It All Starts With The Perfect Marinade
Jerk Chicken is a heavily marinated Jamaican favorite with a lot of flavor from its blend of seasonings and spices, and it’s usually quite spicy from the Scotch bonnet peppers as its centerpiece.
Our recipe includes all the classic spices and aromatics like allspice, ginger, and nutmeg but we beat the heat a bit by including a deseeded habanero. This provides a little bit of spice to make this feel like the Caribbean favorite, but without being too overpowering; and it’s cut with a little bit of sweet and savory from the inclusion of brown sugar and soy sauce.
All-in-all, it has the rich complexity of authentic jerk chicken, but we prioritized using the spiciness as a flavor accent, so don’t fear if you aren’t a fan of spice, and if you are then you can include the pepper seeds in the blend or use more peppers.
When the marinade is blended and tasting how you like, get it all over a pack of Halal chicken thighs and a pack of drumsticks. With skin on chicken, make sure you lift up the skin and get the marinade underneath and all over the outside. You put in the work to make the marinade and got all these great flavors, so don’t let them go to waste!
It Isn’t Complete Without The Rice and Beans!
While the chicken marinates for 1-3 hours, it’s the perfect chance to make the rice and beans! This isn’t your standard “toss some rice in boiling water” rice recipe. This get’s made in a Dutch oven with a blend of spices and aromatics as well like yellow onion and another diced habanero, and a can of red kidney beans mixed in.
Serving rice on the side doesn’t have to mean serving something plain, so we’re maximizing flavor here too by boiling it in a blend of chicken stock for a savory infusion, but also coconut milk and cream from a delicious sweetness mixed throughout. Just like the chicken, this rice has an awesome blend of flavors that makes it deliciously complex and rich.
You can make this rice as the chicken cooks, just make sure to mix it occasionally while it simmers to keep the milk from burning to the bottom of the pot.
A Quick Trip To The Grill
Speaking of the chicken, the final step after it marinates is to take it to the grill and get it cooked thoroughly to 165°F internally. Over high heat you can get an awesome char on the outside for that great grilled flavor that a good oven-baked recipe just can’t provide. This is a fantastic recipe to get out this summer and fire up the grill, and when the chicken is done, you’re all set to serve it up with the rice!
Every part of this recipe is full of flavor that keeps on giving. The chicken is full of flavor that ranges to sweet, to savory, with just a little bit of spice from the pepper, but without any of them being too overpowering. It’s hard to put into words how good the blend of flavors are, so we hope you give this a try for yourself and see where all these spices and aromatics come into play. Then you have the rice and beans with the same complementary blend of flavors while providing a filling carb to give you an entire meal where each piece doesn’t skip on flavor!
