This Peruvian Chicken is roasted whole in the oven, and served with the most incredible green dipping sauce.
Pollo a la Brasa is an incredible Peruvian dish of roasted chicken served with a mayonnaise based sauce. If you want to get truly authentic, this dish was traditionally made over fire, and you can absolutely use this recipe to cook the chicken on your grill over indirect heat. We love the convenience of roasting, and decided to write this recipe specifically for roasting so you can enjoy it even without a grill. Let’s face it, the roasting pan is pretty dang convenient.
Peruvian chicken is traditionally enjoyed with a green sauce made with Aji Amarillo paste, a spicy yellow pepper paste. Now, that isn’t exactly something you can generally find in your local grocery store. You can always order it from Amazon, or you can simply omit it and have a completely Americanized version. You will be blown away by how much you love these flavors!
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How do I prep a whole chicken?
No need to be nervous about prepping a whole chicken. If you’ve never done this before, you’ll feel like a pro in no time!
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If you tend to keep your chicken in the freezer, make sure to remove it and let it thaw in the fridge. Expect it to take at least 24 hours per 5 pounds of chicken and plan accordingly.
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With your thawed chicken, make sure to remove any giblets or any other innards. Sometimes they come in a tiny bag inside of the cavity, sometimes they are loose and not in a bag, and sometimes they just don’t come with any. It all depends on the brand.
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Current food safety recommendations are that you not wash your chicken. Do pat it dry so that your seasoning will stick.
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Aji-Amarillo Paste
Aji-amarillo paste is made from aji-amarillo peppers, a hot yellow pepper native to Peru. If you are not located somewhere with access to Peruvian ingredients, you can purchase it on Amazon. For substitutions, you can use 1 whole pepperoncini or 1 habanero which have similar flavor profiles.
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Tips for Basting:
No one likes dry chicken, so basting is key to a juicy bird. Grab your turkey baster and use those juices to pour on top every 20-30 minutes as you are able. This does not need to be a high maintenance dish, so do not stress if you miss a basting. Basting 2 to 3 times while roasting should be enough. Pro tip: every time you open the oven, it loses heat. Be sure not to keep that oven open for too long while basting or you’ll slow down the cooking time.
If you like this recipe, you may be interested in these other amazing chicken recipes:
Watch the video below where Rachel will walk you through every step of this recipe. Sometimes it helps to have a visual, and we’ve always got you covered with our cooking show. You can find the complete collection of recipes on YouTube, Facebook Watch, or our Facebook Page, or right here on our website with their corresponding recipes.
Absolutely DELICIOUS!! The chicken was super juicy and roasted to perfection. If you think about skipping the sauce…DON’T! I sub’d a canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce for the Ahi Amarillo paste and it was super tasty! Will definitely make this again!
I can’t believe that I finally cooked a whole chicken that I was not embarrassed to say was mine! Thank you so much. I was in the Peruvian community for many years and I would enter this recipe up against any of the authentic cooks.
DEEEEEEEEEEVINE!!!!
Made this tonight (had to wait to receive my Aji Amarillo from Amazon) and dinner was spectacular!! I followed the recipe precisely as written…. and will make this again and again!
This is an amazing recipe. My husband and I loved it!
Amazing!! I used smoked paprika in the rub because that’s what I had on hand. I also added 1/2 c sour cream to the dipping sauce because with 2 jalapeños, and a habanero it packed quite a punch. So good!
This was next-level amazing. So simple, so delicious — one of the juiciest chickens I have ever made, with close to falling-apart breast meat (my favorite) — and obviously, THE SAUCE, wow. Threw some russet potatoes and rainbow carrots underneath the chicken after turning down the temp to 350° with a little extra oil, let them finish cooking while the chicken rested. Used half an avocado in the sauce to bulk it up (and to get it out of the fridge). Just outstanding!
The Stay At Home Chef (SAHC) is my go-to for recipes, especially chicken. My chicken dishes (a la SAHC) are so delicious. By FAR, the juiciest chicken ever with the best flavors from the spice combos. The Peruvian Chicken is fantastic (I didn’t do the dipping sauce as I didn’t have the ingredients but that sounded fabuloso as well!). Thank you so much for your tried and true recipes!
I made exactly as is and it is perfect. The chicken is so juicy with crispy skin. And the sauce is amazing! I just wish I doubled the sauce recipe. Will be making tonight for company and am going to add potatoes to the bottom of the chicken pan.
THE SAUCE. But also the chicken. The flavor profile is amazing. We use a ton of the sauce with the meal and still have leftovers for the week that we use on tacos. I bought the pepper sauce on Amazon and it has lasted for months in the fridge.
WOW! Both the chicken and the sauce are delicious! Had 2 large skin and bone in chicken breast. A little less cooking time to reach 165 degrees. Used pickled jalapeños because that’s what I had, simply delicious!