Rasta Pasta With Jerk Chicken Recipe (2024)

You can make your own jerk seasoning by combining allspice (of the utmost importance), ground coriander, ground ginger, dried thyme, and S P. I typically also add a little dark brown sugar, turmeric, smoked paprika, garlic powder and/or granulated onion.

I was introduced to the dish by the lovely young Jamaican woman who cared for my late mother. Her version includes a package of Knorr Parma Rosa mix added with coconut milk to yellow onions, peppers, and garlic sauteed with about a tablespoon of jerk seasoning. No heavy cream or stock. The richness comes from about two cups of shredded mozzarella or cheddar cheese added at the end, just before the pasta. We absolutely love this dish, which is a favorite of my vegetarian daughter.

I read through the recipe comments before I made this last night. Some changed the recommended breasts for thighs (I did). Some added an onion (I did, too). But otherwise, I didn’t see any suggestions that I needed to heed. A good one might have been: “Sample your Jamaican Jerk seasoning before beginning so you can maybe back off on the spice a little so you don’t die.” The chicken was delicious. The pasta will be next time when I use either a less spicy seasoning or less of the one I have.

I make jerk something every week. Jerk seasoning is my standard marinade (I know try something new already) but I found the Walkerswood to be blah, even though it’s a big deal in Jamaica. Try Grace jerk seasoning, I use the “hot” version...it is hot, so be careful if you are not into heat. If you try this, taste your food for salt before adding salt as the Grace already has salt added. It’s sold in Walmart. But use it for a million times more real jerk taste.

I found this to be far too much pasta for the amount of chicken and sauce involved. Would use 8 oz pasta next time and should be fine as 4 servings still.

Used 1lb of boneless skinless chicken thighs (reduced oven time to 8 minutes and cut into bite sized pieces) and omitted scotch bonnet; cooked the peppers in the same skillet as the chicken with the leftover chicken fat (yum!). Next time, I would add a yellow onion with the peppers, and decrease the pasta to no more than 3/4lb - there was just a bit too much pasta for the sauce. Also needed some salt and pepper at the end. Definitely a solid meal - not too much prep time or cleanup!

2.21.21Substituted heavy cream for Grapeseed Vegenaise Used Spicy

Substituted chicken thighs for the breast.

i love this pasta. when it comes to jerk, busha browne is our brand. it's a wet rub, and it's hot, so i skip the scotch bonnet and use more like 1T in the sauce. but it's also full of flavor. the whole place smells delicious whenever we use it, & my partner eats it straight from the jar. anyway, time the pasta so you can add it directly to the sauce. i also stir in the sliced jerk chicken. i was frankly shocked to find it really is good left over - i've even enjoyed it cold from the fridge.

Used Walkerswood jerk seasoning and 1lb of chicken thighs instead of the 2 chicken breasts. Fusilli instead of penne. Used 1 tbsp of butter with 1 tbsp of olive oil to sauté the bell peppers, and at the end added a couple of splashes of pasta cooking water to bring everything together. Otherwise followed the recipe. And it was fantastic!

My 2.5 year old loves this- but I skipped the scotch bonnet and used Grace’s mild jerk.

Would be very helpful if NYT Cooking would make it possible to copy and paste any of the Cook's notes that especially appeal to the reader to add to our saved copy of a recipe.

Do you mean you would substitute almond milk for the cream? Or perhaps replace the cheese with nutritional yeast?

I used bought jerk spices, but they were rather dull. So I added fresh ginger to the pan with the garlic. I also sprinkled fresh lime juice at the end with great results.

My poor husband's in shock with 3 pots AND a collander to clean up after this! Good thing it was tasty!

Really liked the flavors in this..made it pretty much as directed..I think the dish is adaptable to your heat preference so the next time I will increase the heat factor a bit more as my partner likes things a bit more *spicy*Didn't have a scotch bonnet subbed a pierced habanero..did the trick nicely! Thank you NYT!

We looked in the pantry for the chicken stock as we were cooking and discovered we were out. Red wine substitute to the rescue- it was delicious!

This was really delicious. I followed some advice and added two slices onions and scaled back the amount of pasta so there would be enough sauce and it was great. The jerk seasoning I used was plenty spicy so can’t even imagine how hot the scotch bonnet would make it. We prefer moderate spice so I’m glad I left it out. Watch the salt because the seasoning has some. I over-salted a bit but that was my fault.

I used boneless skinless chicken thighs and a can of coconut milk in lieu of the cream and broth. I also prepared the chicken entirely on the stovetop. Lastly, I threw in a sliced zucchini that was nearing end of life in my fridge. This was a great framework and will definitely go into a regular rotation at my house.

Would be very helpful if NYT Cooking would make it possible to copy and paste any of the Cook's notes that especially appeal to the reader to add to our saved copy of a recipe.

So since this is a NYT recipe & I want to fit in with NYT readers, I ignored the recipe altogether and substituted everything. I don't eat pasta, so instead of the penne, the rigatoni, or the fettuccine that was recommended, I used spaghetti squash. I don't like spicy, or even Caribbean food, so I swapped the jerk and the scotch bonnet pepper for miso. I used oat milk over coconut milk just for authenticity. Best Rasta Pasta I ever had, just like being on the islands... ;-)

This recipe is delicious. Instead of heavy cream, I cook cauliflower in the broth and then puree it with a hand blender. Thickens the sauce and is a healthful addition to this tasty, but somewhat heavy, dish. I keep homemade jerk seasoning on hand for this and other Jamaican dishes. The chicken is also good cooked on the grill instead of skillet and oven. I also agree with the comments about the amount of pasta. 1 lb. is too much.

Found it heavy the first time, so I used white wine to replace the chicken broth, added cherry tomatoes, used less than half the cream, no parm. Also swapped regular onion since I'm not a fan of scallions. Was great!

Use 1/2 and 1/2 hot and mild on chicken and all mild in the pasta. Serve with sour cream

I made this as directed except I didn’t add chicken and only used coconut milk and cheese as mentioned in previous posts. My finicky eater said it was “Bussing” as the youth of today say when using slang. The child even asked for seconds!!’ This is a keeper!!! Thank you!

Great for making a meal with leftover jerk chicken.

For all the spices used, there wasn't much flavor to the dish. Don't be afraid to add salt!

We made this last night with 13.5 ounces of pasta and we substituted cooked peeled shrimp for chicken and coconut milk for heavy cream. We also added broccoli and slightly less jerk seasoning in the sauce.We started out using half a can of coconut milk, but I added the rest of it today when I reheated the leftovers. It tasted it even better the second day! So, you might as well use the whole can in the first place. It cuts the intensity of the jerk seasoning.