Very Easy
Easy
Normal
Hard
Very Hard
Jerked Chicken
A Jerked Chicken recipe with a delightful flavour from the nice blend of spices and herbs. Minimal preparation and very little attention during cooking make this an easy weeknight dish. Traditionally served with rice and beans, but you should feel free to change this.
Ingredients
 "Chicken Legs")
2 large chicken legs, skin on, about 600g / 21oz.
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tbsp brown sugar
½ - 1 tsp salt
For Blending
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
3 spring onions
4 bird chillies*
2 tsp black peppercorns
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/3 cup unsweetened orange juice (packaged real juice is fine)
Spices and Herbs
1 tsp allspice powder
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp paprika
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg powder
½ tsp ginger powder
½ tsp clove powder
* substitute with appropriate quantity of scotch bonnet peppers if available.
Note: The amount of Jerk paste here is easily sufficient for a whole chicken, or 4 legs (or more), so feel free to increase quantity of chicken without increasing other ingredients.
Preparation
 "Chopped Ingredients")
1) Peel onion and garlic, trim stalks from chillies and roots from spring onions. Roughly chops these items.
2) Put all ingredients for blending into a blender and pulse until smooth.
 "Jerk Paste")
3) Add spices and herbs, olive oil, brown sugar and salt and pulse again to mix well.
 "Marinate in Ziploc")
4) Put the chicken legs into a large non-reactive container (with cover) or a Ziploc bag. Rub in the jerk mix, ensuring you get a good quantity under the skin.
5) Cover container or seal Ziploc (squeeze out excess air from Ziploc first so that you can easily rub in marinade later) and put in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, up to overnight. Turn the legs once or twice during refrigeration.
Cooking
1) Pre-heat oven to 175°C / 350°F.
2) Scrape excess marinade off the chicken legs, place on a middle rack and bake until done, turning at least once. Internal temperature on an instant read thermometer (not touching the bone) should be 80°C / 180°F. If you cut in, there should be no trace of pink at the bone.
3) My baking routine is start skin-side down, bake 25 mins, turn, bake another 25 mins or until done.
Note: A moderate oven and longer cooking time give just enough browning without excessive charring. By all means use higher heat and shorter time if you wish. Raise the rack to under the broiler for a few minutes if you like to have more browning.
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