Jerk chicken with rice & peas

Name: Jerk chicken with rice & peas
Prep time: 18 min
Cook time: 32 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Jamaican
Ingredients: 12 Chicken Thighs; 1/2 Lime; 1 bunch Spring Onions; 1 tbs chopped Ginger; 3 cloves Garlic; 1/2 Onion; 3 chopped Red Chilli; 1/2 teaspoon Thyme; Juice of 1 Lime; 2 tbs Soy Sauce; 2 tbs Vegetable Oil; 3 tbs Brown Sugar; 1 tbs Allspice; 200g Basmati Rice; 400g Coconut Milk; 1 bunch Spring Onions; 2 sprigs Thyme; 2 cloves chopped Garlic; 1 tbs Allspice; 800g Kidney Beans

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Chicken recipe with Jamaican flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 59 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings · 50 min total

12 Chicken Thighs
1/2 Lime
1 bunch Spring Onions
1 tbs chopped Ginger
3 cloves Garlic
1/2 Onion
3 chopped Red Chilli
1/2 teaspoon Thyme
Juice of 1 Lime
2 tbs Soy Sauce
2 tbs Vegetable Oil
3 tbs Brown Sugar
1 tbs Allspice
200g Basmati Rice
400g Coconut Milk
1 bunch Spring Onions
2 sprigs Thyme
2 cloves chopped Garlic
1 tbs Allspice
800g Kidney Beans

Step-by-step instructions

To make the jerk marinade, combine all the ingredients in a food processor along with 1 tsp salt, and blend to a purée. If you’re having trouble getting it to blend, just keep turning off the blender, stirring the mixture, and trying again. Eventually it will start to blend up – don’t be tempted to add water, as you want a thick paste.
Taste the jerk mixture for seasoning – it should taste pretty salty, but not unpleasantly, puckering salty. You can now throw in more chillies if it’s not spicy enough for you. If it tastes too salty and sour, try adding in a bit more brown sugar until the mixture tastes well balanced.
Make a few slashes in the chicken thighs and pour the marinade over the meat, rubbing it into all the crevices. Cover and leave to marinate overnight in the fridge.
If you want to barbecue your chicken, get the coals burning 1 hr or so before you’re ready to cook. Authentic jerked meats are not exactly grilled as we think of grilling, but sort of smoke-grilled. To get a more authentic jerk experience, add some wood chips to your barbecue, and cook your chicken over slow, indirect heat for 30 mins. To cook in the oven, heat to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Put the chicken pieces in a roasting tin with the lime halves and cook for 45 mins until tender and cooked through.
While the chicken is cooking, prepare the rice & peas. Rinse the rice in plenty of cold water, then tip it into a large saucepan with all the remaining ingredients except the kidney beans. Season with salt, add 300ml cold water and set over a high heat. Once the rice begins to boil, turn it down to a medium heat, cover and cook for 10 mins.
Add the beans to the rice, then cover with a lid. Leave off the heat for 5 mins until all the liquid is absorbed. Squeeze the roasted lime over the chicken and serve with the rice & peas, and some hot sauce if you like it really spicy.

Why this works on a weeknight

Jerk chicken with rice & peas lands at about 50 minutes total — a little longer than our 30-minute target, but most of that time is hands-off simmering, which is why it earned a spot in our Rice & Grain Bowls collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Jerk chicken with rice & peas actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🍚 Rice & Grain Bowls Chicken Jamaican Chilli Curry