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Home > posts > 2016 > 07 > 2016-07-20_JerkChickenTacos.html

Jerk Chicken Tacos (Sous Vide + Grilled) Wednesday, July 20, 2016, 07:00 PM

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Meredith and I were having a friend over so ee decided to again try to replicate Torchy's Brushfire Taco (see 2016-04-07 but decided to use a different jerk chicken recipe (and method)

We decided to go (mostly) with the Serious Eats FoodLab (Local ¹) recipe. Kenji, in typical fashion, goes overboard. We just used his original marinade.

I did make a few small changes to the marinade:

• only 4 habaneros (not scotch bonnet) and I took out most of the seeds
• A bit extra ginger
• Extra garlic
• Dry thyme leaves and only 1 Tbsp because they were dried
• not fresh nutmeg
• Allspice was freshly ground

The marinade was really good. I was eating some of it with a spoon! I think we could try to thicken this (though it may then not be enough volume to blend) and make it into a sauce. Either way, we would certainly use the marinade again!

I marinated the chicken for 3 days (very long). I then followed 2016-06-28 and did the chicken at 145°F. I did it for about 2 hours with the chicken still in the marinade in the bags.

I then grilled it at the highest temp for 1 minute per side as the sear step.

Flavor wise, I like it a lot. I would certainly scale up using this recipe. Method wise, I was a bit torn. I love sous-vide but finishing on the grill was kind of a waste. It stuck some (since we intentionally not leaving it on long enough to cook) and there wasn't much benefit. Plus, it took a lot of time and propane to grill it. On the plus side, I could do it all at once, I didn't have to heat up the house, and I didn't set off smoke alarms.

I think next time, I will either sous-vide or grill, but not both. If I sous-vide, I will either just shred it or I will sear it and slice it.

Or, I will just grill it. Then you get the (appropriate for the meal) char, etc. And I may consider keeping the skin on, but we'll see.

Also, with the sous-vide, the chicken was almost too moist. It just didn't quite feel right for this. Kind of strange I guess.

Anyway, we just assembled with fat-free greek yogurt, chicken, marinade²,mango, Torchy's Diablo sauce, and cilantro. (I forgot to take a photo of mine. We used my friend's photo but we assembled hers differently and without Diablo sauce so it is missing in the above photo)

Additional Photos

Tags: grill, sous_vide