Jerk Chicken in the Crockpot

These Crockpot jerk chicken thighs bone-in or boneless skinless are packed with seasonings, cooked with corn and black beans for a complete healthy slow cooker meal. Just delicious!

If you haven’t made a batch of our easy Crockpot recipe with jerk chicken yet you should. This Jamaican dish has become widely popular everywhere but you don’t have to grill it to taste amazing. This is an easy way to make this one pot meal for your family this week.

I highly suggest you use boneless thighs for a number of reasons. Overall this is a cheap brown meat, and this meal feeds a bunch and will impress all of your guests. It only takes about 15 minutes to prep so you can throw it all in before work and enjoy it once everyone gets home. Serve it on a bed of rice and serve.

You can buy ready made seasonings but I am sure you have all the ingredients already in your cupboard so no need to spend more money on that. We will walk you thru the whole process here.

How Long to Cook Jerk Chicken

Low and slow these need to cook all day for about 6 hours to get super tender and have long enough cooked in these seasonings and marinade to get fork tender. Maybe you had this at a restaurant once, or were on vacation and this rocked your world. Grab a can of beans and a bag of frozen corn and then coat your meat.

Ingredient Notes

You are going to want to grab a tray full of fresh or defrosted boneless skinless chicken thighs ideally as these soak up the most flavor, bone-in will work but isn’t my preference is all.

I like to add a bag of Frozen corn kernels right out of the bag. They are better than canned as far as the texture goes. Holding up better since they start out rock hard it is optional but adding vegetables to every meal is my goal.

I also add drained and rinsed canned black beans, but really any beans work. These are traditionally used and it is recommended to rinse or else the color of the sauce will be kinda’ gray / black and not as appealing.

How to Make Jerk Seasoning

You can buy bottled jerk seasoning here but is is simple to make it yourself with a mixture of; Parsley, Garlic powder, Onion powder, Thyme, Salt and nutmeg, Allspice, Pepper and red pepper flakes amount can be adjusted for spicy or mild, same with Cayenne, Cinnamon and brown sugar for sweetness.

Before you massage it in your can taste it with your fingertip and fine tune things to your liking. Heat is personal preference for sure. You want a really thick coat on all sides and in all the crevices of your meat. Let the excess fall off before setting them inside but rub it on real good.

How can you make jerk seasoning spicy?

You would want to add more cayenne or use red pepper flakes for more heat or dry Sriracha for an Asian tweak to this normally Jamaican dry rub. Add a little, taste and adjust knowing that as it is exposed to heat it will get a bit spicier as well.

How long can chicken stay in jerk marinade?

If you want a really deep and bold flavor on your meat you can coat with the seasonings, wrap plate full with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge overnight. I wouldn’t leave for longer than 48 hours or the salt will start to break down the meat and texture won’t be ideal.

Cooking Tips

You don’t really need to add liquid because as it cooks there will be some chicken broth released. The longer you cook it the more fork tender it will become. I mean to a point, you can overcook it to the point where it’s dry but give or take an hour you will be fine.

You could use a wet jerk sauce marinade made with scotch bonnet peppers as an alternative. I haven’t done that as I feel like you’d need to let chicken pieces sit for several hours beforehand for that to really soak in. This sticks well and won’t slide off in the cooking process.

I haven’t used chicken breasts either. Thighs have SO much more flavor and moisture to them. Do NOT cook on high either. You want that slow roasted in soaked in yummy sauce flavors to marinate together.

Jerk Chicken Sides

Want to add a bit of island sweetness to this? Pour 1/2 cup of pineapple juice into the pot initially. You really don’t need anything else to serve this with since there are already side dishes on the bottom but here are a few ideas:

1. Served on a bed of Ninja Foodi rice is usually my go to with a squeeze of lime juice on top.
2. You can make a batch of roasted potatoes with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
3. More vegetables always enhances any easy chicken recipe like slow cooker carrots or green beans.

Whatever you serve with this jerk chicken recipe I assure you that it will become a part of your regular meal plan for sure. Low in saturated fat we have all needed nutritional information for you too below. You can print it out and keep it on hand or just come back time and time again when you want to make it.

If you add another wow to the mix let us know after you leave a rating about how much you enjoyed it.

What to do with leftovers

If you have leftovers they keep quite well and can be reheated the next day for lunch. Make sure that it is room temperature before you transfer it to freezer bags or containers. It will be fine for up to 3 days or so until you’re ready to enjoy it again for a meal.

You can either set some on a baking sheet and heat at 375 for about 6 minutes, or heat for about 1 minute in the microwave. Either way I would spoon a few tbsp. of broth over the top to keep it moist. The meat can be thrown into your air fryer too to crisp it up if you wanted. I’d make a fresh batch of rice though, that never saves well.

OR dice it up and make our Instant Pot chicken thighs and rice dish. Since they’re precooked you can skip the first saute step entirely.