Pollo a la Brasa (Peruvian rotisserie chicken)

QingEsq

For my birthday today, I decided to try a traditional pollo a la brasa meal.  As i mentioned in response to a Peruvian chicken thread that @KiterTodd posted a few days back, my wife is Peruvian and she, I and my son all love pollo a la brasa.  My wife found a recipe for it in El Comercio, the main newspaper in Lima that both my wife and mother in law thought seemed legit.  Here is the link for anyone interested  http://elcomercio.pe/gastronomia/peruana/se-puede-preparar-pollo-brasa-casero-noticia-1744064  The marinade is comprised of cumin, pepper, mustard, dark beer, red wine vinegar, soy sauce, and aji panca (a purple Peruvian pepper paste), and crushed garlic. 

My wife prepared the marinade and we marinated a couple of birds overnight.  Pollo a la brasa is done on a rotisserie traditionally, so I broke out the Weber kettle with rotisserie, heated up the coals and added a couple small chunks of each of pecan and cherry.  The birds looked great.  I pulled them after about an hour at 165.  We served the bird with French fries per Peruvian tradition and my wife's yellow pepper sauce.  The birds came out very juicy, but the taste was not what we were accustomed to.  Also, perhaps because the smallest birds I found were about 4.5 pounds rather than the 2 or 3 pound birds at most Peruvian chicken joints, the taste just did not penetrate very deep.  So, although the recipe wasn't bad, next time, we are going to try a different recipe that my brother in law likes.   

Since I am not a big cake guy, while the birds were on the Weber, I made a peach and cherry cobbler based on @RayBones Ultimate Peach Cobbler recipe.  This is the 3rd or 4th time that I have used that recipe and it is Da Bomb!  Put it together with some B&J Vanilla.  I will take that over B'Day cake any day.  Anyway, thanks for looking.    

Hawg Fan

I've been wanting to try the Peruvian pollo, if I can find some Aji peppers.  Yours may have not met your expectations, but it looks good.

XC242

They sure look delicious. 

QingEsq

Thanks @Hawg Fan   It was good bird and don't mean to discourage anyone from giving itva shot. I would't have shared the link if it weren't decent.  I just really had my hopes up that this recipe was the one and it wasn't spot on for me.  Like i noted in the OP, if i do this recipe sgsin, i will look harder for smaller birds.  I will probably take then to a higher temp too, maybe 175 ish.

Carolina Q

Link doesn'r work... 

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I'm always in the market for a new chicken recipe!

QingEsq

Sorry about the link.  I don't know why it doesn't work.  Here is the text of the article after running it through Google translate: 

Served with french fries, salad, rice or some of our favorite sauces; with or without covered; there is more widespread than split the grilled chicken among family members Sunday stroll and enjoy the treat.

Its formula is not unique, it depends on each master smuggler.  Some suggest marinate for up to 12 hours in mixtures may include condiments such as soy sauce , garlic, red pepper sauce , pepper, cumin , among others.

The classic trimmings are mixed salad and crispy fries.  However, today you can opt for alternatives like salads warm with cooked vegetables, potato fried in canes, corn sauteed in butter and spices; mashed potatoes; grilled vegetables, rice and corn, and everything a capricious palate can imagine.

Serve with mayonnaise, chimichurri, creams and rocoto chili and have secured a lunch flavor hundred percent nationally.

Recipe chicken grilled home Ingredients 1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tbsp. mustard 115 ml of stout (average personal bottle)
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar 2 tbsp. sillao
1 tbsp. ground ají panca 
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 chicken, 1.6 kgeviscerated salt Preparation 
In a bowl, combine the cumin, black pepper and a tablespoon of salt.  Reserve.In another bowl, mix the mustard, dark beer, vinegar, soy sauce, the red pepper sauce and garlic.  Stir dry mixture. Place chicken in a roasting pan and bathe him high with the previous preparation.  Bring the pan to the refrigerator for 12 hours, turning chicken occasionally to each side to bathe in the juice maceration. (The rest of the instructions are for oven preparation.  Just either spatchcock it or rotisserie it)

KiterTodd

Well done, @QingEsq and thanks for sharing this!  Looks great.

You raise a good point about the size of the birds as all the chicken places around here use birds smaller than the typicall 4-5 lbs. fryer chickens I find in the store, but larger than cornish hens.  I don't know what they're called, but I'll have to keep my eye out.

I see that Inca Kola in there.... 

QingEsq

Good eye @KiterTodd!  My wife also made a typical purple corn drink called chichi morada that I have never much cared for, but some love it.  It's worth giving it a try if you ever get the chance.

KiterTodd

Never heard of it!  I'll try it the next time I'm in a Peruvian restaurant that serves it. 

dboram

Was the yellow pepper sauce "ali de huacatay"?...that stuff is like crack!

QingEsq

Huacatay salsa is damn good and it uses the same pepper in it (aji amarillo) as the sauce my wife makes.  I think aji amarillo is my favorite pepper. . . It is very flavorful and has some heat, but the heat just accentuates the flavor instead of overpowering it.  You can find aji amarillo paste in many latin grocery stores.  We don't make huacatay salsa at home because we can't find huacatay leaves (huacatay is like a black mint plant), so we buy it prepackaged when we can find it.

Focker

Looks great from here man.  Rotissed birds are a regular in the rotation.

Sea2Ski

Bravo.  That looks fantastic!!   

KiterTodd

This is sort of a tangent but sort of on topic...

All this peruvian chicken talk got my taste buds firing and I had to go to the local joint for lunch today.  Note, don't let the nice plate fool you...they used to serve on styrofoam and now do table service instead so it comes out on a nice plate.  Still cheap though!

Two pictures.  Note the second one you can see some herb rub on there.  I tasted carefully today and I have to say the secret has to be the salt.  They put a lot of salt on the skin.  I wouldn't be surprised if they inject all the birds with some saline as well.  

The skin is cooked perfect and you can eat it even if you don't normally eat skin.




This place gives you three sauces.  I like the orange and the green the best.  They are both spicy.  The green one is on the hot side so I always ask for extra.  Excellent and it doesn't taste creamy.  I'm not a fan of their yellow sauce as it is more of a seasoned mayonnaise then anything else.




That green sauce is killer.

QingEsq

The restaurant's chicken looks legit.  I don't know what those long green things on the plate are though!    Usually the sides are fries and salad.  The green sauce looks to be huacatay sauce.  The orange one looks similar to my wife's yellow pepper sauce.  My wife and i are not sure what the yellowish sauce is though.  If it was slightly sweet, it may have been intended as a salad dressing.

QingEsq

BTW, @KiterTodd did they have chicha morada? (tangent - I had a typo in an earlier message and called it chichi morada.  In Peru, chichi is a boob or titty.  My wife had a good laugh when she first came to Pennsylvania and discover a chain Mexican pace called Chi Chi's)  Did you try it?

KiterTodd

Ack!  I forget to check for the drink.  I'll have to go back next week...