Yummy Jerk Chicken

Jerk Chicken

In this recipe, you control the amount of spice in the dish by choosing what kind and how much chili pepper to add.

• Type of dish: Dinner
• Equipment: Large baking dish or roasting pan, blender
• Servings: Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds skin on chicken, such as wings or leg and thigh
• 4 green onions (scallions), chopped or sliced
• 1 shallot or 1/3 of a red or yellow onions, rough chopped
• 2 Scotch bonnet peppers or 2 Habaneros, seeded and sliced–For less spice, substitute jalapeno. For more spice, don’t remove seeds and/or add more peppers.
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger, sliced, or 1/2 tsp dried ginger
• 1/4 cup oil of choice, we used coconut oil in liquid state
• 1 TB dried thyme
• 1 TB allspice
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp honey (optional; traditional recipes generally use some sugar but it can be easily omitted)
• 4 TB lime juice (2 limes)
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar or red wine vinegar

Directions:

• First, make the marinade. Put the green onions, shallot, habanero, garlic, ginger, oil, thyme, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, optional honey, lime, and vinegar into a blender. Puree until liquid.
• Cover the chicken with the marinade. If using more than 1 habanero or if skin is sensitive, use caution touching the marinade with bare hands, and do not touch eyes or face after touching this marinade, even after washing hands. Some people use gloves for this.
• Work the chicken into the marinade, covering completely, and if you can get some of the marinade under the skin and directly on the meat (without pulling the skin completely off), that will help the flavor even more.
• Marinade the chicken, covered, in the refrigerator for 24 hours. (Or at least 4 hours if you don’t have that much time). Stir the marinade around halfway through if you can.
• Bring the chicken to room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour just prior to cooking. Preheat the oven to 375.
• Remove chicken from the marinade and place in a baking dish. Roast for about 45 minutes, turning it and basting it about every 15 minutes. It is done when an instant read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the meat reads 160F.
• For browning, at the end of the cooking time, change the oven temperature to broil. Broil for 3 minutes on the first side, then flip with tongs and broil for 3 minutes on the second side.
• Remove chicken to a plate to cool for 5 minutes and serve