Jamaican Jerk Chicken

~Amanda~

My husband’s birthday was a few weeks ago and as I do every year, I ask him to request anything in the world that he wants me to make him for his birthday dinner. I basically tell him that anything within reason is an option; steak, lobster, scallops, ribs, you get the idea. Well this year he told me he needed some time to think about his options, after a few days he came back to me and said that he wanted JAMAICAN JERK CHICKEN for his dinner this year. That caught me by surprise because normally he’d choose something way more decadent, but he explained that because he shares a birthday with Bob Marley, that he wanted to have Jamaican food. Totally makes sense, right? I started researching recipes so I could make him the best birthday dinner ever!

I have never made Jamaican Jerk Chicken before, so I combed through many many recipes and ended up combining pieces of multiple recipes to create a marinade that was made up of all the flavors he loves, but it was heavily inspired by the Jerk Chicken recipe from The Sweet Escape. To make the marinade, you puree ingredients like OJ, ginger, garlic, onion, vinegar, thyme, green onion, brown sugar, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and jalapenos together. Normally in a recipe like this, you would use a hotter pepper like a scotch bonnet but I can’t handle the heat and since I wanted to eat this too, I decided to go with a jalapeno instead. Once your marinade is ready, you soak the chicken legs in it for several hours (minimum of 2 hours, ideally overnight). This recipe really is so easy and great to prep the night before if you’re looking to serve this at a dinner and want to save some prep time day of.

Once the chicken has marinated for long enough, it’s time to cook it! Because it is winter I wanted a recipe that could be made inside rather than out on the grill as it has been really really cold here lately. This recipe is for oven baked chicken and it ended up being such a good idea because the chicken cooked in the oven so perfectly that I think it was probably way better than it would have been cooked on the grill. While the chicken was baking, I also whipped up a batch of delicious Red Beans and Coconut Rice and those were ready to go when the chicken was done baking and we sat down for dinner. My fingers were crossed that I met the birthday boy’s expectations and boy did I ever. I am totally tooting my own horn here, this chicken was one of the best things I’ve ever made! The flavor was out of control delicious and we could not get enough of it. Our plates were licked clean and luckily I didn’t spend too much time on dessert because we barely had room for it later.