Slow Cooker Jamaican Jerk Chicken
27 Comments Mar 04, 2024
Updated Jun 11, 2024
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Add a delicious twist to your chicken tonight with this Slow Cooker Jamaican Jerk Chicken. It’s spicy, flavorful, and super easy to make. It has heat and tanginess with the versatility of being served over rice with a side of black beans.
If you get on a chicken thigh kick, you’ll love my Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs and Slow Cooker Lemon Pepper Chicken Thighs recipes.
Why You’ll Love Slow Cooker Jerk Chicken
Slow cooker chicken recipes are always good to keep on hand, especially ones like this. The jerk seasoning is made from scratch using spice cabinet essentials you most likely already have on hand. The only ingredients you may need to pick up from the grocery store are the bone in, skin on chicken thighs, fresh jalapenos, green onions, and limes.
And just in case you’re wondering, making the marinade is easy, using a food processor. Also, you can choose a longer cooking time if you have a busy day or a shorter cooking time if you need to put dinner on the table fairly quickly. You’ll also like how this chicken can be paired with any things or turned into a whole new dish once cooked.
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken Thighs: Grab a 6-pack of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for this recipe. Using this cut not only creates tender meat but also juicy and flavorful. We also use chicken thighs in our Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs recipe.
- Salt & Pepper: These two will be used to season the chicken just before searing both sides and adding them into the crock pot.
- Homemade Jerk Seasoning: Green onion, yellow onion, garlic, ginger, lime juice, jalapeno pepper, soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, thyme, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice.
- Vegetable Oil: Used for searing the chicken.
Step-by-Step Directions
Step One – Season both sides of the chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
Step Two – Heat the vegetable oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken thighs for 3-4 minutes on one side.
Step Three – Turn the chicken thighs over to the other side to brown. Be careful not to fully cook the chicken, as it will continue cooking in the slow cooker.
Step Four – Transfer the browned chicken thighs to the slow cooker.
Step Five – In a food processor, combine the green onion, yellow onion, garlic, ginger, lime juice, jalapeno pepper, soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, thyme, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice.
Step Six – Process until smooth and well combined.
Step Seven – Pour the sauce over the chicken thighs in the slow cooker, making sure to coat them evenly.
Step Eight – Cover the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 8 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through and tender.
Step Nine – Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the slow cooker and transfer to a serving dish. Pour the juices from the slow cooker over the chicken thighs. Garnish, if preferred, and enjoy!
How to Serve
- Serve the Jamaican jerk chicken thighs with rice, lime wedges, a squeeze of fresh lime juice, and garnish with fresh parsley or cilantro. Consider serving with traditional Jamaican sides like plantains, black beans, rice or coleslaw.
- You can also serve with mango salsa, cauliflower rice, and topped with green onions.
- Turn this into jerk chicken tacos by easily pulling the meat off the bones and placing it in tortillas or as a taco salad topping.
Recipe FAQs
Adjust the spiciness of the dish by adding more or less jalapeno pepper, depending on your preference. You can also substitute the jalapeno for serrano peppers, scotch bonnet peppers, or habanero peppers, depending on your preference for spiciness.
For a deeper flavor, marinate the chicken thighs in the sauce for 1-2 hours before cooking.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat gently in the microwave or oven before serving.
Although this recipe calls for chicken thighs, you can use chicken breasts or chicken legs.
More boneless chicken thigh recipes:
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Slow Cooker Jamaican Jerk Chicken
How to Video
Ingredients
- 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 green onion, whole
- ½ yellow onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 Tbsp. fresh ginger
- juice of 1 lime
- 1 jalapeno pepper, Deseeded
- ⅓ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
- 2 tsp. ground thyme
- ½ tsp. ground cloves
- ½ tsp. ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp. ground allspice
Instructions
- Season both sides of the chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken thighs for 3-4 minutes per side to render out the fat and brown the skin. Be careful not to fully cook the chicken, as it will continue cooking in the slow cooker.
- Transfer the browned chicken thighs to the slow cooker.
- In a food processor, combine the green onion, yellow onion, garlic, ginger, lime juice, jalapeno pepper, soy sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, thyme, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice. Process until smooth and well combined.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken thighs in the slow cooker, making sure to coat them evenly.
- Cover the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 8 hours or on HIGH for 4 hours, or until the chicken is cooked through and tender.
- Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the slow cooker and transfer to a serving dish. Pour the juices from the slow cooker over the chicken thighs.
- Serve the Jamaican jerk chicken thighs with rice, lime wedges, and garnish with fresh parsley or cilantro.
Sarah’s Notes
- Adjust the spiciness of the dish by adding more or less jalapeno pepper, depending on your preference. You can also substitute the jalapeno for serrano peppers, bonnet peppers, or habanero peppers, depending on your preference for spiciness.
- For a deeper flavor, marinate the chicken thighs in the sauce for 1-2 hours before cooking.
- Serve with traditional Jamaican sides like plantains, black beans, rice or coleslaw.
- Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Reheat gently in the microwave or oven before serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
It was just okay. I won’t make it again.
I made this recipe all the time before you updated it. My family loved it. I see you updated it, and now it’s more complicated to make. Unfortunately I learned this after trying to make it in a hurry this morning. I’m sure the updated version is great, but is there anyway to still access the original? I just loved how quick and easy is was to make, and my family loved it.
I’ll second this. Please being back the old recipe. Thanks
I agree with this! Please post the original recipe
BUSSIN
I’ve done this recipe twice, with a couple of alterations:
– chilli flakes to increase the heat
-7 hours rather than 6
It’s great!
I have some bottled Jamaican jerk sauce, both Walkerswood and Grace, that I want to use up. Seems that it would be easy to just cook the chicken in one of those and call it a day?
Yes, you may want to season the chicken a little first.
There are great jerk sauces and marinades I use..great stuff