Smoked Jerk Chicken Thighs

Delicious BBQ chicken thighs prepared in a jerk spice marinade and cooked over fire to give them a smoky flavor with crispy caramelised skin.

Nothing says Caribbean fire cooking more than jerk chicken. The spicy, smoky, and sweet chicken is bursting with bold flavors from Scotch bonnet peppers, fragrant allspice, and fresh thyme. The spice marinade gives it a mahogany hue, while cooking it over smoke makes it unbelievably tender before we give it a lick of fire to give it a crispy char finish. It’s unreal.

This recipe strays from tradition slightly for the sake of convenience. Traditional jerk chicken is often cooked in a jerk drum, often made from a converted oil barrel. Without the means to replicate that, I’ve just used my simple kettle grill, but it does the job perfectly well. Also, without easy access to the pimento wood that provides much of the flavor of true Jamaican jerk chicken, I’ve ramped up the allspice in the marinade to try and make up for it. It’s definitely not authentic but it still tastes pretty good.

The hallmark of great jerk chicken is its marinade so we’ll skip the temptation to use any sticky glazes and let the flavor of the spice-soaked chicken do its thing. The chicken needs at least an overnight soak in the marinade and we’ll cook the thighs indirectly to slowly bring them to temperature before we give them that final char to round them off. The longer these soak in the marinade and smoke, the better, so don’t rush it.

Jerk Chicken Explained

Jerk chicken is a Jamaican classic prepared with a paste-like spice marinade and then cooked over pimento wood. It often features scotch bonnet peppers, allspice, brown sugar and fresh thyme to deliver an incredible mix of spices and herbs. And, of course, fiery smoky cooking.

Jerk cooking originated as a preservation method, using salt and spices to keep meat fresh in the humid climate, before cooking and smoking it underground. Now, it’s traditionally cooked in ‘jerk drums’, which are oil barrels cut in half and hinged to convert into homemade cookers. But the ingenuity of the grills is their ability to trap in smoke, while offering different heat zones to cook the chicken at different levels and temperatures.

Good jerk chicken combines heat from Scotch bonnet peppers with the sweetness from brown sugar, and aromatics like allspice. It’s unlike any other kind of smoked chicken, and is all the better for it.

Smoked Jerk Chicken Thighs

Delicious BBQ chicken thighs prepared in a jerk spice marinade and cooked over fire to give them a smoky flavor with crispy caramelised skin.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Servings 2

Ingredients

  

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• 6 chicken thighs skin-on & bone-in
• 2 tbsp coarse salt

Jerk Marinade

• 4 scotch bonnet peppers
• 6 spring onions roughly chopped
• 8 cloves garlic peeled
• 1 inch ginger peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves only
• 1 tbsp whole allspice berries freshly ground
• ½ tsp nutmeg freshly grated
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 lime juice of
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

 

• Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Sprinkle coarse salt over the chicken, covering all sides. Set to one side.
• Prepare the jerk marinade by adding all the marinade ingredients except the olive oil to a blender. Blend until you have a coarse paste.
• Slowly add the olive oil and blend the marinade until you have a near-smooth paste.
• Add the chicken to a bowl or container. Pour the marinade over the chicken, using your hands to work it into the meat, covering evenly. Leave to marinade in the fridge overnight.
• When ready to cook, remove the chicken from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature while you preheat your smoker. Fire up your smoker or grill to 250-275°F (120-135°C). Add a chunk of oak wood to the coals.
• Smoke the chicken to an internal temperature of 170-175°F (76-79°C). Then, briefly fire up the flames from your coals (I find adding a few wood chips helps do this), and lightly grill the chicken skin-side down directly over the flames to create a little char.
• Pull the chicken from the grill and rest wrapped in foil for 10-15 minutes before serving.

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