The juiciest chicken you’ll ever taste
Enjoy Peruvian-style pollo a la brasa in your backyard
Friends, we are officially in the depths of summer, aren’t we? During a heat stretch like this, it’s hard not to imagine cooler mornings, changing leaves, and pumpkins—but people, we have a lot of summer left, and it’s meant for enjoying! There’s still so much to look forward to…of course we have tomato and corn season approaching!
The recipe I am sharing today is a great one for grilling…and if summer is for anything, it’s for grilling! Pollo a la brasa, which translates to roasted or rotisserie chicken, is something you can find in “pollerías,” which are everywhere in Peru. Peruvians love roasted chicken so much…I read that Peruvians on average buy a rotisserie chicken 37 times a year. People…that’s a lot of chickens!
The story of Pollo a la brasa is an interesting one, because it’s not very old. In 1950, a Swiss immigrant named Roger Schuler moved to the small Peruvian town of Santa Clara (east of Lima) to start a chicken farm. He experimented with cooking techniques until he discovered how to make a PERFECTLY juicy chicken with crispy skin. With the help of a friend, he designed a special oven with rotating spits, which they named “el rotombo.”
While Roger’s original recipe used only salt to season the chicken, it evolved to include other spices and herbs. The recipe that I’m sharing with you—which we serve at China Chilcano for dinner—calls for two special Peruvian pepper pastes which you may not have in your pantry, ají panca and ají amarillo…but you can find these online or in a Latin market.
At China Chilcano, we slowly roast it over charcoal to make it smoky and juicy, and so tender you can almost pull the bones out of it! You might not be able to get the same effect at home, but on a grill you’ll be able to get it really juicy and tasty. It takes a bit of prep ahead of time—to toast the spices (don’t skip this step, I promise it makes their flavor so much deeper), blend the marinade, and then marinate the chicken for four hours…but I promise you, it is worth it. Maybe you make it on a Saturday or Sunday morning and serve it for dinner!
I recommend serving this with China Chilcano’s quinoa salad…with its fresh herbs and tangy lime dressing, it is the perfect companion to this juicy, flavorful and incredibly summery chicken.
Pollo a la brasa
Serves 4-6