? You refer to it as a marinade, but I only see soy sauce as one liquid. Is there supposed to be pineapple juice perhaps? Also what is Maggi? Thanks
Hi Laraine! You add pineapple juice or water to blend the ingredients in the blender..creating a marinade. Maggi is another kind of soy sauce – replace with soy sauce or completely eliminate.
Hi, in your written recipe it says nothing about adding any pineapple juice\water? I’m gutted because I’ve just finished making it and it looks nothing like yours 🙁
I am so sorry for the omission. It’s been fixed. Which I could make some and send to you. Again my apologies.
will this come out fine if we don’t have the peppers and dried garlic?
Hi Heidi! You can leave out the peppers. Garlic though is essential in this baked Jerk Chicken. It is going to taste good but not great. Let me know how it works for you
Awesome recipe! I looked at several recipes before choosing this one… this was the only one i found that did not use ingredients i couldnt get ahold of. Tasted every bit as good as the jerk chicken at the jamaican place i love to eat at. I tripled the recipe and barely have leftovers! Love it when the kids are silent at supper!
I know what you mean…. Silence on the table is always Welcome- when you have kids. So glad you picked my recipe, made it, love it and came back with feedback. For that I am GRATEFUL.
All 5 stars
I just made this recipe and it is great… spicy the way I like it.
It tasted amazing! However, for some strange reason when I blended everything together the marinade was green! Is that normal?
Leslie, it is normal – don’t sweat it. Glad you liked it!
Oh my gosh this was sooo good…I used whole chicken instead and cut it into pieces. I went a bit easy on the habanero since I’m not a spicy girl 🙂 other than that the chicken was delicious… Thanks…
Where is the recipe for oven baked bean and rice
Here is the link to the rice http://africanbites.com/?p=6970
” r soy sauce”??