I love to grill in the summer, but the weather for the long Canada Day weekend wasn’t too good this year. I wanted to make something spicy that didn’t require the BBQ, and this oven-baked jerk chicken drumstick recipe fit the bill nicely.
You want to marinade the drumsticks for as long as you can before cooking. 24 hours is great but typically I have a JIT dinner decision-making process so tend not to have that kind of time available. I usually manage 3-4 hours marinading which works fine.
I’ll put down exactly what recipe I used for the marinade but I’ll say there was too much liquid involved even though I’d skipped the orange juice (sadly due to my inability to tell oranges and grapefruits apart in the supermarket). Next time I make this I’m going to reduce the amount of liquid overall by about 25%.
Chicken
10 drumsticks, skin-on
Marinade ingredients – makes enough marinade for 10+ chicken drumsticks
4 cloves garlic
4 green onions
2 tbl dried thyme
2 tbl allspice
1.5 tbl brown sugar
2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbl olive oil
4 tbl white vinegar
4 tbl soy sauce
2 tbl bourbon or rum (optional but delicious!)
Juice and zest of an orange
Juice and zest of a lime
Habaneros to taste – AT LEAST 1 or 2 deseeded for flavour, more for heat. I used 6, seeds included. It’s not jerk without the peppers! And really you should use Scotch bonnets, but I don’t have a supplier for those.
Dump everything (except the chicken!) into a food processor and pulse it until everything is chopped up into small pieces and you have a sort of paste (with the amount of oil, vinegar etc. listed above it will be more of a thick, lumpy liquid). Rub it on the drumsticks, especially under the skin. Put them in the fridge, covered with the rest of the marinade, for 2-24 hours.
Take the chicken out of the fridge about 15 minutes before cooking, and preheat the oven to 375F. Put the drumsticks on baking trays lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Put them in the oven and cook for around 40-45 minutes without turning. Make sure they’re cooked through properly, with clear juices, no pink in the center and an internal temperature of around 170 degrees.
They ended up delicious and spicy, but not so spicy that my wife couldn’t have them. I could go hotter myself!
I’ll add some pictures next time we make them, which probably won’t be too long 
