Sugar Free Jerk Chicken
I wanted to embrace my Jamaican heritage by creating my own version of this native dish. Most jerk recipes call for a fair amount of brown sugar but, with the aim of keeping refined sugar away from my recipes, you won’t find any in this one!
This is a great low effort but maximum taste dish. If you prepare it the night before, all you need to do is put it in the oven and leave it for an hour while you see to your other tasks (not forgetting your accompanying dishes of course).
Prep time 15 minutes. Marinating time minimum 4 hours, ideally overnight. Cooking time 1 hour 10 minutes (but minimal effort – just put it in the oven).
Ingredients
(serves 4-5)
- 1.5kg chicken thighs and/or drumsticks (skin & bone on)
For the jerk marinade
- 1 bunch of spring onions (approximately 5), roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves/2tsp dried thyme
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tbsp. ground allspice
- 2 tbsp. rum (ideally Jamaican)
- 3 tbsp. honey
- 1 scotch bonnet chilli (remove the seeds for less heat) / ½ tbsp. dried chilli flakes
- 6 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
- Thumb sized piece of ginger peeled & roughly chopped (same amount as garlic)
- ½ a small onion
- Rind and juice of 1 lime
- 1 ½ tbsp. soy sauce
- ½ tbsp. tomato paste
- Pinch of salt
Method
- Blend all of the ingredients for the marinade in a food processor.
- Put the chicken in a bowl and smother in the jerk marinade. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
- Place in an oven proof dish, cover and cook in a preheated conventional oven at 170°C (or 160°C fan oven) for one hour.
- Turn the chicken so it is skin side up, increase the oven temperature to 180°C (or 170°C fan oven) and cook uncovered until the skin is crispy. Approximately 10 minutes. Be careful it doesn’t burn.
- Enjoy with coconut rice and beans or sweet potato wedges and a pile of seasonal vegetables.
You can also cook them on the BBQ rather than in the oven if you prefer.
