This recipe for pollo asado(oven roasted chicken) is good for any night of the week! It can be as simple or as fancy as you like. On taco night simply serve it with flour or corn tortillas and your favorite salsa. For a more sit down dinner, serve with roasted vegetables and a salad. Delicious both ways!
Chicken Dinner Tonight!
My followers ask often for new ways to prepare chicken. Chicken is fairly inexpensive and kid friendly in most cases. This could also be prepared on your outdoor grill if you don’t want to heat up your kitchen. Sear on direct heat source and then move to the cool side of the grill. Cook with lid closed for one hour more or less.
Can’t find dried red chiles!
In a pinch, you can easily prepare an adobo using a good quality chile powder. Simply pour in half cup of chile powder into the blender. Add 1 cup boiling water and let it sit for a few minutes. Add garlic, salt, pepper, oregano to taste and blend until smooth. Mix in a 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar. Taste for salt.
Want More Flavor??
I didn’t do it this time, but most often do! Toast the dried chiles on a preheated surface just until the blister lightly and become aromatic. Never leave them unattended or they can burn and taste bitter.
Pollo al Horno
Equipment
- Oven proof skillet
Ingredients
- 6-8 chile California or guajillo peppers dried chiles
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 large white onion
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/4 vinegar apple cider or white
- Salt to taste
- 1/4 cup Oil
- 3 1/2 pound roasting chicken
- Granulated garlic
- Fresh cracked pepper
- 2 Limes sliced into thin rings
- Cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Remove the stems and seeds from the dried chiles. If they look dusty, wipe them down with a wet paper towel. Transfer the chiles, 1/4 section of onion, 3 cloves of garlic and 4 cups of water to a sauce pan. Bring up to a boil at medium heat. Reduce heat ans continue cooking for 10 minutes. Let cool. Slice the remaining onion and reserve.
- While the chiles cool, prep the chicken. On a large cutting board, take a pair of kitchen scissors and carefully cut the back bone off from the whole chicken. Open up the chicken, butterflied. Season with salt, pepper and garlic lightly on both sides. Set aside.
- Drain the water from the chile mixture and transfer to the blender. Add 1 tsp cumin, 1 teaspoon oregano,1/4 cup white vinegar, 1 cup tap water and salt to taste. Blend on high until very smooth. Transfer to a sauce pan and heat below medium for 10 minutes. Taste for salt. Let cool.
- In a large, oven proof pan, heat 1/4 cup grapeseed oil to medium heat for 5 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Sear the chicken, skin side down for 5-6 minutes. Flip it over and sear the other side. Baste the chicken with red chile sauce/adobo as you sear it. Add the reserved onion, chopped cilantro and sliced lime around the chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with a little oil.
- Transfer to preheated oven. Roasted uncovered for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until internal temperature of thighs reads 165 degrees F. Baste the chicken with more adobo-sauce as it roast. Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes before slicing. Serve chicken with your favorite sides like rice, beans and a salad. Or just break out the warn tortillas and salsa!
Notes
Reader Interactions
Comments
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This sounds really good. May just have to try this weekend.
i have a few packages of DONA CHONITA SALSA DE CHILE GUAJILLO RED CHILE SAUCE. I buy it on Ebay. Could i add your spices to this sauce and proceed with the recipe instead of making my own chile sauce?
Bravo, excellent recipe, muy sabroso. Definitely a keeper. I am wondering, is it a good idea to cook breast side down? I was taught breast side down cooking produces juicier breast meat as the juices flow down during cooking. Also, I left the chicken skin on the chicken as the recipe calls for. My preference is to not eat chicken skin and I removed it before eating the chicken, most of the delicious flavorful basting sauce came off with the chicken skin. Any ideas how to cook without the skin on? Seems there would be an obvious answer, but I dont know, will the chicken dry out?
I rarely eat the chicken skin as well. But for this recipe, I did. I purposely leave it skin side up to crisp the skin slightly. You can season under the skin with chile sauce before searing and roasting.
Made this last night, it was terrific and i love the fact that it is all made in one pan ! 5 Stars !
Thank you so much for the feedback Paul!
I tried this recipe tonight. It was great! I could not find the Recommended Chili’s in my small town, Arcata California. I had to settle for a chili called “New Mexico” Chili. It worked but could have used more of kick which would have probably been found in the right chilies. Nevertheless, it was great and I’m excited to do this again when I can locate the correct chilies. My house smelled so delicious! It was easy and fun. I think this recipe would be fantastic on the barbecue. Thank you!
If you would like it more spicy next time Katherine, you could add a few dried chile de arbol. I love chile New Mexico too! Thank you for the feedback!