Switch up your regular chicken dinner routine with this Jamaican-inspired paleo Roasted Jerk Chicken Thighs with Sweet Potatoes! The trick is to cook a pan of vegetables under the chicken thighs, so the chicken juices drip down onto the vegetables as they cook.

The more I have the chance to spend time in different areas of the country, the more I realize that where you’re from is often depicted in the way you drive. In your car is where things get real.

When my sister lived in North Carolina, she told me about what she liked to call Southern charm. She said everyone is sweet as a Georgia peach pie (as in, ohhh, bless her heart) until they get into their car. And then it’s no holds barred.

It’s not that there was a lot of horn beeping like what we grew up with in New York. Rather, Southern charm in driving form involves a lot of bird-flipping and people hanging their heads out car windows to scream what they felt like was the other driver’s just desserts (read: a long string of profanities).

It gets worse though. A few years ago in Florida, I saw a guy get a gun pulled on him at an intersection after he flipped off the guy in the car ahead of him who cut him off.

Surprisingly enough, here in DC there’s not a lot of beeping or profanities being slung. There is just so much traffic it’s expected that you’ll be cut off or nearly hit or have your car dinged almost every time you’re brave enough to venture out in your car.

But the good news is, the longer you spend in your car, the more time you have to think, or plan, or listen to podcasts.

During a very long drive last winter I realized, to my shock and dismay, that I’ve never made jerk chicken! After that I made it last winter, with a hearty sweet potato twist. And then winter slipped into spring and spring to summer and now we're well into autumn and suddenly I feel the need to share this recipe I’ve been sitting on for the better part of a year.

In This Article

The Best Roasted Jerk Chicken Thighs Recipe with Sweet Potatoes

For this recipe, first I took inspiration from classic jerk flavoring. And secondly, the cooking method was inspired by my recipe for Roast Chicken Ratatouille. In that recipe, I also cooked chicken thighs on a wire rack set over a pan of vegetables. The veggies end up cooking in the chicken drippings, and they’re so much more intensely flavorful because of it.

The spice mix is my own version of a the classic components going on in jerk spice mix. I’m not calling it authentic, but it hits the same flavor notes. And bonus, it’s easy to customize based on what herbs or spices you really like. Additionally, I whipped up a sweet and spicy creamy (with either coconut milk or cashew cream) sauce because why not?

Serve this up with rice or Smoky Roasted Garlic Cauliflower Rice to keep the meal paleo.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

One-pan meal. Who doesn't love full meal that comes together in just one pan?!
Flavor-packed jerk seasoning. The combination of sweet, hot, and savory jerk spices is unique and delicious!
Oven roasted chicken. If you're looking for an easy way to have chicken come out perfectly tender and juicy every time, oven-roasting is the way to go and dark meat bone-in chicken is what to cook. Plus, it's so easy; you just pop it in the oven and let dinner do its thing.
Roasted sweet potato with chicken drippings means rich flavor. Because we cook the chicken thighs on a wire rack positioned over a roasting pan of vegetables, as the chicken cooks and releases its juices they drop onto the veggies and add great depth of flavor.
Special diet-friendly. This dish is naturally paleo and gluten free.

Ingredients For Roasted Jerk Chicken Thigh and Sweet Potato Dinner

Homemade Jerk Spice Mix (you will use all of this for this recipe):

Coconut sugar, or light brown sugar
Ground allspice
Salt
Dried thyme leaves
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Ginger (ground)
Cayenne pepper
Nutmeg (ground)
Cinnamon (ground)
Cloves (ground)
Black pepper (ground)
Crushed red pepper flakes

Jerk Chicken Thighs:

Homemade Jerk Spice Mix
Apple cider vinegar, or fresh lime juice
Coconut aminos, or soy sauce or tamari sauce
Avocado oil
Coconut sugar, or light brown sugar
Bone-in skin-on chicken thighs

Jerk Sweet Potatoes:

Sweet potato, or yam
Onion
Homemade Jerk Spice Mix
Avocado oil

Creamy Honey Jalapeno Sauce:

Full-fat canned coconut milk, or any of the substitutes mentioned in the recipe below
Jalapeno
Mint
Honey
Salt

How to Make Roasted Jerk Chicken Thighs with Sweet Potatoes

Make the Homemade Jerk Spice Mix. Combine all ingredients for the spice blend in a bowl. Measure out 2 teaspoons for the sweet potato.
Marinade the Jerk Chicken Thighs. Whisk together the jerk spice mix, vinegar, coconut aminos, oil, and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in the chicken, cover, and refrigerate 12 to 24 hours. Let the chicken sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking.
Cook the Jerk Chicken Thighs and Jerk Sweet Potatoes. Preheat the oven to 350F. Prep the sweet potato. To do so, put the sweet potato in a medium-sized saucepan and cover with water by 2 inches. Cover the saucepan, bring up to a boil, and then cock the lid, turn down the heat so it doesn’t boil over, and boil 4 minutes. Drain and stir together the par-cooked sweet potato with the onion, and jerk spice mix. Brush the bottom of a large roasting pan with the oil and spread the potato/onion mixture out in an even layer. Securely fit a wire rack over the top of the roasting pan and arrange the chicken on top, skin side up. Roast until the chicken is fully cooked (there should be no pink when you cut into it), about 1 hour.
Make the Creamy Honey Jalapeno Sauce. Meanwhile, stir together all ingredients for the sauce and keep refrigerated until serving.
Enjoy. Serve the chicken and sweet potato hot along with the cool sauce to drizzle on top.

Tips for Making This Jerk Chicken Thigh Dinner

You can use regular potatoes instead of sweet potatoes. And if you do, there's no need to par-cook them first!
Or go with another mix of vegetables. You can use cauliflower, bell peppers, or whatever you like. Just make sure to cut them all so that they will roast in about 1 hour.
Swap out the homemade spice mix for store-bought. The nice thing about making your own spice mix is that you can control the quality of ingredients that go into it. Additionally, you can use more or less of your favorite spices! However, if you don't have a well-stocked pantry, you can use a store-bought Jerk Spice Mix instead of mixing the spices from scratch.
Don't skip the marinade time. Because this helps tenderize your chicken! Additionally, marination makes the meat as flavorful and juicy as possible.

Jerk Chicken Thighs FAQs

How Long Do You Cook Jerk Chicken in the Oven?

Chicken thighs with the bone in and skin on cook for about 1 hour at 350F. They're done when there's no blood in the meat. Additionally, the internal temperature taken in the thickest part of the meat should read 170F on an instant-read thermometer.

Do You Cover Chicken When Baking in the Oven?

No, you don't need to cover this chicken when baking in the oven.

What Temperature Do You Cook Chicken in the Oven?

This recipe for Jerk Chicken Thighs cooks the chicken at 350F for 1 hour.

More Delicious Recipes Using Chicken Thighs

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This post was first published on An Edible Mosaic on October 28, 2016. It was updated with more information on January 9, 2022.

1-Pan Roasted Jerk Chicken Thighs with Sweet Potatoes