Peruvian Roast Chicken with Green Sauce

Peruvian Style Roast Chicken with Green Sauce©KevinAshton2025

The idea of creating this recipe began when I was planning our annual family barbecue, that was held this year over at my brother’s house. Of course, being a chef I couldn’t just throw a few burgers on the barbie, so I put together a menu with Smoked Salmon and Spinach Quiche and this Peruvian style of roast chicken, amongst other dishes.  Some versions of this dish spatchcock the chicken to make it cook quicker but I prefer to roast my chicken whole to keep all of the juices inside!

The dish is simple enough; a spicy marinade to rub onto the chicken the night before and wonderful contrasting spicy yet citrusy dipping sauce.

Peruvian Style Roast Chicken with Green Sauce©KevinAshton2025

Ingredients for 1 chicken

1 medium (1.5-1.6 kg) whole chicken,

Marinade Ingredients

12 g fresh peeled garlic

2 Tbsp dark soy sauce

Zest and juice of 1 large lime

1 teaspoons chilli powder

1 Tbsp Chilli paste

½  tablespoon smoked paprika

3 g fresh oregano or ½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground

1 ½  tablespoon clear honey

2 Tbsp virgin olive oil 

Green Sauce (Aji Verde)

4 cloves garlic, chopped

27 grams jalapeños, seeded and diced

30 g fresh coriander

10g fresh basil, chopped

½ teaspoon ground cumin

60g  Queso Fresco or Feta*

20g padano grated

Zest and juice 2 large limes

4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon white sugar

Cold water if sauce too thick

Peruvian Style Roast Chicken©KevinAshton2025

Method:

  1. Put all of the marinade ingredients into a small food processor and puree for 3-4 minutes until well mixed.
  2. Pat dry the chicken with paper towels (so the marinade sticks well) and place the chicken into a large container that fits into your fridge.
  3. Rub the marinade all over chicken and refrigerate for up to 12 hours, until you are ready to roast the chicken.
  4. When you are ready to roast preheat your oven to 200℃
  5. Rub 1 Tbsp olive oil onto a roasting tray (so the chicken does not stick during cooking).
  6. Roast at 200C℃ for 20 minutes then baste the chicken. Turn the heat down to 185℃ and continue to cook. Baste the chicken about 4-5 times during the roasting to keep moist; you can turn it over if you wish.
  7. After about 1 hour 20-25 minutes the chicken should be cooked and skin crispy. Check with a food thermometer probing into the thickest part of the breast and legs, it should read 75℃ (167 F).
  8. Cut the chicken into quarters or to desired pieces. Serve with the (Aji Verde) green sauce and a tomato salad.
  9. I did also make some handcut fries to serve with my peruvian chicken so I’d have something else to dip into the delicious green sauce.

Peruvian Green Sauce (Aji Verde)

  1. Whilst the chicken is roasting make your green sauce in a food processor or blender – add garlic, jalapenos pepper, coriander, basil, cumin, Feta cheese, padano cheese, lime juice and zest, and oil.
  2. Blend on high speed until pureed. Add more oil as needed. Taste and adjust seasoning and salt to taste. Refrigerate until ready to use.

*Cheese Notes:

In Peru they often use Queso Fresco in their Aji Verde (green sauce).  Queso Fresco is a fresh un-aged cheese, similar to feta, which is why I chose to use Feta in my recipe.   In some recipes you will find mayonnaise as the binding agent but I prefer to use the cheese for a cleaner less calorific sauce.

Chefs Notes:

You may have noticed in recent months I try to be exact in my recipe measurement rather than say 2 onions or 2 chilli peppers in my hope you can re-create my dishes at your home.

31 thoughts on “Peruvian Roast Chicken with Green Sauce”

    1. Thank for noticing that. As I mentioned in the post there are a lot of recipes that list the ingredients in numbers rather than weight and of course that can make a big difference to how the recipe turns out.
      Best Wishes
      Kevin 🙂

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    1. The great thing about the online cooking lessons that I have been teaching for the last 2 years is they force me to step out of my comfort zone and learn new dishes. This is a journey I am really enjoying!
      Best Wishes
      Kevin 🙂

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