Jerk Chicken Marinade

If you haven’t had jerk chicken before, don’t worry I’ll forgive you…as long as you make this jerk chicken marinade as soon as possible! All the spices, herbs, heat, everything sings together in a perfect harmony that keeps you wanting more until ya physically just can’t eat anymore.

One of my favorite parts about visiting St. Lucia is eating half my body weight in jerk chicken. I don’t think there is such thing as a more flavorful piece of meat.

I’ve bought pre-made jerk marinade and it’s pretty darn good, but obviously homemade marinades from scratch are way more fun and rewarding. Jerk seasoning has many influences not just from the Caribbean, but African, European, and most recently Asian influences (as you can see in the different ingredients above). All of these flavors blend together to make such a flavorful marinade.

My other favorite part about this recipe is that you basically throw everything into a food processor and there ya go! Ok fine, you have to peel the garlic and peel/cut up the ginger, but I think we can all sacrifice that for the rest of the ease of the recipe.

The recipe calls for scotch bonnet peppers, but sometimes they are hard to find so you can substitute with a habanero pepper. If you like your jerk very spicy you can add two peppers, we did two and it was pretty hot but we like our jerk very spicy. If not, just stick with one to be safe.

Once the marinade is pulsed and blended, taste and you can adjust the seasoning. All spice is the star of this show, so feel free to add more after giving it a taste.

You can stop here, bottle the marinade, and store it in the fridge to use later…..or we can use it now! I’ve made this recipe with full chicken breasts which is great, but my favorite way to eat them is as skewers. If you’re going the skewer route, cut the chicken breasts into 1 inch cubes prior to putting in the marinade.

I marinated it for about 12 hours myself. I recommend overnight or minimum 4 hours, this dish relies on the flavor so you have to give it the time for the marinade to do its job. After hours of marinating, trust me it deserves an A+.

For the skewers I cut up a red onion, red/orange bell peppers, and cubed up pineapple. The pineapple compliments the heat of the jerk chicken so well. Also, grilling pineapple is so underrated. The char on the pineapple gives it an extra depth of flavor along with the sweetness.

We grilled it on our gas grill, but I can only imagine how amazing it would taste over a charcoal grill. Cook until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 degrees F. Cook time can vary due to thickness and size of chicken, so best to use a thermometer.

I finished it off with some chopped scallions and I served it with my version of an spicy Caribbean coconut rice which compliments it so well. I hope you enjoy the jerk chicken marinade and it spices up your life a little bit!

As mentioned earlier, you can also grill entire chicken breasts which are so great too! See below picture for whole chicken breasts marinated in the jerk.

Things you’ll need: Food processor, ziplock bag for marinating, grill, skewers.

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