Pollo al Carbón

The bird butterflied flat and weighted, so every part of it is the same thickness over the coals.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken, about 1.6 kg
• 60 g recado rojo, as on its own page, or achiote paste
• 150 ml sour orange juice, or 100 ml orange with 50 ml lime
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons salt
• corn tortillas, as on their own page, to serve
• salsa verde, as on its own page, to serve
• pickled red onion, to serve

Method

1. THE BIRD IS BUTTERFLIED FLAT AND WEIGHTED, so every part of it is the same thickness over the coals. A whole chicken is a lumpy object: the breast is deep, the thighs are deeper, the wings are thin, and on an open grill the wings are charcoal before the thighs are safe. The backbone is cut out with scissors, the bird is opened and pressed down hard until the breastbone cracks, and it then lies as a slab of roughly even depth. A weight on top -- a foil-wrapped brick, or a heavy pan -- keeps it in contact with the grill across its whole area. Everything then finishes within a few minutes of everything else, which is the only way a whole bird works over fire.
2. THE BACKBONE COMES OUT AND IS NOT WASTED. Cut out with kitchen scissors up either side. It goes in the freezer for stock; the point here is that removing it is what lets the bird open flat at all.
3. IT STARTS SKIN SIDE UP, AWAY FROM THE HOTTEST PART. The achiote marinade is full of sugar from the citrus and will blacken fast. Twenty-five minutes bone side down at the cooler side of the grill cooks the bird through from underneath; then it is turned skin down over the embers for the last eight or ten minutes to colour and crisp. Skin down from the start, the marinade is burnt long before the thigh is cooked.
4. THE PASTE IS LET DOWN TO A THIN LIQUID AND GOES UNDER THE SKIN AS WELL AS ON IT. Achiote in a lump stains the surface and nothing else. Mashed into the citrus juice until it pours, half of it is pushed under the breast and thigh skin with the fingers and the rest brushed over. Overnight, and the meat is orange right through.
5. IT IS DONE WHEN THE THIGH JOINT RUNS CLEAR, NOT WHEN THE BREAST IS READY. A knife into the deepest part where the thigh meets the body; the juice must be clear and not pink, and the joint should move freely. Timed off the breast, a butterflied bird is routinely underdone at the thigh.
6. The backbone cut out with scissors up either side. The bird opened out, skin up, and PRESSED DOWN HARD with both palms until the breastbone CRACKS and it lies flat.
7. The recado rojo mashed into the sour orange juice with the garlic, oregano and salt until SMOOTH and pourable.
8. HALF pushed UNDER the skin of the breasts and thighs with the fingers; the rest brushed all over.
9. Covered and left OVERNIGHT in the fridge.
10. A charcoal fire lit and let burn down, banked so one side is hotter than the other.
11. The bird laid BONE SIDE DOWN on the cooler side and WEIGHTED with a foil-wrapped brick or a heavy pan.
12. Cooked 25 MINUTES, the lid on if there is one.
13. The weight removed, the bird TURNED skin side down and moved over the embers.
14. Cooked 8 to 10 MINUTES, watched closely -- the marinade will colour fast and must not blacken.
15. TESTED with a knife into the deepest part of the THIGH JOINT: the juice must run CLEAR, not pink.
16. RESTED 10 MINUTES, then chopped into pieces through the bone.
17. Served with tortillas, salsa verde and pickled red onion.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes