Glamorous Peruvian Chicken

Glamorous chicken? Is that a thing, Laura?

Yes, my friends. It is if your chicken looks like THIS:
 

Money shot

 This is the Peruvian Chicken I waxed poetic about in the Peruvian-ish Halibut post from a couple of months ago. This particular chicken looks extra glamorous because I spatchcocked it, which is a fun word for a brutal-sounding task - cutting the back bone out of the chicken so it lays flat. This isn't a delicate procedure, but it's totally worth it. The chicken cooks faster, more evenly, and you almost double the crispy skin. Moment of silence for the kitchen shears that snapped halfway through the spatchcocking process. 

I also whipped up the life-changing green sauce to spoon all over the chicken. It's just so good! You  may have read about this recipe back in Jan, but let's go through it one more time for old time's sake.

 For the chicken:
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Juice from 2 limes
4 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons sugar
4-5 lb whole chicken, spatchcocked (see the original recipe linked above for cooking times if you choose not to spatchcock the bird)

Before

During

 

After

Combine all of the ingredients (except the chicken...please don't include the chicken) in a blender or small food processor, and blend until smooth. Remove the giblets from the inside of the chicken and pat the outside of the chicken dry with paper towels. If you're spatchcocking your bird I suggest referencing this video - I can say with full confidence it is 100% impossible to spatchcock a bird and take photos at the same time! 

Using your hands, loosen the skin from the bird over the breasts and legs (try not to tear it if you can!) and spoon about 2/3 of the marinade as evenly as you can under the skin. Spread the rest evenly over the skin. Marinate in the fridge for at least six hours - overnight if you can! 

 When it's roastin time, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place a rack in the middle of the oven and roast the chicken (skin side up) for 45-60 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. At the end I like to crank up the broiler to high, move the oven rack to a few inches underneath the broiler, and broil the chicken until the skin gets super crispy - about 3 minutes. Keep a close eye during this part, because it can go from crispy to charred super quick! Allow the chicken to rest 10 minutes before you carve (this part is hard but important). Carve the thighs off at the joint, and carefully carve the breasts from the bone.

Roasty

Roasty2.0

For the green sauce: 

3 jalapeño chili peppers, seeded and roughly chopped (keep 1/2 of the seeds if you want a medium-hot sauce)
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves and stems 
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3/4 cup Greek yogurt
Juice from 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon salt
A few cranks freshly grown black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

 Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and photograph in front of the Arnold Schwarzenegger poster in your kitchen. Blend until smooth, transfer to a bowl, and allow to thicken up in the fridge if desired. 

AHNOLD

Thing of beauty

 We had ours with some roasted sweet potatoes (thickly cut up 2 sweet potatoes, sprinkled with chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pep, and olive oil, and bake at 425 for about 20-30 minutes) and a handful of mixed greens - aka lazy girl salad. 

All day

Every day

Peruvian-ish Halibut

I moved to Seattle from DC almost 3 years ago, and the food I miss most - hands down - is Peruvian chicken. Specifically from Pollo Rico. Specifically specifically quarter dark meat, extra green sauce, fries, coleslaw, with a Sprite, eaten cross legged while sitting on the floor in front of my coffee table on a Sunday afternoon POTENTIALLY suffering from being over-served the evening before. (It's happened). Who's with me?!?

You think this would be a recipe for Peruvian chicken, right? It's not. We recently won the friends of friends of friends lottery and got a bunch of freshly frozen halibut, spot prawns, and dungeness crab from a family who goes on a yearly Alaskan fishing trip. They haul in so much fish that somehow even we get a piece of it - trickle down fishenomics. I was looking up different halibut recipes, but I just kept thinking about how I really wanted to eat it with this green sauce. So I made a few adjustments to my favorite Peruvian-style roast chicken marinade, threw the fish in, whipped up the green sauce, and hoped for the best!

Thankfully it was delicious - you should make it too!

You is kind, you is smart, you is important

You'll need:
For the fish:
 3 T extra virgin olive oil
Juice from 2 limes
4 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1/2 T kosher salt
2 t paprika
1 T cumin
1 t dried oregano
1 t sugar
1-2 lbs halibut (cod or swordfish would work, too)

For the green sauce:
 [Note - the original recipe calls for sour cream and mayonnaise, but I use all Greek yogurt and it is still super delicious]
2 or 3 jalapeno peppers, seeded (I keep about half of the seeds)
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3/4 cup Greek yogurt
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 t salt
2 T extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 F, and place rack in the center. Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a blender/food processor and blend until smooth. Pour over your halibut. Simple enough. You think I could've remembered to take a picture before putting it in the oven, amirite?

Epic food blogger styled photo

 Note that fish doesn't need to be (and really shouldn't be) marinated for a long time, like beef or chicken. I think it would be ok if the fish was marinated for about 30 minutes or so, but if you go much longer the lime juice might start "cooking" the fish. 

Cook the halibut for about 15-25 minutes, depending on the size of the fish. This hunk-o-halibut took about 20 minutes. 

While the fish is a-bakin, combine all of the green sauce ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer sauce to a bowl and allow it to thicken up in the fridge while you wait for the fish to bake. 

After the fish is done, allow to rest for about 10 minutes. I don't know if this is necessary, but I just did it. 

See? Peruvian-ish!

I served mine alongside some roasted root veggies and steamed broc, and went nuts with the green sauce.

So nice I posted this picture twice