Peruvian Chicken | Pollo al Horno

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Peruvian Chicken is simply delicious. It’s one of those dishes that once you learn how to make it, you’ll quickly add it to your dinner rotation week-after-week! The marinade itself is a dream and let’s not even talking about THE green sauce. In truth, I don’t know which one I like more– the marinade or the green sauce. Both are delicious yet versatile which is honestly why I love this recipe so much. I can use them both on a variety of different dishes ranging from pot roast, salmon, to even taco night! 

The two sauces are the perfectly spicy and tasty which also lends itself to being a great companion for meal prepping. In fact, these two sauces are great for any with busy lives and who want to simplify the time that they spend cooking. You could easily make this marinade and use it to season a variety of different meat and fish and then cook it throughout the week. The green sauce will be readily available as a dip or garnish. Between you and me, the green sauce is my secret weapon to revamp any leftovers. It makes any dish feel new, which is key to enjoying leftovers. 

There are a ton of ways of making Peruvian Chicken and if you’ve never had Peruvian Chicken / Pollo A La Brasa, you may wondering– what’s so special about it? Well, first things first– what ISN’T special about it? Peruvian food is a special blend traditional Hispanic flavors and Asian flavors. The marinade for this chicken has all of my favorite things– garlic, paprika, soy sauce, and aji amarillo paste aka yellow pepper paste. Now you can certainly make your own aji amarillo paste or you can buy it at your local supermarket wherever they sell Hispanic goods. If you can find it, don’t fret. You can easily replace the aji amarillo paste with sweet peppers, a dash of sugar, and a dash of your favorite MILD hot sauce. Note that aji amarillo paste will vary in spiciness, but it’s not meant to create a spicy dish. In fact, aji amarillo paste adds depth of flavor where the green sauce will in fact introduce the spicy element later on in the dish. 

The great thing about this marinade is that you can make a big batch of it and store it in your refrigerator or even freeze it in ice cube trays. You can use it similarly to how you use Sofrito. Suddenly, your dishes are transformed but you still get to enjoy the flavors that you love. 

The green on the other hand– is a sauce that’s best enjoyed when you make it fresh! I recommend having the sauce within 3 days of making it. Now you can still have the sauce past 3 days, just know that it make change in color. When you first make the sauce, the sauce is bright green in color but it then begins to fade as the temperature from in and out of the refrigerator changes. No worries if this happens. You can still enjoy the sauce as long as you keep it chilled. 

Now before we jump into the recipe, here are some quick tips to making sure that you get this dish right each and every single time! 

• Marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours in the fridge or overnight! Trust me on this, you want to give the marinade some time to fully infuse into the chicken 
• When roasting the chicken, it’s best to do so on a baking rack. This will allow the chicken to roast evenly and will even give your chicken a crispy exterior which only adds to the flavor! 
• Feel free to reduce the oven temperature half through cooking if you feel like your chicken is browning too quickly 
• Know that you can adjust the spiciness of your green sauce by either adding more or less jalapenos and the seeds! 

If you’d like to see a step-by-step tutorial on How to Make Peruvian Chicken, feel free to visit my YouTube Channel: Chef Zee Cooks! 

…. And now for the recipe!