Pollo Asado

Left uncovered in the fridge overnight to dry the skin, before any rub goes near it.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 chicken, about 1.8 kg, whole
• 4 guajillo chillies, soaked and drained
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 cloves garlic
• zest and juice of 1 orange
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 onion, quartered
• 2 potatoes, in chunks
• corn tortillas, as on their own page, to serve

Method

1. IT IS LEFT UNCOVERED IN THE FRIDGE OVERNIGHT TO DRY THE SKIN, BEFORE ANY RUB GOES NEAR IT. This is the step that decides whether a roast chicken has crisp skin, and it is the opposite of what the other chicken on this site needs. Chicken skin straight from the packet is damp, and damp skin in an oven spends its first twenty minutes steaming -- which sets it soft and pale, and it never recovers. Patted dry and left on a rack uncovered in the fridge for twelve hours, the surface dehydrates to something slightly tacky and parchment-like, and in the oven it blisters and crisps within half an hour. A wet rub applied first would defeat the whole thing, so the drying comes first and the rub goes on at the end, in oil rather than in juice.
2. THE RUB IS OIL-BASED AND NOT JUICE-BASED, FOR THE SAME REASON. The guajillo paste is let down with oil and only the zest and a spoonful of juice, and it is brushed on thinly just before roasting. The marinade-soaked approach belongs to the charcoal bird, where the heat is fierce and fast; here the skin has to stay dry.
3. IT IS ROASTED HOT AND THEN MODERATE, NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND. Twenty minutes at 220°C to set and blister the skin, then down to 180°C for fifty or fifty-five minutes to cook the bird through. Started low, the skin softens again before it ever gets hot enough.
4. IT IS NOT BASTED AT ALL. Basting is the other common enemy of crisp skin: every spoonful of liquid poured over undoes the drying. The oven door stays shut except to turn the heat down, and the vegetables underneath catch what the bird gives up.
5. IT IS RESTED BREAST DOWN FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES. Off the heat, turned onto its breast on a warm plate. The juices settle back into the breast meat rather than draining out of it, and fifteen minutes makes a clear difference to how dry the white meat is.
6. The chicken patted THOROUGHLY dry inside and out with kitchen paper.
7. Set on a rack over a tray and left UNCOVERED in the fridge OVERNIGHT, at least 12 HOURS. Nothing on it.
8. The soaked guajillos blended with the garlic, cumin, oregano, orange ZEST, 1 tablespoon of the juice, the oil and the salt to a thick paste.
9. The oven heated to 220°C. The onion and potatoes put in a roasting tin.
10. The paste brushed THINLY over the dried bird, just before it goes in. Not soaked.
11. The chicken set on top of the vegetables and roasted 20 MINUTES at 220°C.
12. The oven turned DOWN to 180°C and roasted a further 50 to 55 MINUTES. NOT basted, and the door kept shut.
13. TESTED with a knife into the thigh joint: the juice must run CLEAR.
14. Lifted out and RESTED BREAST DOWN on a warm plate 15 MINUTES.
15. The tin juices skimmed and poured into a jug.
16. Carved and served with the roast vegetables, the juices and tortillas.

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