Have you tried `gron`?
It converts your nested json into a line by line format which plays better with tools like `grep`
From the project's README:
▶ gron "https://api.github.com/repos/tomnomnom/gron/commits?per_page..." | fgrep "commit.author"
json[0].commit.author = {};
json[0].commit.author.date = "2016-07-02T10:51:21Z";
json[0].commit.author.email = "mail@tomnomnom.com";
json[0].commit.author.name = "Tom Hudson";
https://github.com/tomnomnom/gron
It was suggested to me in HN comments on an article I wrote about `jq`, and I have found myself using it a lot in my day to day workflow