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Recipe · Main course · Lima and criolla cooking

Roast chicken inspired by pollo a la brasa

A whole chicken marinated overnight in garlic, cumin, ají panca, soy sauce and dark beer, roasted in the oven on a rack, with chips and salad.

  • Serves 4 (a 1.5 kg chicken)
  • 1 hr 45 min on the day itself, after marinating (estimate)
  • Easy
Text revised on 7 October 2026
Quarter of roast chicken with golden skin, chips, lettuce, tomato and onion salad, a small bowl of yellow sauce
Illustration: pollo a la brasa: roast chicken, chips and salad

A chicken marinated with spices, roasted until its skin is brown and lacquered, served by the quarter with chips and salad: pollo a la brasa is one of the most widely eaten dishes in Peru, and its story begins with a Swiss immigrant.

An invention from Chaclacayo

Roger Schuler, a Swiss man who had settled east of Lima, had the engineer Franz Ulrich design an oven in which the chickens turned in front of the embers, the “rotombo”. The opening date of La Granja Azul differs depending on the account: 19 December 1949 for Wikipedia, 5 February 1950 for the Lima press, which distinguishes the start of the poultry farm in 1949 from the opening of the restaurant; let us say “around 1950”. Originally, the chicken was seasoned only with salt. Today’s marinades combine, depending on the establishment, dark beer, chicha, rosemary, huacatay, cumin and ají panca. The dish is served by the quarter for one person, or whole for the family, with chips, salad and sauces.

What the oven can and cannot do

A domestic oven does not turn the chicken in front of the embers: it will give neither the smoky taste nor the perfectly even skin of a pollería. The rack above the dish helps the heat to circulate, and the marinade under the skin flavours the meat.

Our version

The cooking time depends on the weight of the chicken and on the oven: measure the core temperature at two points.

Ingredients

The recipe is based on a whole chicken: its cooking depends on its weight and cannot be recalculated for the number of guests.

Serves 4 (a 1.5 kg chicken)

Estimated preparation time

Advance preparation
Marinade the day before: 12 hours in the fridge, 4 hours at the minimum
Active time
30 minutes, chips and salad included
Cooking
About 1 hr 15 min for a 1.5 kg chicken, to be checked with a thermometer
Resting
10 minutes after cooking
Total
1 hr 45 min on the day itself, after marinating

Techniques: Oven, Frying.

The marinade

To serve

Tick off the ingredients as you go: the boxes are remembered on this device.

Useful equipment

  • A large freezer bag or a closed dish
  • A roasting dish with a rack
  • A probe cooking thermometer
  • Kitchen string

Method

  1. The day before, mix all the marinade ingredients. Slide some of it under the skin of the breasts and thighs, loosening it with your fingertips, and rub the rest all over the chicken, inside and out.
  2. Put the chicken in a closed bag or a covered dish, on the bottom shelf of the fridge, for 12 hours if possible, turning it once.
  3. Take it out 30 minutes before cooking. Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Tie the legs and place the chicken on the rack, above the dish, breast side up. Throw away the remaining marinade.
  4. Pour a little water into the dish so that the juices do not burn. Roast for 45 minutes, then baste with the juices in the dish and turn the dish halfway round for even colouring.
  5. After 1 hour, measure the temperature at two points, in the thickest part of the breast and the thigh, without touching the bone: it must be 74 °C (165 °F) at the thickest point in both places. Continue in 10-minute stages if necessary.
  6. While it cooks, make the chips (in the oven, on another tray, or in the deep fryer at the end of cooking) and the salad with vegetables washed in drinking water.
  7. Leave the chicken to rest for 10 minutes under a sheet of foil, then cut it into quarters: one quarter per person, with the chips, the salad and the sauces.

Signs of success

  • The skin is dark brown, almost lacquered by the ají panca and the soy sauce, without being burnt.
  • The juice from the thigh is clear, the meat comes away from the bone; the thermometer has given the right figure in both places.
  • The breast stays juicy: overcooking dries it out, hence the checks from one hour onwards.

Precautions

  • Poultry: 74 °C (165 °F) at the thickest point, checked at two points. Colour alone is not enough.
  • Marinade: do not reuse it for a raw dish (sauce, dressing). Wash your hands and clean the worktop after handling the raw chicken.
  • Keep the marinating chicken in the fridge, on the bottom shelf, so that the juices do not drip onto other foods.

Allergens identified

Present: soy. Possible: gluten (soy sauce, dark beer), egg and mustard (mayonnaise).

Always check the labels of the products you buy (sauces, stocks, chilli pastes).

Variations and tips

  • On a barbecue with a lid, cooked indirectly: you get closer to the taste of embers, which the oven cannot give.
  • The original version, according to Wikipedia, was marinated only with salt; today’s marinades vary from one pollería to another.

Reasonable substitutions

  • Without beer: replace it with the same amount of water and an extra spoonful of vinegar.
  • Thighs only: they cook in 40 to 45 minutes, still checked with a thermometer.

Storage

  • Leftovers: in the fridge within one to two hours of cooking, to be eaten within 48 hours or frozen; reheat them to at least 70 °C.
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Going further

Sources and dates

3 sources

Prices, opening hours and rules change: every piece of information cited links to its source, with the date it was consulted.

Figures and rules cited

Sources consulted

How we choose and date our information: our method. Has something changed? Let us know.

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