Peruvian Roasted Chicken

A few days ago, I got an email letting me know that Whole Foods isn’t that expensive.  The e-mail contained two menus that fed 5 people for $25.  The first menu consisted of Peruvian Style Roasted Chicken with rice, salad and a dessert of Roasted Pears with honey.  I was intrigued.  Sure the $25 sounded good, but more importantly I’ve never made Peruvian style anything before.

While I didn’t do my grocery shopping at Whole Foods, I was impressed that the cost for the salad and chicken was indeed less than $25.  I had enough money to buy the pears but wasn’t really in a pear kind of mood.  I returned home with groceries and determination to make something new.  Below is the recipe for Peruvian Style Chicken, adapted barely from Whole Foods.

Ingredients

1 1/2 teaspoons canola oil, plus more for oiling the pan

1 1/2 tablespoons sweet paprika

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt

1 1/4 teaspoons ground black pepper

5 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 large sweet onions, peeled and thickly sliced

1 chicken, cut into 10 serving pieces*

1 red or yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded and cut into strips

1 lemon, sliced

* Note: If the chicken has been precut into eight pieces, simply cut each breast in half through the rib cage to ensure even cooking. Or, you can ask your butcher to cut a whole chicken into 10 pieces with breasts deboned.

Directions

Preheat oven to 425°F. Oil a large roasting pan and set aside. In a large bowl, combine paprika, cumin, salt, pepper, garlic, vinegar and oil to make a paste.

Dry the chicken then poke holes in it so it can soak in the flavor of the paste.  Rub the chicken pieces with the paste and place in prepared pan.  

Place onions in bowl with paste and toss until well coated.  

Cover the chicken with onions, peppers and lemon. 

Roast, basting occasionally with pan juices, until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are very tender, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest a few minutes before serving.  I served the chicken with rice, mixed greens and plantain.  It was scrumptious.

This chicken was AMAZING.  

The spice blend created a scent I’ve come to associate with restaurants or take out so it was awesome to be able to recreate this in my home.  I’ll probably still order from Flor de Mayo on occasion, but it’s nice to know what they’re putting in there.

Hungry yet?