Grilled Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Last Updated on March 8, 2024 by Carne Diem

Protein:

Origin: Jamaican, Taste of the Islands

Method: Grill or Smoker

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This homemade grilled jerk chicken recipe is marinated in a flavorful marinade of allspice, scotch bonnet, brown sugar, rum, and seasonings and spices. This fresh jerk marinade has become one of my most requested recipes from friends and family, and the jerk sauce is perfect for canning so you can use it to make your favorite Jamaican jerk meats year-round.

This jerk chicken recipe has been a labor of love over the last many years. This recipe has probably undergone more versions and revisions than any other recipe that we make. We have tried a lot of different jerk recipes over the years. Recipes from friends, recipes from the internet, and even recipes from locals in Jamaica but we could never quite find "the perfect jerk" for making at home. Finally after a lot of trial and error we have found a jerk marinade and recipe that we are really proud of. It has just the right amount of heat balanced by a perfect amount of sweetness, while still retaining that authentic jerk flavor from the allspice berries. Give it a try we think you will enjoy it as much as we do.

Making the Jamaican Style Jerk Chicken

To make the grilled Jamaican jerk chicken recipe you will just need some of your favorite pieces of chicken, and to make the best jerk marinade you will ever try.

Ingredients for the homemade jerk marinade

As mentioned above this marinade has been a labor of love with a lot of tweaking to get it to where I like it. That said it is also easily changeable to meet your tastes. To make the marinade you will need the following:

Scotch Bonnet Peppers: Scotch Bonnet chiles provide the spice in the jerk marinade. Typically, we use about 10-12 peppers, but the recipe can easily be adjusted to taste. Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles. Habanero peppers would be a good subsitute is you do not have access to Scotch Bonnet peppers.

Seasoning and Spices: The marinade is flavored with fresh thyme and warming spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. All-spice berries provide the classic jerk flavor in the marinade.

Aromatics: You will need an onion, garlic, and green onion. We typically use white onion in the recipe as it provides a bit more bite in the sauce.

Liquid Ingredients: This homemade jerk marinade is made with beer and rum, but you can substitute water if you do not want to use the alcohol. Soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce provide some saltiness and umami flavor to the jerk sauce. Vinegar adds acidity and some hot sauce adds some additional heat.

Brown Sugar: The perfect amount of brown sugar adds some sweetness to balance out the spice and acidity of the jerk marinade. This can also be adjusted depending on how sweet you want the marinade to be.

Optional Jerk Marinade Adjustments

This will result in a flavorful marinade. Using the 8 scotch bonnet peppers typically gives off the sweetness of the scotch bonnet flavor while remaining fairly mild when used as a marinade and basting liquid. This is a fairly kid friendly version. If you want more heat use 12 or even more scotch bonnets or increase the amount of the Grace hot sauce. If you can't find Grace hot sauce you can use another hot sauce with scotch bonnet peppers of what you have on hand. The Grace sauce is frequently available at many grocery stores, World Market, and on Amazon.

Some of the recipes that I received from locals use Browning in lieu of soy sauce. We prefer the flavor of the soy sauce and we always have that on hand, but by all means use the Browning if you prefer.

Blending the jerk sauce

Peel and quarter the onions and peel the garlic. Next, add the onions, peppers, and garlic to a blender or food processor and blend until finely chopped.

Scape down the sides and then add the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth and well combined.

This recipe may make more sauce than you need for one batch of Grilled Jamaican Jerk Chicken. We also typically make a much larger batch depending on how many peppers we have from our garden. Extra marinade is easily canned so you can enjoy the flavors of Jamaican jerk chicken year round.

Marinating the Jamaican Jerk Chicken

When grilling chicken we find dark meat works best. It holds up to the higher cooking temps without drying out. You can use white meat chicken but it will run the risk of drying out if you cook it much past 165 degrees. The marinade also works fantastic for a whole spatchcock chicken or chicken halves or quarters as well.

In a plastic bag or nonreactive container add the chicken and just enough marinade to coat all of the chicken. You will want to reserve about ½-1 cup of marinade for basting the chicken as it cooks, depending on how much chicken you are cooking. Refrigerate and let the chicken marinate for at least 4 hours of overnight.

Grilling the Jamaican Jerk Chicken

While you can certainly smoke the chicken in this recipe, we find that jerk chicken is best when grilled. The higher temps crisp up the skin (there is nothing worse than rubbery chicken skin). Jerk chicken is also one of the few recipes where I actually love that slightly charred outside of the chicken, just like I remember it from Jamaica. We typically set up our grill for direct and indirect heat at about 400 degrees.

For Authentic Jamaican flavor use some pimento wood

If you want that true authentic Jamaican jerk flavor, you want to use pimento wood. Pimento wood is the wood of the same tree that produces the all-spice berries used in Jamaican cooking. Unfortunetly it has become extremely difficult to source outside Jamaica and can be pretty pricy when you do find it. In addition, there is not really a great substitute either. We source out pimento wood from pimentowood.com which may be the only approved source of pimento wood available in the United States. Sadly pimento wood is very popular and it is very frequently sold out. If they have it in stock buy the biggest pieces that you can.

If you do obtain authentic pimento wood you are going to want to make it last. This is one of the few times that I actually attempt to get smoldering wood. In order to preserve the pimento wood while still trying to maximize the flavor from the wood I typically form a foil boat around the wood chunks and place it on the hot coals, kind of like a makeshift smoke box. This prevents the wood from burning up in the first few minutes and will produce a bit more smoke. As a disclaimer, this will possibly result in some dirty smoke, however, with the short cook grilling the chicken we have not noticed any off flavors and in our opinion is better than using up all of you pimento in one cook.

Grill the chicken man!

Once your grill has reached temp place the marinated chicken onto the grill over direct heat. Cook for about 3-5 minutes.

Flip the chicken over and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes or until you obtain the color and char you are looking for.

Just after flipping, baste the chicken with some of the reserved marinade/basting sauce (do not use the marinade that the raw chicken was in).

Do note that the sugar in the rub will begin to burn, which does give it a nice char on the outside but don't go too crazy or leave it unattended for too long. When you are happy with your grill marks, move the chicken to indirect heat. Continue to cook the chicken until it reaches an internal temp of about 175-190 for dark meat, or no more than 165 for white meat. Note: dark meat is safe to eat at 165, but is better and more tender at an internal temp of at least 175. Use an Instant Read Thermometer to guide your cook. It is like a Grill Master's lightsaber. Cooking based only on time is totally Padawan level.

Notes on cooking the Grilled Jamaican Grilled Chicken on a firepit or open flame

We really love this recipe cooked over and open flame or over a firepit like our Breeo X-Series. The technique is similar as when cooking on a traditional grill. Begin with the grill grate closer to the flame to grill the outside of the chicken. When cooking over a fire pit I do tend to flip the chicken a little more frequently until I can better estimate the grate temp. You can also use an infrared thermometer to give you a grate temp but that is not really necessary.

After you have obtained the color you like on the chicken and crisped up the skin, raise the grate level to a medium heat. You should be able to hold your hand over the grate (Not on! I don't need lawsuits) for about 5-6 seconds before it become too hot and you need to move your hand. As mentioned above cook the dark meet chicken to at least 175 degrees and white meat to 165 degrees.

If you are cooking for a crowd I sometime cook in batches and place the cooked chicken in a foil pan with some additional marinade to keep warm while I cook the rest of the chicken.

For more great chicken recipes to make on a grill or smoker, check out some of your favorites:

• Grilled Chicken Spiedini
• Moroccan Tagine Style Chicken and Olives
• Grilled Shish Taouk: Lebanese Chicken Kebab
• Pollo Asado al Carbon: Mexican Grilled Charcoal Chicken
• Smoked Lebanese Chicken Shawarma

What to Serve with Grilled Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Serve the chicken with grilled vegetables and Caribbean inspired rice. Throw in some Grilled Jamaican Beef Patties, Caribbean Fire Shrimp, Grilled Red Snapper Escovitch, or Oxtail Stew to make it a full meal.

Looking for more spicy chicken recipes? Try some of outher favorite chicken recipes that bring the heat:

• Smoked Dry Rubbed Chicken Wings
• Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich
• Taiwanese Night Market Spicy Fried Chicken
• Bunny Chow: South African Durban Style Chicken Curry

If you have leftover jerk chicken it can be stored in an airtight container and stored in a refrigerator. Leftovers should be eaten within 3-4 days. Better yet, use the leftover jerk chicken to make some Jamaican Jerk Chicken Rasta Pasta.

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