Pollo a la Brasa (Rotisserie Peruvian Chicken) with Drip Pan Purple Potatoes

Pollo a la Brasa (Rotisserie Peruvian Chicken) with Drip Pan Purple Potatoes. A taste of Peru cooked on the grill in your own back yard.

I heard rumors of Peruvian rotisserie chicken dish, Pollo a la Brasa, but didn't get a chance to try it until a vacation in Sonoma valley. When I saw the restauraunt Sazon Peruvian Cuisine, I dragged everyone there, promising my wife a Pisco Sour and the kids all the french fries they could eat. (Peru is the birthplace of potatoes. I figured I was safe with that promise.) I finally ate my Pollo a la Brasa, and it was as good as advertised. Spicy, crispy chicken skin over juicy roast chicken.

Jump to:

• What is Pollo a la Brasa?
• What are Aji Amarillo peppers?
• Equipment
• How to Make Pollo a la Brasa
• Scaling the recipe
• Tips and Tricks
• Pollo a la Brasa (Rotisserie Peruvian Chicken) with Drip Pan Purple Potatoes
• 💬 Comments

What is Pollo a la Brasa?

Pollo a la Brasa is Peruvian rotisserie chicken. (a la Brasa means grilled in Spanish - literally "to the embers".) In Peru, a whole chicken is seasoned with a spice paste made of aji amarillo peppers, coriander, cumin, paprika, lime juice, and soy sauce. Then it is cooked on the rotisserie until it is browned, crispy, and delicious.

What are Aji Amarillo peppers?

Aji amarillo peppers are Peruvian yellow chili peppers, native to the Andes mountains. Our host at the Peruvian restaurant said the key to Pollo a la Brasa is the Aji Amarillo peppers. (The famous Peruvian dish Aji Verde also depends on Aji amarillo peppers; it gets its green color from the other ingredients.

That's where I hit my only stumbling block in making this recipe at home. Aji peppers are hard to find in Northeastern Ohio. Eventually, I broke down and ordered a (very expensive) jar of Aji Amarillo pepper paste on the Internet.

Of course, I had to make this with Peruvian purple potatoes in the rotisserie drip pan. OK, purple, red and white potatoes. But the purple potatoes were the hit of the show. The kids kept asking - Purple potatoes? Really?

Equipment

• Grill with rotisserie attachment (I use a Weber Summit)
• 9 by 13 aluminum foil drip pan (or an enameled steel roasting pan)
• Butcher’s twine
• Blender or food processor (I use a Vitamix) to make the Peruvian Paste)

How to Make Pollo a la Brasa

1. Marinate a 4-pound whole chicken in Peruvian Paste, made by blending Aji Amarillo, garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin, paprika, salt, pepper, soy sauce, and lime juice. Marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
2. An hour before cooking, truss the chicken with kitchen twine, and secure it on the rotisserie spit. (Here's my video on how to truss and spit chickens.) Let the chicken rest at room temperature to take the chill off.
3. Set the grill up for indirect high heat, with a drip pan in the center of the grill, under where the chicken will sit on the rotisserie spit.
4. Put the spit on the grill, start the rotisserie spinning, close the lid, and rotisserie grill roast the chicken until it reaches 160°F internal temperature in the deepest part of the breast, measured with an instant-read thermometer. This will take about an hour.
5. Remove the spit from the grill, remove the chicken from the spit, remove the trussing twine from the chicken, carve the chicken, and serve.

Scaling the recipe

This recipe scales up easily - you can make as many chickens as you can fit on your rotisserie spit. (As you can see in the pictures, I doubled the recipe.) The cooking time doesn't change, because the cooking time is determined by how long it takes each chicken to cook through, not how many chickens there are.

Tips and Tricks

• If you can’t find Aji Amarillo paste (or aren’t willing to spend $10 to have a jar shipped, which is what I had to do), substitute a stemmed and seeded jalapeno. It won’t have the same taste, but it will give some pepper and heat flavors to the sauce.
• As you can see in the pictures, I doubled the chicken part of the recipe. I love having leftover chicken later in the week. Two chickens cook for the same time as one chicken.
• Cook chicken to temperature, not by time! Outdoor cooking is not very precise, some days the grill runs hotter, other days cooler. You'll get the best results by checking the chicken. Use an instant-read thermometer to check the deepest part of the breast meat. Start checking about 10 minutes before the chicken should be done, and pull the chicken off of the grill as soon as it reaches 160°F internal temperature.
• Don't have a rotisserie? You can use these ingredients to make a grilled chicken. Set the grill up for indirect high heat, with a drip pan under the grill grate. Cook the chicken, breast side up, on the grill grate over indirect heat until it reaches 160°F in the center, about 1 hour. Grilled chicken won't have the same crisp skin as a rotisserie chicken, but it is still quite good. I skip the drip pan potatoes when grilling chicken; the grill grate gets in the way.

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What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

Related Posts:

Click here for my other rotisserie recipes.

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