Flavour infused and juicy on the inside. Deep red and crispy on the outside. AND garlicky buttery rice. For just 10 minutes of active effort? Yes please!
I know I shared a baked chicken recipe last week but this is so good, I didn’t have the patience to wait longer!
I saw Peruvian rotisserie chicken being made on a cooking show once and unsurprisingly, it was added to my ever growing list of “things to make”.
Do you keep a list of “things to make”? I actually have 4 5 lists. “Make for blog”, “Clients” (being recipes I create and shoot for clients), “Meals” (being my normal meals), “Ideas” (that list where 95% of the things on it never get made) and “ABSOLUTELY MUST TRY”.
This chicken made the “ABSOLUTELY MUST TRY” list instantly. Straight to the top of the queue! As soon as I saw the recipe, I knew it was my type of food. Easy to make, every day ingredients and kapow! flavours.
I’ve never been to Peru, but from the research I’ve done, this chicken is known as Pollo la Brasa (Peruvian Blackened Chicken) and is by far the most popular chicken dish in Peru.
Traditionally, this is made like a rotisserie chicken over charcoals. So this version I’m sharing doesn’t have that lovely smokey flavour but there’s certainly plenty of flavour from the marinade to make up for it!
Soy sauce is a surprising ingredient in the marinade for this recipe. I was very interested to read about Chinese and Japanese influence on Peruvian cuisine owing to waves of immigration starting in the 1900’s. I love that Peruvians embraced the new ingredients the early immigrants introduced, like soy sauce.
I decided to serve this with a buttery garlic rice. Not sure if it’s strictly Peruvian, but honestly, it goes with it so well and is so delicious that you can eat it plain. Seriously!
I must have read 20+ recipes for Peruvian Roast chicken. And unsurprisingly, every single recipe is different! As with every traditional dish, there is no single recipe. The key ingredients that are common across all recipes are soy sauce, garlic, paprika, cumin and something to add tag (lime or vinegar).
So I made my own guided by those recipes I read – I’ve referenced a few in the recipe. The marinade is actually very straight forward and it’s a matter of just getting the proportions right to suit your palette. I like strong flavours so the marinade for mine is probably stronger than other recipes. I also up the flavour a bit to compensate for the absence of the charcoal flavour.
Hope you consider trying this!! – Nagi x
PS I roasted this in the oven to get the beautiful even browning on the skin you can see in the photos but it’s also really delicious cooked on the BBQ or even on the stove.
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Peruvian Chicken with Garlic Butter Rice
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Ingredients
- ▢ 2.5 lb (1.2 kg) chicken pieces (Note 1)
Marinade
- ▢ 1 tbsp garlic powder OR 3 garlic cloves , minced
- ▢ 2 tsp cumin powder
- ▢ 1 tbsp paprika powder (preferably smoked but plain is ok)
- ▢ 4 tbsp soy sauce (Note 2)
- ▢ 2 tbsp lime juice , fresh (1 lime)
- ▢ 1 tbsp olive oil
Garlic Butter Rice
- ▢ 4 garlic cloves, minced
- ▢ 1/2 onion , finely diced (white, brown, yellow)
- ▢ 1 tbsp olive oil
- ▢ 2 cups long grain rice , uncooked
- ▢ 2 cups chicken broth / stock
- ▢ 1 cup water
- ▢ 2 – 4 tbsp butter (Note 3)
- ▢ Salt and pepper
Instructions
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Place the Marinade ingredients in a small bowl and mix until lump free.
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Place the chicken in a ziplock bag (my preferred method) or non reactive bowl and coat with Marinade. Marinade for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight (24 hours) OR freeze it straight away, then it will marinade while it defrosts.
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Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Place chicken in a baking dish, skin side up. Slather leftover marinade onto the skin. Roast for 45 minutes or until deep burnt-red golden brown in colour.
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Rest for 5 minutes before serving with Garlic Butter Rice and a green salad.
Garlic Butter Rice
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Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and cook for 5 minutes until onion is translucent and sweet.
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Add rice and stir so the rice becomes translucent. Add broth and water, then cover and turn heat down to medium low.
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Cook for 12 to 15 minutes until the liquid has JUST evaporated, then remove from stove and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
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After resting, add the butter and stir the rice to fluff it up and disperse the butter.
Recipe Notes:
1. This recipe is best made with skin on, bone-in chicken to achieve the beautiful golden brown surface with juicy flesh. I purchased mixed chicken pieces for this recipe. You can either cut up a whole chicken yourself or otherwise use bone in, skin on chicken thigh fillets and/or drumsticks – same baking time.
I don’t recommend making this with breast fillets because it doesn’t have skin which you need to get the beautiful golden crust on this.
But if you really want to make this with skinless bones breast fillets, add 1 tbsp olive oil into the marinade and bake for 25 minutes. For boneless thigh fillets, I’d recommend cooking this on the stove rather than baking – about 8 minutes. Also great for the BBQ.
2. Normal all purpose soy sauce (I use Kikkoman), not light or dark thick soy sauce.
3. I know this is stating the obvious….but the more butter you use, the more buttery the flavour. I recommend a minimum of 2 tbsp of butter for 2 cups of rice. I usually start with 2 tbsp – attempting restraint – but end up adding an extra dollop (around 3 tbsp).
4. This can be roasted (this recipe) OR cooked on the BBQ or stove (best to use thigh fillets).
5. This recipe is my interpretation after reading many recipes for Peruvian Chicken. I must’ve read 20+ so I can’t list them all, but here are some of the ones I read:
– Peruvian Roasted Chicken with Yellow Potatoes – Pollo a la Brasa
– Peruvian Grilled Chicken
– The Food Lab: Peruvian-Style Whole Grilled Chicken
6. Nutrition for chicken assuming 5 servings. This does not take into account the fat that renders out during roasting that remains in the pan so the actual calories will be considerably less. I estimate it is between 60 and 100 calories less, assuming you don’t drink the pan juices!
Nutrition per serving for the rice, assuming 6 servings (that’s quite generous servings!).
Nutrition Information: