Pollo ala Brassa, aka 'Peruvian Chicken'

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Wow.  Not sure how I never saw this post before today.  Really cool that Anthony Bourdain randomly went in El Pollo Rico.  I made sure to stop by there in September when I was in DC for a friends wedding.  Same amazing chicken as usual.  I'll have to try out the recipes posted on the first few pages of this thread.

Here is the recipe that I finally found that I think if the closest to El Pollo Rico that I've tried so far.
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/08/peruvian-style-grilled-chicken-with-green-sauce-recipe.html

[MikeRocksTheRed]

Here's proof I was there! 




Sent from my iPhone using Weber Kettle Club mobile app

[56MPG]

Dang it, now I'm hungry. I was there with a couple fellas last Friday. Really good eats. Thanks for the link - I'll put this one on the short list.

[mike.stavlund]

Hey, @addicted-to-smoke , I am sorry for the confusion. 

I have two sources of heat-- a major one, and a minor one. 

The major source is the one I cook the chicken with-- charcoal baskets positioned right *next to* the chicken.  If you've been able to scrounge up a couple of the old school wire-style charcoal baskets, you have the best situation.  I set mine on top of a beater cooking grate to hold them up next to the chicken. 

The minor source of heat is just for flavor.  I realized that one of the key flavor components of pollo a la brasa is the smoke created from the chicken fat/juices falling off the birds.  So I put a very small charcoal pile all the way down on the regular cooking grate.  Not a huge fire, just one big enough to be soaked with chicken juices for about 40 minutes before it's finally snuffed out.  This doesn't really add much heat to the fire (especially since it's constantly hit with liquids) but it does make some really yummy smoke.  When I figured this out I was that much closer to the real thing.