Jerk Chicken Wings

Given how often some variety of crispy chicken wings has ended up as my go-to lazy meal choice while low carbbing, I’m a little surprised that I don’t have a TON of chicken wing recipes on this site.

This jerk wings recipe may even be the first one... weird!

Anyway.

Rather than going with a dry rub, these Caribbean jerk chicken wings are made with a lower carb version of traditional Jamaican jerk sauce. I may have tweaked it to be keto, but these juicy chicken wings still have MAXIMUM flavour!

I like doing it up as an air fryer recipe - can’t beat ease with which an air fryer will give you amazingly crispy skin, and I love me a crispy wing!

That said, you can bake the wings or even deep fry them, if you prefer.

This recipe is full of bright, delicious flavors. It starts with a base of fresh aromatics... spiced up with traditional Jamaican jerk spice ingredients.

The warm spices give way to the heat of the hot peppers and bright citrus taste, for an end result that will definitely please your taste buds.

While we generally serve this as a main dish at home, it’s also a popular recipe for game night foods.

And hey, it’s also a great way to be SOMEWHAT diet conscious when it comes to the big game day. By default, this jerk chicken wings recipe is low carb, but can easily be made full-sugar with just one easy substitute.

Low Carb Jerk Chicken Wings

For those making this as a low carb recipe, here’s the lowdown.

This recipe makes 4 lbs of wings, and I’m calling 1 lb a serving. There are 17 grams of carbs per serving come from the allulose (sugar alcohols).

Add that to the gram of fiber, and you've got 18 grams of deductible carbs - or 8 grams of net carbs per serving.

This is assuming you use all of the sauce, btw - it does make more than will actually stick to the 4 lbs of wings. (1 ½ cups).

Whichever way you make these wings, it’s a fantastic recipe all around! Let’s look at what you’ll need, to put on a batch for yourself...

Ingredients

This delicious Jamaican jerk chicken wings recipe has a bit of a laundry list of ingredients, but really... they’re all fairly simple ingredients.

There’s a handful of fresh ingredients, a bunch of dried spices - my homemade jerk seasoning blend - and then some basic items like soy sauce. Nothing too exotic!

As always, I have a few ingredient notes for you:

Chicken Wings

We use fresh chicken wings when making this jerk chicken wing recipe - usually split wings, but not always.

You can use frozen if you like - I recommend going with the unbreaded type. If you’re less into wings, you can always use this sauce - it makes about 1 ½ cups - on chicken breasts or chicken thighs.

You’ll just want to adjust your baking time.

Habanero Peppers

Scotch bonnet peppers are traditional, but they can be very hard to find at times... so I use Habaneros instead.

I’ll generally use 2-3 habaneros, or 1-2 Scotch Bonnets - when I can find them!

Orange Juice

I use freshly squeezed orange juice, but you can use store bought if you like. If you’re doing this up as a keto recipe, be sure to use one that doesn’t have any added sugar.

No orange juice? You can use lime juice or lemon juice, instead.

Soy Sauce... or Not

I use Coconut Aminos for pretty much anything that I’d normally use Soy Sauce in. It’s low carb, gluten free, and tastes great.

You can use regular soy sauce if you like, or gluten free soy sauce or tamari for if you need another gluten free option.

Just note: regular soy sauce is a little bit more salty than coconut aminos - you may need to adjust your salt amount, to taste.

Fresh Thyme Leaves

If you don’t have fresh thyme leaves, you can use 1 teaspoon of dried thyme, instead.

Brown Sugar Substitute

I use brown allulose as my brown sugar substitute, but you can use whichever you like - or just regular brown sugar, if you don’t need this sauce to be low carb.

That said, I do recommend against using an erythritol blend sweetener. The weird cooling mouth feel just doesn’t work great with Jamaican jerk seasoning flavours, IMHO!

On that note... If you’re not watching carbs, you can also add 2 tablespoon of molasses for a richer Jerk sauce.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Green Onions
Red Onion
Fresh Garlic Cloves
A Fresh Lime
White Vinegar
Ginger Paste
Olive Oil
Ground Black Pepper
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Cloves
Allspice
Nutmeg
Salt

... I don’t have anything to add, here. Pretty basic stuff!

How to Make Low Carb Jerk Wings

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the end of this post. Here is the pictorial walk through, with step by step instruction:

Jerk Sauce

Rough chop onion, green onion, garlic, and habaneros, add to a blender or food processor with all other jerk sauce ingredients (aside from chicken).

Blitz until well processed and smooth.

Transfer mixture to saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, simmer 10 minutes or so, whisking often until thickened

Remove sauce from stove, use warm. (Can be chilled in an airtight container for future use).

For Air Fryer Wings (Pictured)

Preheat Air Fryer to 380 F. Place wings in a single layer in the air fryer basket.

Cook for 20 minutes, flipping them after about 12 minutes.

Return the air fryer jerk chicken wings to the air fryer and cook another 5-8 minutes, until the wings are cooked through and the sauce has glazed on them.

Serve hot, topped with sliced green onion.

For Deep Fried Wings

Heat oil 375 degrees F. You can use a deep fryer, or a heavy pan. If not using a deep fryer, use a deep, heavy pot, filled to at least 3″ deep.

Fry chicken wings in batches of about a dozen pieces each – allowing oil to come back up to temperature between deep frying each batch – until golden brown. (About 10-15 minutes per batch, depending on the size of the wings ).

Transfer fried wings to a large bowl, toss with jerk sauce, and serve hot, topped with green onion slices.

For Baked Wings:

Preheat oven to 400 F, line a baking sheet with parchment paper

Arrange wings on baking sheet, bake for 35 minutes.

Toss the wings with jerk sauce to coat, return to the baking sheet and spread out. Cook for another 10 minutes or so, until cooked through and sauce has formed a glaze.

Serve hot, topped with sliced green onions.

More International Keto Recipes

Looking to add some international flavour to your menu? Try some of these low-carb versions of my favourites!

Keto Chicken Samosa
Easy Keto Ramen
Keto Cabbage Rolls
Keto Chicken Biryani
Low Carb Chicken Korma
Keto Doro Wat
Keto Gyoza [Potstickers]
Keto Manakish
Keto Orange Chicken
Keto Pad Thai
Jamaican Beef Patties
Jamaican Curry Chicken
Paska Bread
Keto Perogies
Keto Sauerkraut Buns
Keto Fried Cauliflower Rice
Low Carb Shanghai Noodles
Keto Sushi Rice
Low Carb Vietnamese Noodle Salad
Paleo Stuffed Grape Leaves
Sugar Free Furikake Seasoning