Pollo a la Brasa Recipe (Peruvian Roast Chicken) - Eat Peru (2024)

Pollo a la Brasa: the Peruvian roasted chicken dish that conquered a nation

Attend a loved one’s birthday, a co-worker’s leaving party or a special family treat in Peru, and you just might see hungry diners tucking into enormous heaped plates of the Peruvian-style roasted chicken known aspollo a la brasa.

This dish is a favorite option in restaurants but especially at any one of the many chicken restaurantsaround the country.

Accompanied by thick French fries, a fresh salad and dipping sauces including mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and of course,ajíverde chilli pepper sauce, Pollo a la Brasa is almost as Peruvian as the country’s flag itself.

In Peru, the dish is almost exclusively prepared and eaten outside the homes at the so-calledpolleríasthat specialize in preparing the not-so-secret recipe. Of course, it’s possible to make a home-cooked version in a standard oven and achieve a very similar result. We’re here to show you how to prepare Pollo a la Brasa. And it’s easier than you might think!

Read on to find out more about its origins and take a stab at preparing this delicious easy cook recipe yourself.

Origins of PeruvianPollo a la Brasa

The origins of this chicken dish are well-documented since it’s a fairly recent creation, dating from the late 1940s, and we even have a first and last name: Roger Schuler. After immigrating to Peru from Switzerland, Schuler settled in the town of Santa Clara, in the countryside near the capital of Lima, and started breeding chickens. In a bid to make some extra money from at the farm, he decided to roast some of the birds there and offer them to the general public on an all-you-can-eat basis at a very low cost. Not surprisingly, the concept soon took hold and he opened a restaurant at the farm, La Granja Azul, which is still operating at the very same spot to this day.

It’s worth mentioning that Mr Schuler’s first chef initially roasted the chicken over the charcoal on a spit, turning it by hand (for close to an hour!). This is obviously very labor-intensive and not as sustainable as the restaurant grew. An acquaintance designed and custom-built the firstpollo a la brasarotisserie chicken oven.

Slowly, other restaurant owners and entrepreneurs caught on to the idea and by the 1990s there was a true explosion in the opening of a slew of restaurants and even restaurant chains following the same concept­ (the previously mentionedpollerías). Pollo a la brasa has put down firm roots as an undeniable cornerstone of Peruvian cuisine and culture. Fast-forward to 2019, andit’sis now the most popular dish served by restaurants throughout the country. When asked in street polls, up to 70% of people say that it’s their favorite thing to eat out.

Thousands of restaurants are dedicated almost exclusively to this single dish, and the experienced chef in charge of basting and roasting them is a specialized profession, known asmaestro pollero, loosely translating to “master chicken roaster”.

Other Ingredients: Who else is at the table?

So apart from the roasted bird with its trademark crispy skin, what else does a typical meal of this Peruvian menu favorite include? The staunch companions that come with it are:

• thick French fries
• a salad consisting either of raw vegetables like lettuce, tomato, avocado and cucumber
• or a cooked vegetable salad with cooked green beans, carrot, and beets.

Last, but not least, the dipping sauces which usually include mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and a spicy sauce made with peppers known asají.

Unfortunately, modern-daypolleríasdon’t offer the endless all-you-can-eat option because nowadays that wouldn’t be financially viable. Instead, you either order an entire roasted chicken to share, or half or a quarter.

The most popular drinks to accompany this delectable meal are lemonade (which is actually made with limes),chicha morada(the purple corn refreshment), or some sort of soda like Coca Cola and more often than not, Peru’s trademark soda: Inca Kola.

One of Peru’s Most Popular Dishes

To emphasize just how widespread the consumption of this dish is in the 21st century: the Peruvian government estimated that 371 million servings ofpollo a la brasawere sold in the country in 2010 alone.

For a population of around 30 million, that equates to an average of just over 12 servings per person per year! In other words, most Peruvians will be tucking into this roast once a month or more. It’s no surprise that there is a special day dedicated to the dish: every third Sunday of July is nationalpollo a la brasaday. (one wonders about how much the restaurant industry had to do with the creation of this tribute).

Whatever the case may be, people across the country love this dish. From small Andean towns where the meal is washed down with herbal tea for digestion to Amazon cities where the weather itself is already roasting. Even fancy eateries in the hip districts of the capital of Lima cater to one of the country’s favourite dishes. It doesn’t look like this will change any time soon.

So, time to find out what all the heat is about: let’s get roasting!

In this recipe, we use an oven for roasting rather than a rotisserie or charcoal bbq. As we like to give simpler options, and most readers are cooking at home, we feel this is the most suitable. However, we’ve included photos of chickens roasting at a local Lima pollería to give that authentic feel, but really just to get you drooling. This is an easy dish to prepare but it takes a little bit of investment of time. Get cooking!

And if you like this chicken dish, check out our Peruvian Grilled Chicken with green sauce recipe or this garlic and ginger mustard chicken dish.