Roasted Peruvian-Style Chicken
We eat a lot of chicken in my house. Like A LOT. But luckily there are millions of great chicken recipes to help break up the monotony. And here’s another one to add to the list. This Roasted Peruvian-Style Chicken checks all the boxes…
- Moist
- Juicy
- Flavorful
But what I love most about this chicken is that it’s ready in less than an hour! That means you can cook it up any day of the week in the just about the same amount of time it takes to make a normal weeknight meal.
The chicken is prepared using a cooking technique called spatchcocking, which requires removing the backbone of the chicken. Don’t let the process intimidate you. It only takes a few minutes and pair of kitchen shears. Spatchcocking allows the chicken to cook faster and more evenly with a delicious crispy skin. But if you’re not ready to get that intimate with a chicken, you can buy one that has already been spatchcocked in most grocery stores.
Roasted Peruvian-Style Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 (4-5 lb) whole chicken
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon of Lawry’s Seasoned Salt or sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Adobo Seasoning
- 3 finely chopped cloves of garlic
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 lemon
Instructions
- Arrange rack in middle of oven and preheat to 400°F.
- Mix cumin, paprika, pepper, oregano, garlic, oil, and finely grated zest from 1 lemon in a small bowl.
- Cut the zested lemon into quarters. Squeeze juice from 2 quarters of the lemon into the spice mixture and stir. Set the remaining 2 quarters of lemon aside.
- To spatchcock the chicken, place chicken breast side down on a clean work surface like a cutting board. Use kitchen shears to cut the chicken along both sides of backbone. Remove the backbone. Turn chicken over breast side up and spread the chicken open. Press down on breastbone with the palms of your hand until you hear it crack and chicken is as flat as possible. Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.
- Squeeze the remaining 2 quarters of lemon all over both sides of the chicken. Then rub skin all over with inside of the rinds.
- Place chicken in roasting pan or cast iron skillet.
- Use your fingers to gently loosen skin from both edges of the breasts and thighs, being careful not to tear skin. Using your fingers or a very small spoon, gently spread about 2 tablespoons of the spice mixture under skin of the breast and thighs. Set the rest of the spice mixture aside.
- Sprinkle the adobo and Lawry’s seasoned salt (or sea salt if you prefer) all over both side of the chicken.
- Rub the remaining spice mixture all over both sides of the chicken.
- Make sure the chicken is spread flat with skin side up. Place the chicken in the oven.
- Roast chicken 20 minutes, then baste with pan juices. Continue roasting and basting with pan juices every 15 minutes, until juices run clear when thigh is pierced with a fork or an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 165ºF, 45-55 minutes total.
- Transfer chicken to a cutting board and let rest 10 minutes, reserving pan juices to pour over the chicken when you are ready to serve.
I served this Roasted Peruvian-Style Chicken with black beans, rice, cabbage and cornbread. Yes, the meal was as good as it sounds!
Be inspired,
