Jerk Chicken Tacos

We do already have a couple jerk chicken recipes up on the blog, but since everyone’s tastes vary, and this one is a little different, I thought I’d add another. Besides, this is a taco recipe, and we all know that I have a bit of a thing for tacos. Just a bit. I found this recipe on Nutritionist in the Kitch, and she also included a slaw with kale and healthy stuff. Even though I’m a somewhat adventurous eater, I just am not ready for kale. Sorry. It often looks good to me, but I can’t take the risk of the kale coming in here and ruining my tasty tacos. Just can’t do it. So I went with my tried and true southwest slaw recipe (using broccoli slaw instead of cabbage this time). But hey, if you want to dance with the kale, by all means follow the recipe link and try it. The chicken turned out pretty good, although I thought it could have used a bit of salt. The Hubs was really happy, but I have to caveat that he had just flown in from Milwaukee and was quite hungry. So he might have been a little skewed.

Ingredients

4 6oz chicken breasts

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pinch of sea salt

1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, pressed

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

So this is pretty simple. Just mix up all the jerk seasoning ingredients in a small bowl (everything but the chicken). Remove the seeds and ribs of the jalapeno if you’re a big baby about spice. In a baking dish, rub the seasoning mix into the chicken, making sure it’s all covered and using all the marinade. Make sure to thoroughly wash your hands after this step and avoid touching your eyes! Let that marinate for at least 30 minutes. Then preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake your chicken for 20-25 minutes. I actually had to go to 30 because the breasts I used were pretty thick. Then remove the chicken and carefully shred it in the baking dish. It’s important to keep it in the dish so you get all the extra marinade and spices into the chicken. Once it’s all shredded, serve in a tortilla with some slaw (kale or not) and sour cream. Boom. Jerk chicken taco.