The wait is finally over! For those of you who have been following me for the better part of last year know that I have been making my version of Saucy Jerk Chicken for a year now. A LOT of you have requested it, and I shied away from posting it. There are a couple of reasons why I did not want to post it, and none of them had to do with me not wanting to share.

I am not Jamaican, and this recipe is not authentic in any way.
I don’t really know if this is authentic because I have never looked up an authentic one.
I took this recipe off of my brother in law, who made it for us one day and I fell in love.

After I have made it on a monthly basis for well over a year, I feel like I have made you all wait for a great dupe of the real thing!

Anecdote Time

I love making recipes from other cultures. I find the easiest way, and quite frankly, the yummiest way to understand a place stems from the flavours they use in their cooking.
I have been a fan of Jamaican food since my Highschool days. On the way home from school we would hop off the bus, grab a double, or two and hop back on the bus to continue our route.

My Ammu loved grabbing Jerk Chicken for dinner on her way home from work sometimes and I can remember loving eating the crispy chicken skin and gravy soaking through my rice and peas only to be protected by the Styrofoam container it came in.

We had a favorite joint. Even after getting married, I would go in there on the snowyiest of days and grab a box for dinner, and an extra for the day after. It was special not only because of the Jerk Chicken, but because the man that owned the joint was just the most amazing human being. A few years ago, I walked into the restaurant to find that it was getting a facelift. When I inquired about the owner uncle, I was told that he had passed away. We tried going back to the new place, but as luck would have it, nothing was ever the same.

Ever since then, it has been challenging to find a Jerk Chicken place the meets my expectations, but while I keep looking, this recipe that I stole from my brother in law, comes in at a close second.

A few notes

This is my version of Jerk Chicken. It is more saucy then the version that my BIL makes.
In the original recipe, my BIL doesn’t use as many bunches of scallions. If you are looking to make a dry version; here are the alterations:
- use 8 stems of scallions instead of 5 bunches.
- use a 1/4 cup of water when you make the marinade instead of 1/2 cup.
- use a barbeque instead of the oven to grill your chicken.

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