We’re full steam ahead with our month of grilling with a Caribbean approach, so today it’s time for a Caribbean style rotisserie chicken on the grill. Imagine unveiling a few of these as your friends arrive for your BBQ this summer.. they’ll be blown away! Be prepared for your neighbors inviting themselves to your home after constantly peeking over the fence to investigate what that amazing aroma is!
With a sort of Jamaican Jerk dry rub influence, this recipe is not spicy as I’ve purposely left out the Caribbean sunshine – scotch bonnet peppers so those of you who are not into the ‘heat’ can also enjoy this. Unless you’re a real ‘wuss’ and think cinnamon is spicy!
You’ll Need…
1 whole chicken
lime zest (1 lime)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar
4 sprigs thyme
1 lemon cut in half
1 scallion
Notes: The chicken I used was about 4 lbs (cleaned) and before seasoning I washed it with lime juice and water, then pat dry with paper towels. If you want to kick this up a bit you can dice (fine) a scotch bonnet pepper and add it to the rub. You can do this chicken in a roasting pan in the oven if you wish.. try to place the chicken on wire rack in the pan, so it’s not sitting in the fat/oil which will be released. Roast at 375F for 2hrs. Doing this on the grill as I did with the rotisserie is ideal, as the fat will self baste the chicken before falling into the pan I placed below it.
The first thing we need to do is prepare the sort of dry rub we’ll be using to season the chicken. Grate the lime zest into a bowl, then add the other dry ingredients (except the lemon, scallion and thyme) and give it a good stir.
It’s now time to prepare the chicken so it can marinate for about 1/2 an hour or so before being introduced to the grill. Before using the dry rub, open up the cavity of the bird and add the thyme, scallion (fold it) and lemon halves. Now it’s time to coat the chicken in the dry rub me made. Try to do so evenly.. then cover with plastic wrap and allow to marinate in the fridge. It’s important that you truss the chicken (tie with string) so it’s compact and will not toss around as it does it’s thing on the rotisserie.
Preheat your grill at 300 degrees. TIP: Place a disposable pan (see your local dollar store) directly below where the chicken will be placed on the grill (see video below) and put about 1/2 inch of water in it. As the rotisserie chicken cooks, it will drop fat and you don’t want flare-ups. This will prevent such flare-ups, but remember to keep adding water as it cooks. Now it’s just a matter of placing your chicken securely on the rotisserie bar and heading out to the grill.
Cover the lid and let this cook for 2 hrs. After the first hour it will start to develop color and the scent will start to really make it’s presence known. Do remember to keep the heat constant and keep filling the drip pan with water. After 1.5 hrs I turned up the heat to 400F to ensure it’s fully cooked inside and to give it that appealing color rotisserie chicken should have.
After 2 hrs your rotisserie chicken should be ready to join the party. Remove from the heat and allow to rest (cover with tin foil) for about 1 5mins before cutting. In total my chicken cooked for 2 hrs and 10 minutes and it was simply stunning! It may seem like a long time, but this is one of those things you don’t have to babysit, as long as your drip pan has water and you heat is controlled, you can do work on your potato salad and beverages.
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Hey Chris,
I do enjoy most of your recipes.i would love to try this one though i dont have a grill any suggestion (maybe oven) and if so what would be the process. Thanks in advance while i await your response.
yes, you can use the oven at 400F for about 1 hr + depending on the size of the chickens you use
i think any rotatory chicken only cooks for about ihour .or it becomes hard and broken up pieces
I love this site. everything is so easy to follow and once you follow your step, the en result is awesome. Keep up the great work
In Trinidad, we are familiar with the term lime juice for cleaning poultry. However, in North America, lime juice and the juice of a lime are two completely different things. You may find some North American buying lime jucie as in a drink.
Hi Chris. Love the website and YouTube page. I’m new to Caribbean cooking but I’m going to try out a few recipes soon. Quick question- I noticed you wash chickens in either lemon or lime juice..any specific reason? Keep up the good work and I’m looking forward to more. From Texas, Carla.
Carla, I’ll do a video in the coming days to explain why.
Use some minced seasoning peppers (pimentos) in the rub. Will be trying this soon
I have never done rotisserie before. I did not know it was so easy. Will definitely try it.
Hi Chris l love the good food beautiful , please show me how to cook hommeny porridge.. Thank You!
Hi Chris Velda here can I do my rotisserie in the oven as I don’t own a grill let me know soon thks.
Hi Chris, this is awesome and works really well on my counter-top rotisserie. Also , a good point to tie the legs well to close the cavity, because halfway through my chicken decided to….err….discard a large piece of lemon…lol….love your site.
Looks good gonna try it this weekend thank u
Hi Chris, this looks really good and I'm going to try it. I'm going to add a bit of heat to my version !
Chris this looks delicious!
I'm going to give it a try for dinner, it's 92 degrees here in the US so instead of heating up the kitchen and making the AC run even harder, I'll have to figure out how to hook up the rotisserie feature of the grill first but will post pics and let you how it turned out!
Thanks for the great recipes and videos.
If using a charchoal grill you could use the beer can method and make this chicken.. Just an idea..