This Peruvian chicken recipe, also known as pollo a la brasa, can be made in the Instant Post or in the oven. I’m sharing both cooking methods.
While the most famous Peruvian dish is ceviche one of the most popular is rotisserie chicken. I swear.
I’ve had some of the best chicken in Latin America but no one talks about it.
And while rotisserie chicken on its own doesn’t seem exciting, what makes it amazing are the accompanying sauces.
Yes this recipe is more about the sauce than the chicken, I promise it will be worth it.
After successfully making balsamic pork tenderloin and beef stroganoff in the Instant Pot I wanted to see if I could tackle a whole chicken and I was shocked at how good it was.
It’s so moist like a rotisserie chicken but if you don’t have a pressure cooker you can absolutely cook it in the oven.
A Simple Peruvian Chicken Recipe
Rotisserie style chicken in the Instant Pot is so easy. A simple spice rub, sear on all sides and then cook it for 6 minutes per pound.
A 3-pound chicken can be cooked in under 30 minutes from start to finish.
If you don’t have an Instant Pot don’t jet!
I have oven instructions and remember I said this recipe is all about the sauce.
Roast Chicken is An Upper Class Food
Although many Peruvians would list pollo a la brasa as a favourite dish, it is relatively new in the culture.
Swiss hoteilers developed the Peruvian chicken recipe in the 1950s in Lima for wealthy patrons.
Yet today it’s considered a food for the masses and costs only a few dollars.
Rotisserie chicken shops are on every corner, served with a healthy portion of fries and two distinct sauces that are as common as ketchup in North America.
Aji amarillo and aji verde literally mean yellow and green chile – folks keep it simple in Spanish.
Aji Verde
The green chile sauce is made with jalapenos, cilantro and fresh cheese. It’s easy to replicate at home.
Many people mistakenly believe that it’s a mayonnaise based sauce.
And it’s true in Peru I did have some creme de aji which had mayonnaise or cream and it was delicious.
But the traditional aji verde does not have either.
Aji Amarillo
Also known as aji escabeche, this yellow chile sauce uses a Peruvian yellow chile pepper called aji marisol.
This pepper is difficult to find fresh in North America.
However, like Peru fruit, it is possible to find it frozen in Latin food shops as well as in a paste.
I found it at La Perola in Kensington Market in Toronto but it’s also available on Amazon for less than $5 a jar.
Also Read: 25 Vegetarian Dishes in Peru
The traditional aji amarillo recipe also calls for huacatay, which is often called Peruvian black mint although it is actually a marigold native to South America.
Its flavour is strong and somewhat like anise.
It’s used often in Peruvian dishes and often to help stomach aches. It’s also under $10 on Amazon.
But if you don’t want to invest in a lot of new condiments this recipe only calls for a small amount so you can substitute cilantro.
Pollo a la Brasa Recipe
Peruvian Chicken Recipe - Pollo a la Brasa
This Peruvian chicken recipe with green sauce, or pollo a la brasa, can be made in the Instant Post or in the oven. I'm sharing both cooking methods.
Ingredients
- 5 jalapenos, seeds removed if you don't like spice also remove veins
- 1 cup cilantro about a bunch
- 1 small yellow onion
- 1 large garlic clove
- 1/3 cup feta cheese or queso fresco
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- kosher salt to taste
- 1 small yellow onion
- 1 large garlic clove
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 1/4 cup ají amarillo paste
- 1/2 teaspoon huacatay paste
- 1/3 cup feta cheese or queso fresco
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- kosher salt to taste
- 3 lb chicken, fresh or defrosted
- 3 tablespoons paprika
- 2 tablespoons ground cumin
- 1.5 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 4 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro for garnish
- 1/2 cup water to add to Instant Pot only
Instructions
Aji Verde
- Place first 8 ingredients except oil and salt in blender (jalapenos through lime) and pulse to chop.
- Stream in canola oil until it's blended smoothly. As some feta is more salty than others taste for seasoning and add kosher salt as needed.
Aji Amarillo
- Place second eight ingredients except oil and salt in blender (yellow onion through feta cheese) and pulse to chop.
- Stream in canola oil until it's blended smoothly. As some feta is more salty than others taste for seasoning and add kosher salt as needed.
Oven Roasted Peruvian Chicken
- Marinate chicken in spice mixture for one hour, or ideally overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Place dutch oven on stove over medium-high heat. Heat 2 tablespoons of canola oil until it shimmers. Brown chicken on all sides.
- Cook in oven with lid on for 80 minutes. Remove lid and cook for another 10-20 minutes. Internal temperature should be 165F.
Instant Pot Peruvian Chicken
- Marinate chicken in spice mixture for one hour, or ideally overnight.
- Turn Instant Pot on saute and heat 2 tablespoons of canola oil until it shimmers. Brown chicken on all sides.
- Remove chicken. Add 1/2 cup water to the Instant Pot and place chicken on trivet in pot.
- Cook on manual setting and cook 6 minutes per pound, or 18 minutes for a 3lb chicken. NPR (natural pressure release) for 10 minutes.
- Garnish with chopped parsley and serve alongside fries and aji amarillo and verde.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 Amount Per Serving: Calories: 487Total Fat: 37gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 25gCholesterol: 128mgSodium: 586mgCarbohydrates: 5gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 33gNutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although BaconisMagic.ca attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
Pin it: Peruvian Chicken with Green Sauce
Want More Peruvian Recipes? Check out:
Sudado – Peruvian Fish Stew
Pisco Sour
No Peruvian didh will have jalapenos in it’s recipe. NOWAY!
Gio, I’d love to hear your aji verde recipe, what do you use?
I agree with you Gio, cuz we don’t have jalapenos in Peru, however this cook is using what is available in his neighbourhood, which is ok, I would use serrano peppers instead, they taste better and are not so intense, I also used them for guacamole, I would make a blend of Mexican , Peruvian , and west indian hot peppers if I could not get fresh huacatay
Thanks for the recipes. The Peruvian chicken and sauces were delicious!! I don’t know how authentic it is, but delicious ?
It’s based on the authentic recipe. I’ve indicated where we need to make some changes in the sauces because the aji is difficult to find in North America. It’s also not rotisserie which is the only difference.
This is not a Peruvian recipe. We dont use jalapeno peppers, at all.
This looks great but please don’t call this an authentic recipe since it’s been adjusted to use ingredients that you’d find outside of Peru. We don’t use Jalapenos to make aji verde as we don’t have them here. We would use aji amarillo along with other ajies (like aji Limo) instead to add some heat and flavour.
Agree with you 100%, the recipe is based on the authentic recipe but acknowledging there are limitations as you can’t find Peruvian aji everywhere.
Usually we use de yellow pepper in Peru; but in Canada we used frozen yellow pepper, o in paste , that we buy in Latin stores.
What city do you live in? I would think it’s possible in Toronto, maybe Vancouver or Montreal?
Wow! Way to support someone trying to share your culture and the closest approximation we can get stateside to your authentic flavors. Perhaps try the recipe and then suggest what might more closely match the flavor of the ingredients we do not have available next time.
Good recipe. My chicken was 5.5 lbs, so researched cook times. It was only 15 minutes more. I also brined the chicken then marinated for an hour. Came out pretty good. I stuffed the cavity with lime orange carrot celery cilantro garlic green onion and shallot. It causé a split, so no photo. Also blackened a little too much when I browned it. When I can make it so it looks as good as it tastes, will send photo. Besides sauces, made gravy from drippings. The benefits of brining.
A quick rule of thumb is 6 minutes per pound.
That looks like an amazing meal to make … it also makes me miss Peru!
Food looking delicious and yummy and perfect to eat. Amazing photos of meal . This photos made me hungry i think you had a great experience .Thanks for sharing your recipe and photos.
I love food. I visit many places only to taste many types of dished in veg and non-veg both. Non-veg is my fav and chicken is a most amazing thing on this planet. today I found a new dish with chicken and I definitely try this dish. Thanks for sharing.
I love condiments, so the is is the perfect recipe for me. The sauces look so good!
Oh my goodness – I am all over this dish!! Love all those jalapenos in the sauce! I bet I could possibly eat this every day (I’m pretty sure of it). Looks (and sounds) amazing! Pinned 🙂
I had Aji Verde for the first time not too long ago. The combination of the feta with the lime juice now has me obsessed. And, holy cow, your pictures look amazing!
This looks so damn yummy. Thanks for sharing the recipe mate. Will try it out for sure.
I love spicy food and I can’t wait to give this a go. Pinning it right now! It looks so tasty, yet I could still get away with eating it on my diet.
Yes! And the sauces don’t use cream or mayo so it’s lots of flavour without the fat!
Mayonnaise is mostly vegetable oil with lemon juice. Each of the sauce recipes uses 1/4 cup of oil and lime juice which essentially makes mayo in the blender. And then you add cheese into the mix! So you have not eliminated the fat! But who cares, fat is delicious and I’m making this tonight.
Innovated this dish by adding some chili spices on top of the chicken. Taste amazing!. Thanks for the recipe.
Peruvian food is the spiciest in South America so adding chili spice to it is the perfect addition.
But seriously don’t forget these dipping sauces. They will change your life…or maybe just your dippinh sauces.
Simply mouth watering….especially the Peruvian Chicken. Gotta try these recipes soon.Thanks!
This looks so yummy in your post. Amazing photos of meal. Thanks for sharing a recipe and phots of meal!
Have been missing Peru and all it’s incredible food! This seems like the perfect way to get my craving meet so to speak – and is quite a bit cheaper than a flight ticket! Thanks for sharing x
Hey what a find this is… Normally I just drool at recipes but your chicken pics are so seductive, they’ve inspired me to try my hand at this recipe. Knowing it’s Peruvian assures me it will taste delightful.
Keep up the great work 🙂
Looking forward to trying in my Instant Pot! By the way, the tag line of your blog post says “Instant Post” instead of “Instant Pot”! 😉
Looks tasty. Is their anything non dairy based that you would suggest I could use as a substitute for the cheese?
Well it’s the saltiness that really gives it a punch so I think you could substitute it with a cashew cheese and it would have the same texture. Also I think you could shift slightly and also just use mayo – which can be found commonly as mayo is cheaper than cheese.
If you make it let me know how it works out.
With or without jalapenos, I love rotissirie chicken! There’s just something about the skin that I can’t get over. This is why I’m fat
Looks damn delicious. Definitely, I will try it in my resort to delight our beautiful guests. I have bookmarked this. Thanks for yummy sharing.
just starting to marinate this now and looked at the cook times for the Oven method. Can you please confirm that it’s 90 mins plus another 25 at 350 degrees? I’d think that for a 3lb chicken this will be way overdone. Thanks.
I always use a meat thermometer as oven temps are so unreliable and it depends on what kind of chicken you buy. But the cover on will keep the chicken moist and the last 20 minutes is just to crisp the skin. If you have a meat thermometer keep an eye on it. It’s 30 minutes per pound to cook and then look at 10-20 minutes more.
You forgot the cilantro in the verde sauce?
It should be there, a bunch/one cup of cilantro.
Is the 1/2 cup of water listed in the ingredients under “Peruvian Chicken” for the chicken marinade?
Or is it just for the Instant Pot?
Thanks.
Thanks so much for asking this, it is for the Instant Pot only. I will change the directions to reflect that.
I brought seeds back from Arequipa and I now grow my own huacatay in Seattle. It does very well here, and is only now going to seed. Unfortunately, aji and most other peppers do not do so well here.
That is very cool. Unfortunately I haven’t seen anyone really grow Peruvian peppers outside Peru, it makes opening a Peruvian restaurant really tough.
Hmmm. I am growing the peruvian peppers here in Australia, in a coolish climate, altitude 600 metres. Got plenty on the bush, but unfortunately they have no spicy heat! Great mild sweetish taste like a sweet capsicum. Maybe not hot enough here (climate heat) to be more spicy hot? Don’t know. Anyway, I am still using them up in as many ways as I can think in my cooking. That’s why I have come to this site – looking for recipes.
Looking forward to trying in my Instant Pot!
Hi! Do you have any instructions that may be different for making it in the crockpot?
It should be very similar but you would need to adjust cooking times for a whole chicken in your crockpot.
Oh wow, Ayngelina. This chicken looks SO good. I miss traveling more than anything right now, at least we can still adventure via our dinner plates, amiright?? Pinning for later!
The skin looks so crispy on the chicken, I’m drooling. What a delicious sounding dish with the two sauces. I’m bookmarking as I know my family will love this recipe!
WHAT?! I LOVE Peruvian roasted chicken…it’s just magic. That green sauce is so addictive. I’ve been missing chicken from my favourite Peruvian spot and now I can make my own with your recipe!
The chicken looks amazing, but the sauces are what I’m really intrigued with. I love the heat and complexity of both of them. I think I need to hit up Amazon for those spice pastes and give this a try asap.
Thank you for the recipe and providing ingredients that we can find here! Sometimes you have to adapt to what you have. The jalapeños in the green sauce were delicious! My husband now wants it on everything. Thanks again. I am making the recipe again today after the first try last week. Love it!
So thrilled to hear it!