Jamaican Jerk Chicken is a traditional Jamaican spicy dish of marinated chicken meat.
The term Jerk refers to the style of cooking, in which meat is marinated with a hot spice mixture called Jamaican jerk spice. 
Jerk is a Spanish word that comes from the Peruvian word charqui, meaning jerked or dried meat; it eventually evolved to the word jerky in English. While traditional jerk seasoning is made with bird peppers, pimento and pepper elder, modern recipes may include Scotch bonnet peppers, scallions, garlic, ginger, pimento, thyme and cinnamon.

Just like barbecue from the American South, jerk is a product of slavery and it helped Maroons preserve various sorts of meat longer, keeping insects away from the raw meat, and transforming it into delicious dishes. Due to food shortages, Maroons learned how to hunt wild boars and started seasoning it with pimento – allspice berries, salt and bird peppers – a species of chilies in the same family as cayenne. They then cooked it in underground smokeless pits, wrapped in pepper elder leaves, a cooking technique that helped them stay unnoticed while hiding in the mountains. This way of seasoning and cooking food represented some sort of freedom for the Maroons as they had to hunt, prepare, preserve, transport, nourish and sustain while always on the move, often for decades. Today, the way of food preparation that arose from necessity, has become somewhat mainstream.
Jerk is widely available not just in Jamaica, but around the world, as Jamaican settlers bring jerk with them, often opening restaurants and making it available for wider masses. Jerk seasoning is also available commercially in two forms – power and paste, in mild and spicy variations.

Even though Maroons made mostly wild boars, and later pork with jerk, today the most popular dish is Jerk Chicken which is usually part of the Christmas dinner of many Jamaicans.
We made this dish with homemade vegan chicken drumsticks (recipe), but you can also use store-bought vegan chicken in any form, but make sure it is unseasoned. Also, we made a jerk seasoning from scratch, but you can also use the premade versions. According to Jamaica’s official culinary authorities, for a dish to be classified as “authentic jerk,” the meat has to be smoked over pimento wood. If you wish to achieve this, pimento wood chips are available online and in the notes section, we described how to use them.
This flavorful dish, full of smoky, spicy, but also sweet notes will transport you immediately to Jamaica. But be careful – it is hot, very hot!