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This Peruvian chicken rivals the juicy, crisp-skinned roast chicken from your favorite Peruvian spot. And the creamy, zesty green sauce? You’ll want to put it on everything!
This Peruvian chicken recipe is my take on Pollo a la Brasa, the delicious roast chicken made popular by so many Peruvian restaurants. The chicken is first marinated in olive oil, lime juice, garlic and spices, and then oven-roasted until tender and juicy with super crispy skin. The accompanying green sauce, which gets its color from cilantro and jalapeño peppers, is spicy, creamy and downright delectable. You can put it on virtually everything, and it even doubles as a fabulous dip or salad dressing.
“I don’t know I’ve ever eaten a better roast chicken. The rub alone is wonderful, but the sauce??? Oh man, puts it over the top…This recipe is as good as it gets!”
Choosing a Chicken
Look for a whole chicken weighing about 4 pounds, and don’t worry too much about whether the package says “fryer,” “broiler,” or “roaster.” The weight matters more than the label here. A much larger bird will need more time in the oven, so choosing one close to the recipe’s size makes the timing easier to follow.
HOW TO MAKE Peruvian Chicken with Green Sauce
Begin by making the marinade. Combine the lime juice, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, paprika, cumin, and oregano in a blender or mini food processor. Blend until smooth.
Using your fingers or a wooden spoon, loosen the skin over the breasts and legs of the chicken.
Spoon about two-thirds of the marinade under the skin. Then rub the rest of the marinade over top. Place the chicken in a bowl and refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 425°F, and set the chicken on a rack in a roasting pan. I like to tuck the wings underneath the bird and tie the legs together so the bird holds its shape.
Roast the chicken for 20 minutes, until the skin is golden, and then turn the heat down to 375°F and roast for about an hour and ten minutes more. Let the chicken rest, covered with foil, for about 20 minutes before carving.
While the chicken marinates, make the spicy green sauce. Simply combine the mayonnaise, sour cream, cilantro, jalapeños, garlic, lime juice salt and pepper in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil. It will seem thin at first but it will thicken up as it sits.
Transfer the sauce to a bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve. Carve the chicken and serve with green sauce.
How Spicy Is the Green Sauce?
With about half the jalapeño ribs and seeds included, the sauce has a medium-hot kick. For a milder version, remove them all before blending, then taste and add a little back if you’d like more heat. Jalapeños can vary quite a bit, so starting mild gives you more control.
Make-Ahead, Freezing & Reheating
The long marinade does some of the planning for you: get the chicken ready the night before, blend the green sauce, and the next day you can concentrate on roasting and sides.
- Prep ahead: Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight, as directed. You can make the green sauce a day ahead, too; keep it covered in the fridge and stir before serving.
- Store: Refrigerate leftover chicken in an airtight container for up to 3 days, keeping the green sauce separate.
- Freeze: Freeze the cooked chicken in a freezer-safe container or bag for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge. I’d make the green sauce fresh rather than freeze it, since its creamy texture can change.
- Reheat: Place the chicken in a baking dish with a splash of water, cover with foil, and warm in a 325°F oven until heated through to 165°F. Uncover toward the end to help the skin crisp up. Serve the green sauce cold alongside.
Peruvian-Style Roast Chicken with Green Sauce
Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup lime juice, from 2 limes
- 4 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 4 lb whole chicken
For the Green Sauce
- 3 jalapeño chili peppers, seeded if desired (I use about half the seeds for a medium-hot sauce), and roughly chopped (see note)
- 1 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
- 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- ½ cup mayonnaise, best quality such as Hellmann’s
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, from 1 lime
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
For the Chicken
- Combine the olive oil, lime juice, garlic, salt, paprika, black pepper, cumin, oregano, and sugar in a blender or mini food processor. Blend until smooth.
- Remove the giblets from the inside of the chicken and pat the outside of the chicken dry with paper towels; place in a bowl, breast side up with the legs facing you.
- Using your fingers or the handle of a wooden spoon, gently loosen the skin over the breasts and legs, being careful not to tear it (you want the marinade to stay underneath the skin). Spoon about two-thirds of the marinade evenly under the skin, then spread the remaining third over the outside of the chicken. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.
- Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position, and preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil for easy clean-up. Spray a rack (preferably a V-shape) with non-stick cooking spray, then place the chicken on it.
- Tie the legs together with kitchen string. Roast for 20 minutes, until the skin is golden.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F (190°C) and continue roasting for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until the juices run clear when you cut between the leg and thigh. If the chicken is browning too quickly, cover it loosely with foil.
- Tent the chicken with foil and let rest for about 20 minutes. Tilt the chicken over the roasting pan to release the juices, then transfer to a cutting board. Carve the chicken and serve with green sauce.
For the Green Sauce
- Combine the jalapeño peppers, cilantro, garlic, mayonnaise, sour cream, lime juice, salt, and pepper in a blender or food processor and blend into a smooth sauce.
- With the motor running, open the lid and slowly drizzle in the olive oil. It will seem runny at this point; it will thicken up as it sits. Transfer the sauce to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
- Be sure to wash your hands well after handling hot peppers, and do not touch your eyes while working with them.
- The nutritional information does not include the green sauce.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you’re following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
What To Serve With Peruvian Chicken
For the full chicken-dinner treatment, add Mexican rice and black bean salad with corn and avocado, and let everyone help themselves. Crispy potato wedges are another great option—especially with extra green sauce for dipping.
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We absolutely LOVE this chicken! We typically marinate cut chicken thighs over night and then grill them on skewers. We then serve the green sauce on the side. Many people have asked us for the recipe! It truly is out of the this world for a home cooked meal!
This recipe is a go to for me. In fact, I make the green sauce and freeze it in 4 smaller containers. Then I pull it out to use on all sorts of proteins, salads and veggies. It freezes great.
You can’t go wrong with this recipe. I’ve made this at least a dozen times (served with the Mexican rice) and I too use thighs and breasts instead of a whole chicken (so much easier!) We’ve used the leftover sauce on salmon the next day. Thanks for another great recipe Jen!
I LOVE this recipe!! We have made this a number of times, for ourselves and for friends and it’s always a hit. One thing I changed was instead of using a whole chicken, I often use chicken thighs (both with and without bone) and drumsticks, and my husband grills it, which gives it a smoky flavor on top of the delicious marinade. We’re making it again this weekend for our friends – and love it with the Mexican Rice recipe you have, which we will also be making again. Thank you for this recipe – it’s definitely a keeper for us!!
An absolutely delicious recipe. The leftover cilantro/sour cream sauce makes a great marinade for skin-on chicken thighs, which I bake on thinly sliced onions or shallots tossed in a bit of olive oil.
This recipe is awesome! It’s not as good as a restaurant (probably because I altered it), but it’s a really good substitute and the flavors are on point. I halved the chicken before putting it in the oven so had to adjust the time. I did the 20 minutes on 425, but then reduced to 375 for only 45 minutes. The dark meat could have used a few more minutes and the white meat was a tad overcooked, so I’m still experimenting. The best part is the sauce which really tastes exactly like what I’m used to in restaurants even though I used poblano instead of jalapenos to cut down on spice. I mixed it in with some cumin rice.
In the future, I might try separating the white and dark meat and putting it in the air fryer.
Hi! I seriously love this recipe. The green sauce is just the right amount of spicy. My husband is from Egypt, so he loves the spices used to make this chicken. I have tried about 12 of your recipes, and all of them have turned out EXCELLENT. And I am just an okay chef, so you make me look good. I especially love all your Mediterranean dishes. It makes my husband feel at home when I use your recipes to make him food, and that makes me so happy. Thanks for everything you do- you are AMAZING!! I would love to see a koshary recipe in the future!
My family does a “multicultural” night every week to teach my daughter (6) about places/cultures other than our own. This week we also had company over and figured this recipe would be great. We were right. This chicken and the sauce was a HUGE hit. My daughter passed on the sauce because spicy, but my guests ended up taking some home with them. I thought it was a touch runny, but still absolutely delicious. Served with sauteed green beans and roasted purple potatoes, it was perfect.
Question- in other chicken recipes you use the zest instead of the juice. Just curious why the juice works here ? In other recipes you mention the acids in the juice can cook the outside of the chicken and make it leathery. Thanks!
Hi Aileen, I stay away from citrus juice for boneless skinless chicken breasts but it’s okay for dark meat. Hope that clarifies!
I have had to make a double batch of the green sauce, such is its popularity. Can you please tell me how long it will keep in case I up my production to the quadruple-sphere?
Thank you!
Rebecca
Glad the sauce is a hit! It will keep in the fridge for 4 to 5 days.