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Peruvian-Style Grilled Chicken With Green Sauce

This Peruvian-style grilled chicken is a recipe I back-hacked from the awesome chicken and green sauce they serve at Pio Pio in NYC. The basics are simple: Butterflied chicken with a vinegar and spice rub gets slow-cooked on the grill, then quickly cooked directly over the coals to crisp the skin. It comes out tender and juicy, and goes perfectly with a simple spicy and creamy sauce made with jalapeños and ají amarillo peppers.
When it comes to that kind of Peruvian roast chicken, it's all about the green sauce, right? I mean, sure, the tender chicken, kissed with the smoke of a live fire and a hint of spices and garlic, is pretty damn good on its own, but it's that green sauce—spicy, tangy, and cooling—that keeps us coming back for more, right?
Luckily, the sauce is not too difficult to make: a tangy mayonnaise base, pepped up with a squeeze of lime juice and lemon, along with the heat of fresh jalapeños and a big handful of cilantro. The key is to season it pretty heavily. When made right, it will have a powerful but balanced combination of salty, acidic, spicy, and creamy elements. It's great on grilled chicken, awesome as a salad dressing, perfect for dipping fries into, a nice accompaniment to grilled corn, and excellent drizzled over grilled chicken hash the morning after.
The best Peruvian roast chicken restaurants cook their chickens on rotisseries, slowly rotating in front of a live flame, fat rendering out from the skin and dripping around and through the meat, distributing flavor and ensuring that the chickens cook evenly. Fortunately, we already know that you don't need a rotisserie to get moist, crispy results from your home grill. All you've got to do is butterfly the bird.
Once you've perfected the basic grilled chicken recipe, the jump to a perfect Peruvian-style grilled chicken is pretty simple. The key is the right marinade. Cumin, paprika, and garlic (freshly minced, please!) are all typical ingredients, as is vinegar. I like to add plenty of salt and black pepper and a couple of tablespoons of oil to make a paste that I can rub all over the chicken.
From there, I simply follow my typical grilled chicken procedure—a low, slow start on the cooler side of the grill, with the skin side up, until the skin has dried out and started rendering some of its fat, then a finish over the hot side of the grill, skin side down, to crisp and char it.
Make sure to make extra sauce, because you're gonna want it on everything.
Servings: 4
Author: Serious Eats

Ingredients

For the Sauce:

  • 3 whole jalapeño chiles roughly chopped (see note)
  • 1 tablespoon ají amarillo pepper paste see note
  • 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves 1 ounce; 28g
  • 2 medium cloves garlic
  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • ¼ cup sour cream
  • 2 teaspoons fresh juice from 1 lime
  • 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • kosher salt
  • freshly ground black pepper

For the Chicken:

  • 1 whole chicken 3½ to 4 pounds
  • 4 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 2 tablespoons ground cumin
  • 2 tablespoons paprika
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 medium cloves garlic minced (about 1 tablespoon)
  • 2 tablespoons white vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil

Instructions

For the Sauce:

  • Combine the jalapeños, ají amarillo, cilantro, garlic, mayonnaise, sour cream, lime juice, and vinegar in the jar of a blender.
  • Blend on high speed, scraping down the sides as necessary, until smooth.
  • With the blender running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil.
  • Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  • The sauce will be quite loose at this point, but it will thicken as it sits.
  • Transfer to a sealed container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Spatchcock the Chicken:

  • Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and place on a large cutting board, breast side down.
  • Using sharp kitchen shears, remove the backbone by cutting along either side of it.
  • Turn the chicken over and lay it out flat.
  • Press firmly on breast to flatten the chicken.
  • For added stability, run a metal or wooden skewer horizontally through the chicken, entering through one thigh, going through both breast halves, and exiting through the other thigh.
  • Tuck wing tips behind the back.

Marinate the chicken:

  • Combine the salt, cumin, paprika, pepper, garlic, vinegar, and oil in a small bowl and massage with fingertips until homogeneous.
  • Spreadthe mixture evenly over all surfaces of chicken.

Prepare the grill:

  • Light 1 chimney full of charcoal.
  • When all charcoal is lit and covered with gray ash, pour out and spread the coals evenly over half of the coal grate.
  • Alternatively, set half the burners of a gas grill to high heat.
  • Set the cooking grate in place, cover the grill, and allow to preheat for 5 minutes.
  • Clean and oil the grilling grate.

Grill the chicken:

  • Place the chicken, skin side up, on the cooler side of the grill, with the legs facing toward the hotter side.
  • Cover the grill, with vents on the lid open and aligned over the chicken.
  • Open the bottom vents of the grill.
  • Cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers 110°F (43°C).
  • Carefully flip the chicken and place, the skin side down, on the hotter side of the grill, with the breasts pointed toward the cooler side.
  • Press down firmly with a wide, stiff spatula to ensure good contact between the bird and the grill grates.
  • Cover and cook until the skin is crisp and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers 145 to 150°F (63 to 66°C), about 10 minutes longer.
  • If the chicken threatens to burn before temperature is achieved, carefully slide it to the cooler side of the grill, cover, and continue to cook until done. Do not leave the lid off for longer than it takes to check the temperature, or the chicken will burn.

Finish and serve:

  • Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and allow it to rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
  • Carve and serve with the sauce.

Notes

Why it Works:

  • Butterflying the chicken ensures that it cooks evenly on the grill, even without a rotisserie.
  • A vinegary, spice-filled marinade evokes the best restaurant versions of the dish.
  • Using mayonnaise as a base for the spicy, tangy green sauce makes it creamy and rich.
  • A mix of jalapeños and ají amarillo peppers bring fruity heat.
  • For a less spicy sauce, remove the ribs and seeds of the jalapeños before puréeing.
  • Ají amarillo is a Peruvian yellow pepper paste that can be found in most Latin markets. It can be omitted.

Useful user tip:

We use legs and thighs, and last night used the oven:
  • Cooked it on a rack over a parchment-lined sheet pan at 425 (convection), and as it browned and crisped quickly, after 20 minutes turned down to 400 until Thermapen read about 180 (dark meat only.)