Peruvian Chicken

Peruvian chicken is one of those yummy roasted chicken recipes that you need to have in your rotation for family meals. It is full of flavor and your mouth will water just knowing what's coming. This recipe has just the right combinations of flavors for a beautifully flavorful roasted chicken. Once you have all the ingredients together to make the marinade, there's really no other effort. I love it when dishes appear to have taken so much time but they're really simple to make. Don't you?

I have noticed Peruvian restaurants popping up all over my neighborhood. I like trying them all out to see which ones have the best of what. It also causes a problem when I like one thing from one place and another thing from the place around the corner. I have to talk myself out of doing a Peruvian tour in an hour just picking up the "best of" from each place. One may have the freshest ceviche. Another the best lomo saltado, a kind of savory beef stir fry with rice and french fries. But they all have this flavorful fire roasted chicken that is out of this world. The seasoning is down to the bones. It's scrumptious.

I've been trying out recipes and making my own combinations and I've finally got a recipe of Peruvian chicken that I would like to share with you. It's a lot of ingredients, but most of them you already have or they are easy to find. You know how sometimes there are too many ingredients and they just don't work well. That's not this recipe. It's balanced.

Peruvian chicken isn't spicy. It's flavorful. I love ordering it at a restaurant because they cook it over an open flame rotisserie. You can't beat that flavor. This recipe is what us home cooks can do to come close to that flavor.

When you go to a Peruvian restaurant, they will have a variety sauces as condiments. I know them as the white sauce, green sauce, and yellow sauce. My favorite one is the green sauce. It's spicy and green with cilantro and jalapeno. You can find my recipe for that here. It's so good that I just started to make it just to have in the fridge. I have it with vegetables and potatoes and other non-Peruvian meats and meals. Why not? I don't really tend to the rule of this food is in this category so I can only eat it with that category. If I like it, I eat it.

Peruvian Chicken

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 Chicken cut up or about 4 leg quarters or a combo (~5 lbs)

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

6 Cloves Garlic, minced

1 Tbsp Cumin

1 Tbsp Kosher Salt

2 tsp Smoked Paprika

Juice & Zest of 1 Lime

1 tsp Ground Coriander

1 tsp Dried Oregano

1 Tbsp Sugar

1 tsp Chili Powder

Steps

1. Combine all your seasonings in a small bowl.

2. Spread generously over chicken. Allow to marinate overnight or at least 8 hours in the refrigerator.

3. Allow your seasoned chicken to come to room temperature before cooking. If grilling, cook your chicken over indirect heat for 45 - 60 minutes. If roasting, bake in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour. Chicken is done cooking when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees or when the thigh meat juices run clear.

4. Serve with Peruvian Green Sauce. You can find the recipe here. Enjoy!