Everybody Loves This Peruvian Chicken Recipe | Melissa Clark | NYT Cooking

[BLENDER WHIRRING] “Crank it up. When the blender purrs,
your sauce is ready. Spoken like a cat
owner, right?” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hi. I’m Melissa Clark, and I’m
here in the NYT Cooking studio Kitchen to make
Peruvian chicken. In Peru, they don’t call it
Peruvian chicken, obviously. Peruvian chicken is the
American term for what’s Basically spit-roasted chicken That you find all over Latin America. The key to making this
chicken at home in your oven Is to use really high heat. What you’re trying to do is
get a burnished, crisp skin, Which is the hallmark of a
delicious Peruvian chicken. What makes Peruvian chicken
specific is that the chilies That it’s marinated
in come from Peru. There are two distinct kinds,
aji amarillo and aji panca. In order to get the grilled
vibe of the chicken, You don’t want
to cook it whole. You want to cut it in half. I’m going to use
some shears here. You can definitely have your
butcher do this if you don’t Want to deal with the chicken. But it’s so easy, I thought I
would just show you how to do It in case you have a whole
chicken and you’d like To dispatch it yourself. Basically, I’m just going to
cut it through the backbone, Or next to the backbone,
and then I’m going to cut it Through the breast. The tail is going
to be your guide. Just go to the tail and just
cut along all the way in. Crunch.

It’s very satisfying,
that sound. Did you get it, Milton? You could cut the
backbone out entirely Or you could leave
it on, depending On if you like that little
nubby tail, which I actually Really do. Or you could cut it
off and then just use The backbone for stock. For this one, I’m going to cut
it off just because it’ll be A slightly neater
presentation. I’m going to get it
started with my knife. And I’m going to go through
the breastbone right here. It just makes it easier. There we go. I have a plastic bag in the
freezer with my little chicken Parts. When it gets filled
up, I make stock. Let me wash my hands. O.K. It’s a really
straightforward marinade. So this is the aji
amarillo, yellow. And this is the aji panca. If you can’t find it and
you want to make this dish, You can substitute
other chili pastes. You need a lot of
garlic for this. This is 6 cloves of garlic. You can mince them
or just grate them On a little microplane. Lime juice for acidity. Soy sauce, mustard, ground
cumin, salt and pepper. So just give it a whisk. And then I’m just going
to coat it really nicely. Like get under the wings. But you don’t have to worry
about going under the skin. It’s going to get there.

Thank you. Put it in the fridge
between 2 and 12 hours. You don’t want to leave
this for more than 12 hours, Because at that point the
chicken is going to start To — the texture is
going to be affected. It’s going to start to
get a little bit soft Because of the acidity. So 12 hours is your max. What I want to do now
is I want to pat it dry, Because the moisture is
going to inhibit browning. And since this is really all
about the burnished, gorgeous, Crisp skin, if you
don’t pat it down, You’re not going to get there. And also, the chicken at this
point has really absorbed all The good flavors
of the marinade, So don’t feel bad
about patting it off. It has done its work. So I’m just going
to go wash my hands. And this is just a
little bit of olive oil. So the olive oil is going
to help crisp the skin. Just drizzle it
on just a little. And then we’re going to put
it straight away in the oven. Oh, this is the thing. So if you don’t usually put
your oven at 450 and your oven Isn’t pretty clean, you
might notice some smoke. I’m just warning you. This is, it’s normal. So don’t be alarmed if your
oven gets a little smoky. That is the
temperature you need. So it’s going to take
about 35 to 45 minutes. If your oven is
at all uneven — And actually, most ovens
are pretty uneven — Halfway through cooking, just
turn the tray around and that Way it’ll brown evenly.

So while the
chicken is roasting, We can make the sauce. The sauce for this kind of
chicken varies with the cook. There is no one kind of green
sauce that goes with it. When I developed
the recipe, I tried Many different combinations
and this was the one. I was like, yes,
this is the sauce. So for all you cilantro
haters out there, If you don’t want
to use cilantro, You can substitute
another green. You just want to make sure
it has a really fresh flavor. My new favorite
cilantro substitute Is arugula, actually
baby arugula, Because it has a
peppery brightness. It’s a different
flavor, but I like it. There are so many
things in this sauce, But they work together and
they really harmonize well. So I’m going to get this going
and then I’m going to slowly Drizzle in the olive oil.” [BLENDER WHIRRING] “How do you know when the
sauce is blended enough? Well, one way is
you look at it And you see that there
are no big chunks. But another way to
tell is you listen. You’re going to hear the
change from everything being Solid ingredients kind of
thumping around to it gets The quiet end, like it purrs. When the blender purrs,
your sauce is ready. It’s bright green. It’s very smooth
and silky looking, So I’m going to try it. Ooh, it’s so good. You’re tasting for
salt and acidity. Should you add a little more
salt, a little more pepper?

I actually think this is
perfect the way it is, So I’m not going
to add any of it. But you need to taste it
because you never know. And the chicken is ready. I’m going to get it and
we’re going to feast. Oh, it’s gorgeous. You can see the color. Look at that, the crisp skin,
the beautiful, really dark Golden brown. Now you want to let it rest
for a couple of minutes, Just like 5,10 minutes tops,
while you set the table, Pour the sauce into a bowl,
get everything all ready. It doesn’t need a long rest. It doesn’t need a
20-minute turkey rest. Mm. It’s so good. It’s so flavorful. The meat is juicy. The skin is crisp. That sauce is amazing. I want it on everything. Bright, vibrant,
pungent, salty, Umami, all of the things. For the recipe we have
a free link below. So click on it, make
it, leave us a comment. We want to hear from you. And enjoy. It’s such a good recipe. Wow, if I do say so myself. You don’t mind if I sit
here and eat this, do you? Mm-mm-mm.” [MUSIC PLAYING]