Cheat's Jerk Chicken with Rice & Peas (Beans) - quick and easy midweek family dinner with a taste of Caribbean. Utterly delicious!
Perfect meal for those busy days!
Do you have those days when cooking is the last thing on your mind? You're tired and a bit fed up but family demands food? Today's recipe for my Cheat's Jerk Chicken with Rice & Peas (Beans) is perfect for one of those days. It's an uncomplicated, home cooked meal with some easy shortcuts thrown in for good measure. And guess what? It delivers on flavour too and with a little bit of planning it can be on your table in under half an hour!
If you've been following my blog for a while now you know that I'm all for cooking from scratch most of the time but I do have those "really can't be bothered" days too and need any help I can get. 🙂
This simple Cheat's Jerk Chicken dinner is perfect for such days and keeps me happy knowing that my family had a wholesome and nutritious meal, even if with couple of lazy shortcuts on my part!
Note about ingredients!
I'm using my favourite part of chicken here (chicken thighs) which I find so much more flavourful plus much more difficult to dry out as they cook! In order to ensure that your Jerk Chicken is really scrumptious and full of flavour, the thighs should be allowed to marinate for as long as possible. Preparing a marinade takes as little as 5 minutes and if you can do it before you leave for work in the morning or the night before and let it do its job while you are out, you will be on to a winner. However, if life gets in the way and you forget etc. even half an hour will be better than nothing.
As for the seasoning, I've used Schwartz Jamaican Jerk* seasoning but you can use any other brand of Jerk seasoning that you've got available. Even though it is a little spicy, my children were perfectly happy scoffing the chicken and even asking for more!
Another shortcut I've use here are the rice pouches which, I must admit, I use very rarely but ALWAYS have few in the cupboard for emergency situations. The ones I've used here were Tilda Caribbean Rice & Peas but you could easily substitute them with other rice pouches of your choice. If the rice you go for doesn't contain any "peas" you can always mix in some kidney beans for that "rice and peas" effect.
As for the best accompaniment to this meal, I cannot recommend my Creamy Summer Coleslaw enough! Its crunch and mild creaminess is perfect against slight spiciness of the chicken. Might be not authentic but to me it's marriage made in heaven.
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📋 Recipe
Cheat's Jerk Chicken with Rice & Peas (Beans)
Ingredients
- 500 g chicken thighs skinless & boneless
- 3 250g pouches of ready Tilda Caribbean Rice & Peas or similar
- spring onions to garnish
- juice of 1 lime
Marinade
- 2 tablespoon (and an extra shake) Jamaican Jerk Seasoning Blend or similar
- 3 tablespoon Rapeseed oil
- 2 spring onions thinly sliced
Instructions
- Put all your marinade ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
- Put chicken thighs in with the marinade and mix well ensuring that they are really well covered. Cover the bowl and put in a fridge for minimum 2 hours but preferably overnight.
- Heat up the griddle pan and cook each thigh approx 8-10 min on each side until cooked through and beautifully charred.
- Served with pouches of ready Carribean Rice & Peas (Beans) or similar sprinkled generously with spring onions and squeeze of lime.
Notes
- The number of servings per ready rice pouch is 2 which is never enough in our household. We tend to use 3 pouches for 2 adults and 2 children.
Nutrition
Some more easy recipes you might enjoy
Easy Homemade Chicken Chow Mein
Easy Butternut Squash & Chorizo Gnocchi
Prawn & Chorizo Cheat's Paella
30-minute Vegetable Egg Fried Rice
Have you tried my Cheat's Jerk Chicken with Rice & Peas (Beans)? Leave a comment at the bottom of this post, I love reading them!
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I’m sharing my Cheat's Jerk Chicken with Rice & Peas (Beans) post with the following linkies:
Cook Blog Share hosted by Jenny at Apply to Face Blog and Eb at Easy Peasy Foodie
Fiesta Friday hosted by Angie and Diann at Of Goats and Greens
*This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a penny more – thanks in advance for supporting Jo's Kitchen Larder!
jenny walters says
This looks fabulous Jo.I use the pouches lots.Especially the brown rice ones.I have no shame about it at all!!!!I am completely over cooking from scratch mid week in all this hot weather and awful google analytics hell!!!!This recipe fits the bill completely.Pinned!Thankyou for sharing #CookBlogShare
joskitchenlarder says
Aw, thanks Jenny! 🙂 I must say I am quite fond of the pouches at the moment as convenience wise there is no denying they are super plus it's really only a little cheat/help isn't it? xx
Eb Gargano | Easy Peasy Foodie says
That looks gorgeous and so my kind of food (in fact I have a very similar recipe on my site!) I adore the combination of jerk spices, rice & peas and spring onions on top - foodie bliss!! And I love, love, love how easy your version is. Perfect for busy weeknights. Eb x
joskitchenlarder says
Aw, thanks so much Eb! This dish came to life from the need for simplicity during this heat and my three boys are not salad type of crowd lol so that was the next best thing for me as far as quick, easy and delicious goes! I do struggle with using shortcuts sometimes but with this recipe I definitely embraced them and it felt and tasted great! lol I might have to do that more often! 🙂 x
Cat | Curly's Cooking says
Yuuum! I love how simple you have made this. I am partial to a rice pouch, especially those quinoa and wholegrain rice ones. Love the crispness you'e got on the thighs.
joskitchenlarder says
Thanks Cat! 🙂 As much as I love this weather my cooking mojo has gone out of the window at the moment cause of the heat so the simpler and quicker the better. It's delicious nevertheless 🙂 x
Jessica says
I love shortcuts too! I often have those days (this week especially!) where I don't want to cook something from scratch! These rice and peas packs look perfect! Thanks for linking up too! x
joskitchenlarder says
Thanks Jess! 🙂 We all have days like that and it's cool just to go with the flow and cook simply. That's what I've done 😉 x
Corina Blum says
This sounds delicious Jo! I have to admit that as much as I love cooking from scratch I am happy to have a cheat meal every so often, especially something spicy like this!
joskitchenlarder says
Aw thank you Corina! Absolutely! The great thing about this meal is that you can achieve lovely flavours with simple, shop bought seasoning turn marinade especially if you let it do its magic in the fridge for a few hours. Little cheat meals can be real saviours sometimes 🙂 x