Easy Grilled Jerk Chicken made with a marinade that takes just a few seconds to make is the most flavorful authentic Jamaican chicken you’ll grill all summer!
Easy Grilled Jerk Chicken is the summer version of my Slow Cooker Jerk Chicken that has been super popular since posting it last month. The marinade is the same, but the method and marinating time are different.
This Easy Grilled Jerk Chicken actually reminds me of a trip my husband and I took five years ago to Jamaica. We were on a mission to find the best jerk chicken ever, so we spent meal after meal at different restaurants enjoying jerk chicken and red stripe. I know, twist our arms, right? 
So after a few days we found a place we loved and we asked the purveyor if he would share his recipe. Hahaha. He said no of course. So then when I got home I started looking up recipes and cooking up all the mediocre jerk chicken a person could until this one came into my life from allrecipes.
The recipe is made in a food processor, which makes it a total breeze and leaves you with the most amazing looking marinade, EVER.
A couple quick tips for this Easy Grilled Jerk Chicken:
- The recipe is fantastic, but the heat is toned down a lot from what we enjoyed in Jamaica. If you want to dial the heat back up just leave the ribs and seeds in the marinade.
- You can use any cut of chicken you would like and grill. I used chicken breasts on an indoor grill because it has not stopped raining in a month here!
- If using an indoor grill be careful of the smoke, it can be a bit spicy, so use your stovetop vent on high.
- Marinade as long as you can, this chicken gets more and more flavorful, I do a full 24 hours.
- We serve it with fried plantains or seasoned brown rice and peas (black beans). That rice/bean recipe will hopefully be on the blog in the next few months.
Tools used in the making of this Easy Grilled Jerk Chicken:
AllSpice Spice Rack: I use this spice rack and fill up the bottles with freshly purchased spices. It’s basically one of the most beautiful things in my kitchen and when you’re working with a large quantity of spices, not having to hunt and peck through your cupboards makes everything go at warp speed.
Mini Food Processor: This recipe doesn’t need a lot of ingredients so I use my mini processor for the creamy dressing, but if you’re making a larger batch I highly recommend…
My Favorite Food Processor: This is one of my favorite kitchen items and the cost/reviews on it are so stellar I could never recommend an alternative (as long as this one is still available via Prime) even though this is an older model than the current lineup. I’ve had mine for probably 10 years? and it is still going as strong today as ever.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts boneless and skinless
- 6 green onions chopped
- 1 onion chopped
- 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and minced
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
Instructions
- Add the chicken to a large bowl or ziploc bag (put that bag in a bowl in case of leakage).
- In a food processor add the green onions, onion, jalapeno, soy sauce, vinegar, vegetable oil, brown sugar, thyme, cloves, nutmeg and allspice and puree until smooth.
- Add the marinade to the chicken and leave for as long as you can, up to 24 hours.
- Heat your grill of choice, indoor or outdoor onto medium high heat.
- Lightly oil (I use canola oil on a paper towel and wipe it on my grilling surface).
- Grill on each side for 5-7 minutes (depending on the thickness of your chicken), until the chicken is completely cooked through.
Nutrition
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I added a Jamaican jerk rub to the chicken right before grilling for some extra heat. Fantastic.
This was SO delicious! I made it in the cast iron and then put extra of the marinade in there with it and it was perfect. 🙂
My youngest had to make a recipe from the Caribbean for school a couple of years ago and this was the one she chose (she was 12 at the time)! So simple that she only needed me to supervise and deal with the pepper. So delicious that even someone that claims to have a serious dislike for jerk chicken went back for seconds. I had forgotten where we had found it and have been searching since then. So glad to have FINALLY relocated it 🙂
How awesome!!
I LOVE this recipe! We made it on Monday night and it was so good that we are making it again tonight. This time though, I left some of the delicious sauce aside to pour on top. Thank you!
Love that it was so good it got twice in one week! Thanks for letting me know!
I adore jerk chicken! And I love that the marinade is made in the food processor. 🙂
Thanks Carrie!
This chicken looks so good! I Just love jerk seasoning!
Thanks Des!
Oooh yum! I love all the spices in that marinade!
It’s soooo good!
I’ve never been to Jamaica, but we love the jerk spices, and this just sounds divine. Who doesn’t love firing up the grill and making something like this? Yum!
Thanks Erin!
Love all of the flavor that the jerk seasonings bring!
I am so excited for grilling this summer! I cannot wait to make this! Although, I don’t think I will be able to wait that long!
Don’t wait!!! Make it now so at least it’ll make you feel like summer isn’t that far away 😉
This looks full of Flavour! I wouldn’t mind making this for dinner tonight…I wish!