Jerk Seasoning (Dry Jamaican Jerk Rub)

Eating jerk chicken is a three part sensory experience for me. The chicken has to be brazenly hot at first bite. This is the cue that all my senses have assembled and are engaged. I keep eating until my eyes go watery. The sting remains on my tongue, but it all mellows out to an overall satiating feeling. Who knew chicken could literally bring me tears of joy?

I grew up in Queens, New York, which is just one borough that’s central to many Caribbean cultural hubs of New York City. Jamaican restaurants were easily accessible thanks to the immigrants who settled in the area and created bustling eateries, making it possible for me to consider jerk flavor as part of my culinary upbringing. My family made jerk chicken at home, but it was never like the one in the restaurants. I later realized that it had much to do with how the chicken was cooked, but also how it was seasoned.  

Making My Own Jerk Seasoning

Jerk-style meat is now a regular on my weekly dinner menu. My family always used the paste version of this seasoning in the glass jar from Grace or Walkerswood brands which I continue to use today, including in my jerk meatballs. But over the years I’ve become a more skilled home cook and found making my own spice rubs in addition to other marinades quite empowering. I have more control over the salt and heat level as well as how deeply warm I want the spices. This is especially helpful when cooking for a crowd with varying tolerance for heat. 

This versatile dry jerk seasoning is  perfect on chicken, pork, beef, and seafood. When I want to get dinner ready with limited time, my dry rub works perfectly, especially on large cuts of meat with some fat. Meat coated in dry rubs does not require much marinating time since most of the flavor is imparted when the meat hits the cooking surface.  

What Is Jerk?

The term jerk can refer to the process of cooking meat as well as the spice blend used to season the meat. The blend of spices develops a dark color when the meat is cooking, giving it that recognizable appearance. 

This style of cooking originates from the 17th century colonial era when formerly enslaved people who escaped from Spanish settlements fled to the mountainous areas of Jamaica. There they encountered the Taino, a tribe of the indigenous Arawak Indians who taught the escaped slaves their technique for cooking and preserving meat. 

The process involved coating meat, typically wild boar, with spices and pepper. The meat was placed in a large hole in the ground that was first layered with firewood when they were read to cook. It is believed this is where the smoky element of jerk cooking came from. They were careful to cover the pit to avoid any smoke from the cooking process alerting slave owners to their location. Read more from Jamaican-Canadian journalist Vaughn Stafford Gray as he shares about the fascinating history of jerk in this article.   

Ingredients in Jerk Spice

Jerk spice is a versatile spice blend that is made in ground, paste, or marinade form. It is made from combining warm spices commonly used in everyday Caribbean cooking with aromatics and sugar to create a harmonious blend of flavor. Spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and clove are added along with onion, garlic, ginger, scallion as aromatics. Each cook has their own preference for what gets added to the mix and what is omitted. I like a more pronounced cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg flavor and a little less ginger, black pepper, and paprika.  

When to Break Out Your Jerk Seasoning

When adding this to seafood and tofu, don’t overdo it since the seasoning can easily overpower anything tender. For beef, lamb, and other red meat, you can be a little more heavy handed. Chicken is my go-to meat of choice when using this rub. I like to pair it with a variety of side dishes, from Jamaican rice and peas to West Indian style chow mein or fried rice and even with potato salad or macaroni pie.

Hot Pepper Substitutions

In place of Scotch bonnet you can use dried habanero or ground cayenne pepper as the third option. I don’t recommend using dried jalapenos or serrano peppers here, since the flavor of these peppers doesn’t match the heat and taste we’re going for.