Shared Recipe: Pollo a la brasa (Peruvian Grilled Chicken)

Today's shared recipe is Pollo a la brasa, or Peruvian style grilled chicken. Now, my father is from Peru, and he grills some tasty chicken. It took a while for us to coax him into cooking more, and it's still a bit of a rare treat to get him to do so, but when he cooks his home specialties, it's rare to have leftovers.

Pollo a La Brasa, pictured from food.com

This style of cooking, he explains, is common in Peru. Rotisserie chicken in this style is served fast food style there. Interestingly enough here in my local city a few places serving this kind of rotisserie chicken have popped up over the years and become quite popular. 

The key is marinading the chicken overnight, cutting it into pieces so it's easier to pack together into the marinade. Marinading it overnight allows for all the meat to absorb the flavor, and even the chicken breasts tend to be amongst the most flavorful parts of the meat at that point. Then you either grill or bake the chicken (I recommend charcoal grilling myself) until done. It is absolutely some of the most flavorful chicken you will have. I guarantee. 

 My family uses a store bought marinade called "Inca's Food", found at a local Hispanic market. However, this recipe provides a home made marinade alternative I intend to try for myself. I also, when I have made a homemade tandoor oven, intend to try skewering the meat and cooking it tandoor style to see how it turns out.

When I do (this recipe that is), I will provide a followup post with a review and any changes I would suggest making to the initial recipe. Until then, follow the links at the beginning of the post for the recipe. Give hits where hits are due.

As for beer recommendations, this is a meat rich in spices and flavor, but is not in and of itself spicy. therefore my first recommendations would be a rich, malty beer that doesn't push the pallet too hard, something in the category of a rich amber, a red or imperial red, or a mild porter. Lagunitas Imperial red and New Belgiums Red Hoptober are both great seasonal reds rich in malt character, but with both being seasonal are not guaranteed to be found when you're looking for them. So for all year New Belgium Fat Tire or especially an Oscar Blues G'knight Imperial Red ale. A Sierra Nevada Porter would also be a good choice, having a smokier flavor but still mild and smoother than a stout.

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