Jerk Chicken is delicious and succulent grilled Jamaican style bone-in chicken with a spicy marinade as hot as you like.
Jerk Chicken
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
Welcome to the final day of #BBQWeek! I have had such fun bringing you my offerings for making your Memorial Day backyard bbq a special one. I know the holiday will be very important for your family get-together, especially after visiting the graves of loved ones and family members who have fallen while serving in the military. Many people may come from out of town and want to pay their respects, then gather afterwards to share stories over food.
Today I am offering my recipe for Jamaican Jerk Chicken, which I want to warn you- I have another Jerk Chicken recipe as well, but it is different. If you are looking for that one, it is here—>>>BBQ Jerk Chicken. The BBQ Jerk is more of a sauced style. Some years back I’d had the Jerk Chicken sandwich at what was then called Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck, affectionately known as BW3 or BDubs. Then they were just…Buffalo Wild Wings. No weck anymore. And I really did like the Beef on Weck, another fav New York recipe. And I got the chicken sandwich there often enough, which had some of that finishing sauce on it, but after they served me one which was fine until I bit the thick end and it was totally raw, I decided to just make my own. Less chance of a visit to the ER, right? So that recipe has a spatchcocked chicken with a nice marinade and that finishing sauce.
This particular recipe is more like the chicken served at the Teranga restaurant here in Cincinnati, which serves a bit of Jamaican and African food. Any time I go down to the Friends of the Cincinnati Library Warehouse book sales to peek at the cookbook offerings, they are next door and usually grilling out back, and the aromas are intoxicating. They would probably serve their chicken up with plantain and rice and peas among other things. I’d been down to another good Jamaican place called Island Frydays in OTR (Over the Rhine). Their jerk chicken wasn’t quite as good but they had awesome beef patties on coco bread. Beef patties tend to be hard to find unless you make them yourself or buy them frozen.
But anyway, I do like this kind of chicken recipe since it is “on the bone” and therefore a very good bargain as far as food prices go. Years ago I used to watch Emeril Live and I often wondered why he didn’t do recipes for chicken on the bone. And the times he did so, he would just partially debone it, which many people aren’t going to bother with, if truth be told. And besides, I like bone-in chicken because I think it is more moist and flavorful.
If you scored big on chicken leg quarters you will love this one, but cut up chicken is also good. And if you like, you can also spatchcock a whole roaster-fryer like in my other recipe (I have easy instructions there) and then proceed to do it up on the grill. However you like to prep your birds, I hope you enjoy.
I’ll be off having fun over the weekend- I hope you do as well. Join me Monday when I post my recipe for Strawberry Cantaloupe Muffins with the #MuffinMonday group. I know they sound weird, but really, they aren’t. I’m not even sharing that baked good with my usual round of hungry friends. As they say: #MineAllMine! So make sure you find your way back here for that one. Until then- Happy Friday! And don’t forget to sign up for the raffle! Tell your friends! Today is the last day for sign ups!
~Sue
Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Additional marinating time required
Ingredients:
- 3 pounds chicken leg quarters
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon Jamaican curry powder
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon habanero pepper sauce (or amount to taste)
Method:
- Marinate chicken for 6 hours or overnight.
- Drain marinade and grill chicken pieces over moderately hot charcoal until temperature registers 165°F in the thickest part of the thigh.
- Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes to finish coming up to temperature.
From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com

Welcome to #BBQWeek
Let’s fire up the grill, serve up some burgers or steaks or chicken and some delicious sides and desserts! Follow #BBQWeek so you don’t miss one delicious recipe. There are more than 20 recipes this week from some amazing bloggers.
BBQ Week Blogger Recipes! Yay!
Read on, mine liege…
- BBQ Bacon Cowboy Burgers from Tip Garden
- Best Memorial Day Hamurgers from Dad What’s 4 Dinner
- Gigi’s Baked Beans from Family Around The Table
- Grilled Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki from Caroline’s Cooking
- Grilled Fruit Cobbler from Jolene’s Recipe Journal
- Grilled Marinated London Broil from Feeding Big
- Jerk Chicken from Palatable Pastime
- Grilled Meatballs and Spaghetti from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
- Queijo Coalho (Brazilian Grilled Cheese) from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Ginger Marinated Tuna with Sesame Rice from A Day in the Life on the Farm
Also, don’t forget to sign up for the GiveAway. Today is the last day! You could win a $50 gift card and two grilling trays courtesy of Michigan Asparagus, the sponsor of #BBQWeek.
CLICK HERE—–>>>A Rafflecopter Giveaway<<<—–
Disclaimer: While prizes were provided for the giveaway by an outside sponsor, all opinions contained within the post are my own.
Well, I hope this is the place to leave my comment on how I like to fix my asparagus cause I really love asparagus and my favorite way is to roast it. I wash it, snap the harder parts of the stem off and put in a baking dish. I melt some butter with lemon some lightly chopped pecans and Cavender’s Greek Seasoning (one of my favorites), I roast in the oven at 350 for about 30 to 35 minutes. Sometimes I cover it for a while and then uncover till lightly browned. So good!
Your chicken looks mouthwateringly delicious…..my nose started running just looking at the photos
Looks moist and flavorful! I love ideas that are different than ordinary bbq flavor!
I love all the spices in the jerk chicken marinade. The spice, the heat, the vinegar. All make for an amazing chicken!
this looks like art, not dinner! I’m sure it tastes even better than it looks 🙂
Love jerk chicken! Yours looks perfect.
I don’t think I have ever tried Jerk Chicken. I will have to think about change that. This chicken looks so good.
I do love jerk chicken but haven’t made it in a while . this reminds me I should!