Make Ahead

Shredded Jerk Chicken

by:
January 10, 2012
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Shredded Jerk Chicken
  • Makes nearly 3 qts of marinade (which can be frozen for future use) and chicken to serve 6-8 people
Author Notes

This recipe yields a vat of jerk marinade that you can freeze in containers for future use. It originated from a recipe my friend found on the Food Network Canada site and can be used with chicken or beef. I imagine you can mix it well with a pork shoulder as well.

Don't be intimated by the laundry list of ingredients in the jerk base. The beauty of this marinade is all of the ingredients are simply thrown in a pot together and cooked for roughly 1.5 hours then you can blend it with an immersion blender or in batches once it's cooled off a bit.

Using chicken thighs creates fall of the bone, shredded, tender flavorful bites of chicken with a kick (for sure). You can adjust the heat by eliminating some of the cayenne and jalapenos if you prefer.

Source: http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/recipe.html?dishid=11803 —triedntrue

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Jerk Base
  • 4 large yellow onions, roughly chopped
  • 2 bunches green onion, roots removed & chopped
  • 2 cups cups fresh squeezed orange juice
  • 1/3 cup cup fresh squeezed lime juice (roughly 3 limes)
  • 4 jalapeno or habanero peppers, de-seeded and chopped (you can decrease this amount if you want less heat) the
  • 6 tablespoons ground cayenne pepper (again, decrease if you prefer a milder flavor)
  • 2 tablespoons ground allspice
  • 2 tablespoons ground thyme
  • 2 tablespoons ground black pepper
  • 2.5 teaspoons ground sage
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 5 tablespoons dark brown sugar
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 3 cups white vinegar
  • 1 cup dark rum
  • 2 cups orange blossom honey (any honey will work)
  • 4 cups vinegar based BBQ Sauce
  • Shredded Jerk Chicken
  • jerk rub (by the bottle or make from scratch, see recipe link above)
  • 2 pounds skinless chicken thighs (boneless too if you can find them)
  • jerk marinade (from above)
  • jerk BBQ sauce from above
Directions
  1. Jerk Base
  2. Combine all ingredients simmer for one and a half hours. When onions are very tender remove from heat and allow to cool to room temp. Blend with an immersion blender or in batches, use blender to puree until smooth.
  3. Mix half of the marinade mixture with four cups vinegar based store bought BBQ sauce and two cups orange blossom honey (any honey will work). (You can freeze the remaining marinade and marinade/BBQ mixture separately for future use)
  1. Shredded Jerk Chicken
  2. Season chicken with jerk rub, then saute/grill chicken until firm but not cooked all the way.
  3. Add chicken to a pot cover chicken a 1/4 of the way up with jerk marinade and then fill the pot with jerk BBQ to the 3/4 point of the chicken. Simmer for about 45 minutes until the chicken starts to fall apart.
  4. Remove chicken to a clean strainer to drain reserve the liquid back into the pot and reduce contents of the pot by one fourth.
  5. While liquid is being reduced, use forks to pull the chicken apart. After the liquid is reduced add chicken back to the pot. It is ready to use at this point.
  6. Can be made into sandwiches or served over rice.
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