Your day will be made by this delectable combination of cream cheese icing and banana cake! Enjoy this delicious creation while you unwind! Simply put a portion of this in your “fridge” whether you prefer healthy food or get unexpected cravings for banana and cream cheese.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 40 mins |
| Additional Time: | 4 hrs 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 5 hrs 40 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 quart cold water
- ⅓ cup kosher salt
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 (4 pound) whole chicken, cut into 4 pieces
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 3 habanero peppers, seeded
- 4 cloves garlic
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons prepared Thai sweet chili sauce
Instructions
- Combine water, kosher salt, and sugar in a saucepan over low heat; cook until sugar and salt dissolve, 4 to 5 minutes. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Score the skin side of each piece of chicken 2 to 3 times, about 1/8 inch deep. Place chicken pieces in a large bowl or lidded container.
- Puree cherry tomatoes, habanero peppers, garlic, and allspice with the salt and sugar mixture in a blender until smooth.
- Pour tomato brine over chicken pieces, making sure all pieces are covered. Refrigerate 4 to 6 hours.
- Remove chicken pieces and transfer to a plate or baking sheet lined with paper towels. Pat chicken pieces dry with more paper towels.
- Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat and lightly oil the grate.
- Combine thyme, cumin, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and oil in a small bowl.
- Brush each chicken piece with thyme and oil mixture.
- Cook chicken, skin side down, on the preheated grill for 1 to 2 minutes. Turn each piece and move to indirect heat. Cook until well-browned and meat is no longer pink in the center, 30 to 35 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted near the bone should read 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).
- Brush each piece with Thai sweet chile sauce. Transfer to a plate and allow chicken to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
- The nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of the brine ingredients. The actual amount of the brine consumed will vary.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 490 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 23 g |
| Cholesterol | 129 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 42 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 5252 mg |
| Sugars | 19 g |
| Fat | 25 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Fantastic!! Delicious!! The peppers gave it flavor, and it was not too spicy. Will definitely make it again!
Best chicken I ever made… layers and layers of flavor! I added sriracha to the Thai Sweet chili sauce for an extra layer
This is down right delicious. I don’t use it as a brine,blend all the ingredients, except that I omit the water and use 2tsp kosher salt only. Even my kids eat it
We had a lot of habaneros from our garden, so I’ve made this twice. Second time I doubled the habaneros and still not too spicy for my wife, who prefers mild salsa. The marinating results in very moist chicken. Delicious!
This worked wonders for skinless chicken breast. Never going back to floppy, unbrined grilled chicken ever again. Only thing is that the flavor profile itself could be more pronounced; it didn’t lack salt, or even spice necessarily, but I found myself wanting more sweetness and smoke.
Great grilled chicken!!! I added the sweet chili sauce to the thyme mixture. I brushed additional sweet chili sauce on the chicken at the table. I can’t imagine grilling chicken any other way now. Thanks Chef John, again!!
This is my absolute favorite chicken recipe. Trust the habanero peppers, it’s by no means too spicy!
Chef John you knocked it out of the park on this one. I left the hot peppers out of the marinade altogether. Excellent and will make again.
Excellent!! Really loved it.
Fantastic! Followed the recipe exactly. The grilling was simple. My whole family was asking for more. Kids did not think it was too spicy. Yum!
I used jalapenos instead. I have made this many, many times and it’s delicious every time. My daughter loves it for her birthday.
I used jalapenos instead. I have made this many, many times and it’s delicious every time. My daughter loves it for her birthday.
I’ve been waiting for the cherry tomatoes to ripen ever since I found this recipe and while the chicken is flavorful and tender it was not as good as I thought it would be. The thyme from the rub and the thai chili sauce were the strongest flavors and took over everything else. I love brined chicken, but don’t feel this recipe imparted enough flavor into the meat to justify the time spent.
Once again, thank you Chef John. Brined overnight and the chicken was excellent. Not too spicy hot at all. Please keep up the good work.
this chicken was amazing. we did let it marinate over night. made it for fourth of july barbeque everyone loved. thanks again chef john. will be keeping this one for sure.
Company good! Don’t discard all the habanero seeds to get enough spicy heat for my taste. Double (or more) the thyme-cumin-pepper-cayenne-oil mix to adequately cover all chicken pieces. Increase the cook time by 5-10 minutes more if using bone-in half chicken breast w/thigh cuts. Serve w/ fresh cut lime wedge, pinquito beans, salad, and warm flour tortillas.
This was delicious. I had several habaneros from my garden. I thought it might be too hot to eat; but this chicken had a delicious flavor.
An excellent recipe – everyone raves about it! Flavorful, moist, and delicious. One evening, I really wanted to make this recipe, but I didn’t have cherry tomatoes or habanero peppers. So I substituted 2 T of Chili Garlic Sauce for the cherry tomatoes, habanero pepper and garlic. I kept everything else as is and that also turned out wonderfully! Thanks for a great recipe!
Wow wonderful! Next time while preparing the peppers I will wear gloves and a mask. My throat almost closed on me a few times and my hands burned for the rest of the day. Be so careful not to touch any part of your face after touching a pepper, you will surely regret it! I didn’t get my hands near my face yet still the pepper was strong enough to leave a hot film on my skin, I licked my lips and my tongue burned from the pepper residue. Incredible how strong they are! When done with the pepper I’d strongly advise to wash your face with soap and water…if pepper juice gets in your eye you will feel like you are going to go blind, not pleasant. Ty for the recipe, we loved it!!
I made this as written and it was “da bomb”, very good, spicy and tasty! Thanks again Chef John!
Everything except the Habenero and this recipe has made me a Chef John fan for life. Thank you for being part of my favorite recipe website, Allrecipes.