PERUVIAN ROAST CHICKEN

A week ago, I had dinner with a friend at a Peruvian spot called Pio Pio.  They have delicious roasted chicken.  When I lived in Jackson Heights in Queens, the original location was two blocks away from me so it was a frequent choice for dinner.  The great thing about it is that if you go with a few friends and split the chicken, the meal comes out pretty cheap.  They also had this dipping amazing sauce for your chicken, fries, rice, lettuce, finger... whatever you wanted to dip in there/smother the sauce with.  I decided to forgo trying to make the sauce this time around, but one of these days, I will try to make it.  I found a recipe that looks promising.

I had a bit of a minor freakout while attempting to prepare this dish.  I love chicken, but I absolutely hate handling it.  When I saw that the recipe called for loosening up the skin of the chicken to stuff a paste underneath, I cringed.  But I set out to do it.  However, in the middle of all that skin loosening, I felt a burn on my finger and realized I somehow cut it.  FREAK. OUT.  I was basically molesting that damn bird with all of its juices just contaminating my hands when I had a fucking cut on my finger!  So, of course, I washed my hands excessively with soap and hot water and then dashed to the bathroom to bathe my finger in peroxide.  It looks fine now, so hopefully I'm not going to lose it.  Unfortunately (or maybe not), this sort of put an end to my skin loosening activities and I just hoped that marinating the chicken for a few hours was enough to get it tasty.

RECIPE courtesy of Leite's Culinaria


INGREDIENTS
5 garlic cloves, peeled

• Fine sea salt
• One 4-pound whole chicken
• 1 lemon, cut into quarters
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons white wine
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 
  
• DIRECTIONS
• 1. Finely chop the garlic cloves. Using the flat side of the knife’s blade, scrape and chop and mash the garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of salt into a paste.

• 2. Pull off any excess fat surrounding the cavity of the chicken and discard it. Rinse and pat the chicken dry, inside and out, and place the chicken on a plate. Rub the chicken all over with 2 of the lemon quarters, then discard the lemon quarters.

• 3. Slip a finger under the chicken skin at the edge of the cavity and run it along the breasts and thighs to gently loosen the skin. Gently work a little of the garlic paste between the chicken skin and meat, being careful not to tear the skin and rubbing your hand along the surface of the skin to smooth the paste and push it past where you can reach with your hand.

• 4. In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, 2 tablespoons of the wine, the oil, paprika, cumin, black pepper, and oregano. Place the chicken in a 2-gallon resealable bag or a baking dish and pour the marinade on top. Turn the bird several times to coat. Seal the bag or cover the chicken and refrigerate for 5 to 8 hours, turning the chicken once or twice if you think of it.

• 5. Preheat the oven to 425ºF (220°C). Adjust the oven rack to the middle position.

• 6. Transfer the chicken to a baking dish or heavy frying pan (see LC Note preceding the recipe), pouring the marinade into a small bowl and scraping any thick bits of spices that cling to the container into the bowl. Squeeze the 2 remaining lemon quarters into the cavity of the bird and toss the lemon quarters into the cavity. If desired, tie the legs together with kitchen string. Season the chicken all over with 1 teaspoon of salt. Set the reserved marinade aside.

• 7. Roast the bird in the oven for 15 minutes, then baste with some of the marinade. Reduce the heat to 375ºF (190°C) and continue to roast, basting every 20 minutes with the marinade and the pan juices, for an hour. Discard the marinade. Then roast for 15 minutes more, for a total of 1 1/2 hours, until the juices of the chicken run clear when the thigh is pierced with a fork and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 165ºF (74°C). Allow the chicken to rest for a few minutes after you remove it from the oven.

• 8. Transfer the chicken to a cutting board. If you have a fat separator, now’s the time to use it. If you don’t have one, tip the baking dish so you can see the oil separating from the pan juices. Using a soup spoon, skim off and discard most of the oil. Place the baking dish over medium-high heat and bring the juices to a simmer. Add the remaining wine and simmer, scraping any bits from the bottom and sides of the dish, simmer for 3 minutes. (If your baking dish isn’t flameproof, pour the juices into a saucepan and proceed with the simmering.)

There was a note at the beginning about making sure you picked an ideally-sized baking vessel.  The writer recommended a 12-14 inch cast-iron skillet.  My bird was about 3 lbs.  Since the recipe called for a 4-lb chicken, I  figured my 10-inch cast-iron skillet would work out just fine.  I left the chicken marinating for about 5 hours before cooking.  I would have liked to tie up the legs, but I had no kitchen twine.  The only string-like thing I had in the apartment was dental floss.  I doubted that would have been a good idea.  I also tried to tuck the wings in, but the little shits popped out and I just gave up.  I probably wasn't doing it right anyways.

how do you tuck those things in?

I don't own a baster (too many lesbian jokes), so I just spooned the juices over the chicken.  I was starving while waiting for it to finish cooking.  When it was finally done, I threw the chicken on a cutting board and started making the sauce.  The recipe suggested tilting the pan so you could see the oil separating from the pan juices.  That sounded nice, in theory, but my pan was black.  I couldn't see shit!  I just tried to spoon whatever was floating near the surface and hoped it would be fine.

After my sauce finished, I got too hungry and excited and could barely control myself.  Because of this, I was unable to take a picture of my glorious chicken before cutting it up.  So I have only this instead.

I had to use that bok choy up

This recipe is frikkin' awesome.  I'm not too sure if it tasted like the chicken at Pio Pio, but I didn't care.  It was delicious, either way.