The Ultimate Oven Jerk Chicken.
A bit of a bold statement and I’m sure my Jamaican friends are scratching their heads pondering why this “Trini” making such bold claims. One taste of this succulent jerk chicken after it comes out of the oven and you’ll know why it’s an “Ultimate” dish. Following on the other “Ultimate” recipes I’ve shared in the past, this one will not disappoint (search “Ultimate” on the right side of the page to see the other recipes in this category).
Yes, traditional jerk is made on the grill with pimento wood as it’s base of flavor and while you can’t duplicate this in the oven, this one is very convenient for people who don’t have a grill or live in northern climates and have to deal with bitter cold winters. Personally a little snow and minus degree temperatures can’t keep me away from my grill, but lately I’ve found that I don’t brave the outdoors as much as I used to in the winter.
NOTE: For the marinade for this you’ll need to refer to: A Classic Jamaican Jerk Marinade.
You’ll Need…
6 chicken legs (with back attached) about 4-5 lbs
1 lemon or lime (or 1/4 cup vinegar)
1 cup Jerk Marinade
Tip: Line your baking dish with aluminum foil to make the clean-up after easier.
Trim off the excess skin and fat off the chicken (but leave most of the skin – you can remove it later before eating), then pour the lime or lemon juice (or vinegar) over the trimmed chicken. Then rinse off with cool water and drain. Now take a pairing knife or fork and pierce the chicken pieces. This will allow the marinade to penetrate the meat and really “juice” it up. Now you’re set for marinating the chicken. In a zip lock bag or bowl with a lid, pour the jerk marinade and mix everything well. Now seal and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours. I used a large baking dish, which I sealed with plastic wrap. This way when I’m ready, it can go directly into the oven.
After 2 hours take it out of the fridge and pour everything (including all the marinade) into a baking dish and let it come up to room temperature while you oven heats up. I had mine marinating in the baking dish already, so I was good to go.
Preheat your oven at 375 degrees.
Place the baking dish with the chicken on the middle rack and allow this to cook for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. The chicken should be cooked after that, so if you want to add some rich colour to the finished dish, you may need to turn on your broiler for a few minutes.
If you want you can place some aluminum foil over the dish the first 30 minutes of cooking, but I find that leaving it exposed (open) works great. While this cooks in the oven your home will be blanketed with the lovely scent of rich Caribbean spices and herbs and you’ll be counting down the minutes until you can devour a succulent piece of the Ultimate Oven Jerk Chicken. Here I have it served with some rice and creamy coleslaw. BTW, the sort of sweet and creamy flavours of the coleslaw complements this jerk chicken wonderfully.
Before you go, please leave me a comment below – it’s always appreciated.. even if it’s just to say hello. And don’t forget to join us on Facebook, Twitter and do tell your friends about the cooking videos.
I will trying this for Christmas for friends who wanted Jerk Chicken.
For me, jerk chicken has to have scotch bonnet peppers. I can’t find them where I live, so I use scotch bonnet pepper sauce instead. It adds that authentic flavor.
Can you use a jerk rub combined with jerk marinade or one or the other? I never cooked jerk chicken before so I went to the market and bought marinade and rub.
Made this jerk chicken today. It was DELICIOUS! I am not going to lie.. I used 5 orange habaneros in place of the 2 Scotch Bonnets.. They are hard to get here. I marinated for 8 hours on the first batch and it is great. I took a bite and nothing but flavor… 20 seconds later.. here comes the heat. This is going in my cookbook. Thanks!
I tried the Trinidian jerk chicken last Sunday, never cook jerk anything before and this recipe was so easy and the taste was delicious. My son even took some to his friends. I give this a perfect 10.
Hi Chris, thank you for your awesome recipe. I follow this recipe and my jerk chicken turned out amazing!
Hi Chris, I will surely try this jerk chicken recipe. Just looking at yours, I can taste it thru my lap top screen.(LOL)
Bonjour de Montréal !
Thank you for your site full of excellent recipes. I miss so much Glen’s cooking and parties (a friend from Trinidad). He taught me a few Trinidadian recipes years and years ago, but I wanted to learn more, so thank you so much for all the very detailed explanations and pictures, I will try a few very soon. Au plaisir ! 🙂
Best Jerk Chicken recipe ever
This was simply delicious. Everyone loved it. Tasted even better the next day.
This looks so good.
Simply amazing! Much better using your recipe for jerk marinade than the bottled version. I agree!
Oh my, this recipe is awesome, and my son-in-law said it was even better the next day. The Marinade was delectable. I could not find scotch bonnets so I used habaneros. I was afraid to use 2 of them, so I used only 1, wished I had used both.
Thanks for sharing the recipes!
Gigi
Thanks once again! It smells wonderful, and tastes delicious!
Will do tonight thank you
Thanks Chris. This is beautiful. I like the way of perfecting it in the oven. This is a must-try people!
I made this tonight and it was amazing. Thank you so much for publishing your recipe! It was eight million times better than the stuff from a jar. I couldn’t find scotch bonnets in my market so I used a mix of bird chillies and serano pepper and jalapenos and it was great.
I love this recipe. I am so glad I found your website.
Hello, I’ve done this it’s delicious!
I have been waiting for a recipe like this one. Thanks, Chris.
I followed this recipe but couldn’t get the rub to be that fine so it’s chunky, I hope it’s okay!!
Thk you so very much!
Just made this, and it was delicious! Question, the chicken ended up, being completely drenched in the bubbling marinade and it’s own juices, after about an hour, almost like it became braised. Is that what we are going after here? Was I supposed to drain the pan the chicken was cooking in, after an hour, or, is it supposed to cook wet like that? Anyway, loved it, and really enjoyed learning how to make the marinade homemade. Thanks!
I have got to say i am truly impressed, I watched your grilled jerk ckn video first, I am amazed at your passion and thoroughness. I was overjoyed when I saw the oven version becsuse unfortunately I live in the city and dont own a grill. I can’t wait to try this recipe! And I will be back with the outcome. I do wonder though, do i have to use the baking dish? Because I have seen others just use the racks in the oven, will the out come vary?
Love your recipe. Now, I am cooking this recipe for a crowd of 35. How much in advance can I cook the Jerk Chicken? I only have one oven and have other items to cook for the dinner. Thanks for any help you can give..
Once again a great dish. How did you prepare the rice? Looks good 🙂
So easy to make. Enjoyed making your jerk marinade as well…so fresh and smelled so good! Didn’t have exact peppers so used habaneros and small piece of sweet red pepper. Smells so good cooking in oven…Can’t wait to taste it!
please [ NED THAT RECEPES.
Have it in the oven now and it smells great!! What are some other good sides for the chicken?
You have done it again Chris! I tried this and absolutely love it!! I also love the fact that all the ingredients were already in my pantry/refrigerator! Keep up the great work!!!
so glad you found it handy and delicious.
Great recipe
Nice recipe I add a few whole garlic cloves to give it that sweet roasted garlic taste
Trying this on the weekend. thanks for sharing
Great recipe! We love Jamaican food!!!
Had a lot of fun making this.
Regards
Eritrean and Nigerian
I absolutely love this recipe! It’s the of all recipes online. I’m carribean and this is definitely how my grandma would make her jerk chicken. Thanks so much for sharing your recipe! I’ve used it for over a year now and my family absolutely love it. I use a lot more gravy when cooking cos my family love gravy. Just personal preference however!
Can’t wait to try this recipe.
Wow! Wow wow wow. This is heaven.
I first tried this recipe with wings only I served it with white rice and curry cabbage and it was D-lelicious! I couldn’t wait to try it with the leg and thigh… Thank you.
Wow……what can I say? I have tried jerk chicken before making it without a BBQ and it just never tasted the same from the oven nor did it go crispy and yet I used your marinade and even though my fan oven only went to 295 I put it on for 50mins and then put the grill on for the last 10mins and it was amazing I will definitely use this recipe again and the friends I cooked for really enjoyed it!
Can I use chicken breasts instead of bone-in or boneless thighs?
Sorry was just wondering … You leave it for 1 hour 20 mins on what tempreture ? Thanks
From guyana this is my first try and I love it
hi- am just now going to put chicken into oven-have used walkerswood jamaican jerk rub from a jar i purchased at waves market on the outerbanks nc-will see how it comes out-actually it is not a dry rub but more like a thick preserve consistency-anyhow can’t wait to try it-candace king
Can you use boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of bone-in skin-on?
I’ve tried it both with chicken thighs and boneless skinless chicken thighs. I’m my opinion the boneless chicken thighs are more like the chicken u get at a Jamaican restaurant. I love both, but will most likely continue with the boneless skinless chicken. I was thinking as well of breading the boneless skinless chicken and making some kind of jerk burger with this recipe. I’ll let u know how it goes.
This is from a story about cooking jerk chicken over a charcoal pit. The question I have is what is the use for corrugated metal ?
“They cook the food directly on 8-foot lengths of green pimento wood—with a charcoal fire 3 feet below. The food is covered with corrugated metal—the sort of thing you see on roofs—and the pork and chicken are marinated overnight with a mixture of Scotch bonnet peppers, pimento seeds, oil, and other spices. It’s spicy but not too smoky—a very clean, not sweet, flavor. “
I just finished cooking this recipe and the chicken came out perfect! The meat fell right off the bone and the flavor…outstanding. Making the marinade from scratch makes a huge difference rather than buying it in a bottle. Not to mention the house smelled so good when I finished. I know there’s a lot of people I’m going to impress with this jerk chicken 😉
This recipe is one I’m definitely keeping in my books. Thanks for sharing!
wonderful.. I am a Jamaican and my husband is from Guyana and I cooked your receipt for him and his family and they loved it .. PERFECT
Chris I am jamaican and u hit the nail on the head I am going to try this dish contnue letting our mouth water
Looks delious. Definitely will try!
I have fixed this about 4 times when we have dinner parties and we never have leftovers
This is amazing. I don’t use scotch bonnets but will add jalapenos with some seeds.
Jerk chicken looking good I will have to try this recipe ,I have one request it had a place in trinidad that use to sell this nice flavor chicken when u buy it u wanted to eat the paper to that’s how good it was the of it was honeycomb chicken, I don’t know if you had the pleasure of tasting it , the flavor was wicked, Do you know how to make that chicken,
I am really looking forward to trying this recipe this weekend! It looks very similar to my friends recipe but done on the BBQ. I told him I would bring him some to try on Monday! I would love that rice recipe too! Looks delicious!
Have now made this 4 times and it is fantastic. All my extended family love it as well, I reckon I’ve turned about 30 people onto this dish!!! Excellent.
I left it in the oven for one hour, and it was amazing thanks alot
my husband loves jamaican food, this gonna be great, easy and i know its going to be good, thanks a bunch
No matter where a recipe originated, or who the originator is… a Trini can always find an easier and faster way to prepare it… with the same, and sometimes ever better results…LOL Am making this right now.
I love the recipe for jerk chicken that I seen. Love it thank you
GREAT,GREAT THANK U.
I made my own marinade and follow your instructions for baking and it turned out great!! I covered my chicken for the 30 mins and uncovered for the remaining time and broiled to get that wonderful color. Thanks for sharing on your site.
Doozie
Try this for the first time and I must say that I am so excited to find your site to cook the jerk chicken in the oven. I will be sure to post after I prepare it. Thanks sooooo much for sharing.
I'm making jerk chicken for the fourth time now and I keep coming back to this page to remember the temp to set the oven at and so this time I'm finally leaving a comment so I guess I'd have to say this advice was seriously helpful. I cook in an electric oven that doesn't even have a broiler but I've found that doing the cover the chicken for the first 30 minutes then cooking uncovered for the remaining 50 minutes makes it come out perfect. Thanks for sharing and cheers.
This will be my first attempt at making jerk chicken. I hope I do your recipe justice. Thank you and hello.
Hey Chris,
Thank you for sharing your jerk chicken recipe. I made it last Thursday and then again on this past Sunday. My wife loves it as much as I do, I like it a bit hotter than she does.
Thanks again and until we meet keep cooking!
Love jerk chicken! there is a hole in the wall Caribbean cafe in Orlando that has scrumtous jerk chicken. Of course he won’t give me his recipe. I have been trying to duplicate the taste with various ingredients, come close but still not the same. I love to cook and eat the stuff I cook too, and my wife is glad to let me, even though she is a wonderful cook. Can hardly wait to try this one out, meanwhile I have prepared a pork roast dinner and have some oven jerk chicken cooking too!
Happy Easter to you!!! My wife had to work the week-end but dinner will be ready when she gets home at 7:30.
Thanks for sharing.
Chris,
Re the side dishes, you highlighted “creamy coleslaw”, but how about a recipe for that rice? Thanks!
where do i get jerk marinade in cape town
My husband loved this! He was looking at me in awe! Lol! Thank you sooooo much for this delicious recipe. I will make this again and again.
My father is from Trinidad, but im a canadian, and I recently tried Jerk Chicken a few months ago and looooved it. I love spicey flavours like this. Im going to get the marinade and seasoning and make this meal myself. Im very excieted.. yummm! 🙂 Thanks!
Chicken marinating right now. Can't wait to taste later. Thanks for all the great recipes!
why do you need to put lemon on the chicken only to rinse it off? will it make any difference if i don't do that part, seems a waste of a lemon, even if lemons grow on trees!
The lemon is used to wash/clean the chicken, meat, fish…,it eliminates some of the freshness as well. I always saw my mom doing this and I now follow the same practice. It's a common practice of folks from the Caribbean.
I love this jerk chicken recipe I do it all the time in my oven. Will try it next time on the grill.
I finally found you. I followed the recipe to a T except I had to substitute habernaros for scotch bonnets and I used chicken thighs. It turned out incredible. I think its key to use fresh Thyme. This is going to be my “go to” recipe for spring BBQs.
Turned out really nice. We haven’t got any carribean restaurants here in my part of Guatemala and I really missed Jerk Chicken. The sauce recipe turned out really nice. I had to substitue jalapeños for habaneros, but I’ll do it again soon with the scotch bonnets and a bit more nutmeg than the recipe calls for.
Great recipe. We love it!
Thanks.
jerking my chicken never felt so good!!!!
I love the smell of it!
thanks for cheering me on.
I like this recipe for jerk chicken. Yes and thank u for helping a Canadian girl learn news ways to cook food. I love Caribbean food.
Hi. All geared up to try this recipe for my Trini boyfriend who loves jerk chicken. Simple and clear!!!
Will definitely be trying this soon.
iam doing this recipe 2night i will get back and let yall know how its is but first i got to make me some pepper sause
🙂 thanks for the tips.
Hi caribbeanpot , i understand this recipe but i am abit confused on the part where you say '' then pour the lime or lemon juice (or vinegar) over the trimmed chicken. Then rinse off with cool water and drain. '' do you mean i must pour the lime and lemon or vinegar on the chicken then rinse it off the chicken afterwards because i didnt quite get why you need to wash it off when you just put it on. Or do you mean wash the lemon and lime. sorry to ask a silly question , just didnt understand thanks! Nicole
Nicole:
This is the Jamaican (Caribbean) way of cleaning the chicken. So yes add it and then wash it off…..
dumb ass!!
We made this last night & was amazing!!! I couldn’t believe how easy it was & how delicious. Defo going to be making it again
I just made this and my boyfriend and I just finished eating. His favourite dish is jerk chicken so I was nervous to try it. He absolutely LOVED it! Thank you so much for such a wonderful recipe!
Thanks! I am trying this RIGHT now. The coleslaw sounds lovely.
The smell is flowing threw the house now …can’t wait
The smell is flowing threw the house now …can’t wait
Not sure it it's the same method, but for those inquiring about the 'yellow rice'. I just use Chicken stock with white rice. (parboiled or Basmati). Knorr/Oxo the powder stuff in the yellow box.
The chicken's been marinating in this stuff for hours! I love all of your recipes because they contain ingredients that (with a little searching) can be found right here in Spain! I've got my French friend hooked on geera chicken and my German friend hooked on stewed chicken.
God bless you sah! I have made this recipe and the coleslaw several times and it is always the BOOM! My fussy eaters can't get enough of it and ask for it EVERY week! I can't seem to find the yellow rice recipe on this site though (hint, hint!). Keep up the great work!
Thank you for this I was looking for quick and easy instructions:)
i am a jamaican and trust me i can't wait to try this recipe, in fact i'm going to get these ingredients and try it out
I have been checking Internet for this recipe for ages but yours seems the best and simpler. Thanks,cooking this for my church on Sunday.
Gonna try it but def have to serve it chopped up like how it's served in Jamaica! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Almost as good as original!!! You are great! 2 minutes in broiler made a trick, crispy outside juicy inside. I used Grace Hot Jerk marinade, as a side dish i made stewed chickpeas using your stewed chicken and chickpeas recipe, I modified it adding hint of curry and tablespoon of cilantro. thanks for recipe two weeks ago we came back from jamica, and i'm already misssing tha taste of their food
Gracias Chris x todas estan recetas tan Riiicas, te agradezco mucho y Dios nuestro senor te continue bendiciendo con tu enorme talento..bendiciones…
Ola chris, aqui otra vez hoy hice una de tus comidas el bacalao con la yuca es delicioso pero me gustaria probar el q tu haces me imagino es una delicia,,Gracias christ x compartir estad ricas recetas con tus amigos.. la yuca me encanta son unas de las comidas basicas en Honduras, yo creci comiendo yuca nosotros la hacemos diferente con chicharon de cerdo yna ensalada con pico de gallo como le llaman en mexico nosotros le lamamos chimole y una salsa roja ensima, pero a mi me encanta como tu la haces.. donde puedo encontrar tu libro? gracias chris Dios te continue bendiciendo….saludos
Hi! I am not very much aquainted with caribbean cuisine, but I’ve heard so much good about it, I will have to try it, possibly starting with this oven jerk chicken. But I was wondering, if there is a section of Caribbean Cuisine where you use caviar and make something special with it, maybe combining it with meat or only vegetables? I buy caviar at http://www.1caviar.com and I ran out of ways to eat it, but it is so good for special events, I want to wow my friends with a more exotic caviar recipe on our next dinner party.
I think caviar is a tad unusual to the Jamaican culture, Flora.
One might consider where the country is, and while there are fish everywhere, the world's caviar is consumed in countries outside of the Caribbean typically. However, that is a rather 'out there' idea…..given that your question was some time ago, what kind of results did you get and what was the result?? Jerk caviar…..who'd a thunk??
Did you make video or recipe for the yellow rice? I want to make the entire dish.
ok i'm trying this recipe right now it must be loving oh i'm chef and i try all type of recipe that all my i'am say hope it taste good has the picture look
Thanks Chris…..I love this recipe.
Mmmmh, I made oven jerk chicken last night and it turned out real good. The long marinating does the trick. After 30 min baking I have sprinkled a couple spoons of beer over the meat. Thanks. Greets from Switzerland.
Hi always wanted to make jerk chicken, but could never find a good recipe……….glad I found this site.
hey thanks for sharing ….i will definitely try this recipe ..its simple and nice to way to impress my friends lol…..
Thank you for the great info, having a get together this weekend and wanted to do jerk chicken, but it is going to be quite cold outside to do it on the drum. Your information has been so informative, thank you so much. I will repost and let you know how it turned out.
yeah i know my Jamacians brothers not too happy to see Trinis talking about Jerking chicken, but the Trini spin is welcome
Hi Chris, how you you make your yellow rice??
thanks, nadia
Hey Chris, while you were a yard (looks like you had a great time, with lots of great food!) hubby was home to Jamaica (from Cayman) along with his uncles (yardies that live in US) – I made the Ultimate Jerk Chicken – and got the "Ultimate" compliment – who a show you? They LOVED it and requested it over and again…and asked me to print out the recipe to take home with them. Thanks for helping this Canadian cook like a yardie!!!!
i will be doing this recipe, but can it be done with a whole chicken?
Will definitely make this recipe! But I'm also curious, how did you make that rice?? It looks nice =P
Dish looks nice! but agree… how'd you make that rice?
I agree. We loved to have the rice recipe.
I'm hungry now
Have to try it soon.
Chris, Love this recipe.
I have been making a similar jerk Chicken in the oven, which as a few of my friends including a couple of "yardies" says, it's "to die for". While the traditional jerk is made on the grill with pimento wood as it’s base of flavor which you can’t duplicate in the oven, I found a liquid smoke product which only comes in two smoke flavors, Figaro Hickory Liquid Smoke and Figaro Mesquite Liquid Smoke which can be ordered online at ( https://www.baumerfoods.com/products2/index.php?cP… ) While it might not be pimento, it adds a very nice smoke flavor to the dish when added to the marinate.
"Trini tuh de bone"
Always loved jerk chicken. Always bought it though.
now wifey and I will make it at home
I love jerk chicken too I now have the courage to make it myself lol