Chef Gina Makes Whole30 Spicy Jerk Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

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It’s mid-month and hopefully, you are in a groove with your healthy eating habits – you’ve got the basics down and are perhaps even looking to “spice it up” a bit. You are in luck with this savory – but with a touch of sweet – tender, flavorful Jerk Chicken recipe. I came up with this one night when I was craving Jerk and fortunately had some time on my hands to experiment with different spice levels and ratios. Since then, I have made it a handful of times and my fiancé still declares this is the best thing I’ve made among the hundreds of dishes to come out of quarantine. I realized it also happens to be Whole30 so I added it to my healthy January repertoire and hope you will enjoy it as much as we have!

Spicy Jerk Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

Total Time: 30 min

Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients

1 MEDIUM ONION
2 GARLIC CLOVES
1 TBS FIVE-SPICE POWDER *SEE NOTES
1 TBS ALL-SPICE
1 TBS BLACK PEPPER
1 TSP CAYENNE PEPPER *SEE NOTES
1 TSP NUTMEG
1 TSP SALT
1 TBS VEGETABLE OIL
½ CUP SOY SAUCE
4 PIECES OF BONE-IN CHICKEN (BREAST OR THIGH WILL WORK)
4 SWEET POTATOES
2 TSP CINNAMON
1 TSP SALT
1 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT

Directions

To make the marinade: place the onion, garlic, and all the spices (everything listed in ingredients until the vegetable oil) into the base of a food processor and pulse until ground into a paste. While running, add vegetable oil and soy sauce into the mix in a steady stream. Place chicken in a dish or plastic bag and top with marinade. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days, allowing the chicken to soak up the jerk flavoring.
When ready to cook, bring the chicken to room temperature. Place chicken and marinade in an Instapot and set on manual for 10 minutes. When done, let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes.
While the chicken is cooking, boil the sweet potatoes until tender to pierce with a fork. Leave the skin on the potatoes for added nutrition and texture.
Drain and place sweet potatoes, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla in a large bowl. Mash with a potato masher or fork, to a rough mash (these will not be as smooth/creamy as traditional “mashed potatoes” since there’s no added butter or milk).
Top sweet potatoes with chicken and serve warm.

Notes

If you don’t have five-spice powder, the spices that make it up are cinnamon, fennel seeds, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, and cloves. One time I didn’t have “five-spice” but had most of the 5 spices (I subbed black peppercorns and coriander for the Sichuan Peppercorn) and blended them all in a food processor. Now I keep five-spice powder on hand but it’s an easy substitute.
Similarly, if you have fresh scotch bonnet peppers or habanero peppers, feel free to use ONE in place of the cayenne pepper powder. Many recipes call for real peppers but I usually do not have those on hand and I found cayenne worked just fine for a spicy kick.