My aim in this recipe is to offer a dish with lots of flavor, and in keeping with jerk chicken spice, to also have a rich flavor blend, and really tender meat. It does call for a fairly large number of ingredients to achieve an amazing mix of flavors, but once you have the dry mix made, you can set it aside to use several more times.
Here are the ingredients!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Jerk Chicken Spice Mix
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 3 tbsp olive oil (them 2 more tbsp later for cooking the chicken)
- 2 tbsp seasoning
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 3 tbsp vegetable stock
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken
- 3 limes
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 head of cabbage
Spice Mix Ingredients
First, you can either buy a jerk chicken spice mix at the store, or you can use this recipe to make your own mix. This mixture is more than this recipe calls for, so you’ll have extra jerk chicken spice afterwards. So you do not need to use all of this mix in the recipe.
Jerk Chicken Dry Spice Mix
- 1 tbsp ground pepper
- 1 1/2 tbsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 2 tbsp ground thyme
- 1/2 tbsp ground rosemary
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
Please note again: I don’t use all of the spice in this recipe, only 3 tbsp, and then I save the rest.
First mix all of these wonderful spices in a bowl. I’m mixing mine in one of my handy ceramic bowls with a lid so that I can easily store the rest of the dry mix for later. You can also easily store the mix in a jar or ziplock bag.
Once the dry spice mix is ready, make the marinade by mixing in the brown sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, olive oil, vegetable stock, and only 3 tbsp of the Jerk Chicken Dry Spice Mix.
Take two pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and marinate them in the bowl for 30 minutes.
While that’s marinating, you can prepare the taco toppings. First, shred 1/2 head of cabbage and cut limes into wedges. Also set out cilantro, cheese, salsa (I used salsa verde for this recipe), and any other toppings you may want.
Add 2 tbsp of olive oil to a medium sized pan and heat on medium. Place the chicken pieces without the marinade in the pan on medium heat until brown, then turn over and cook the other sides until brown. Once both side of the chicken pieces are browned, add the marinade and place the lid on the pan for the chicken to cook all the way through.
At this point, I also place the tortillas in a small pan on low heat to warm up.
Once the chicken has cooked, remove each piece one at a time from the pan and place in a bowl (do not pour juices in the bowl). Use two forks to pull the chicken apart.
If you’re home is like mine, everyone likes to make their tacos their way, so I simply set out the taco fixings.
As for mine, I like a little of everything on it!
