Peruvian Chicken with Green Sauce

A traditional Peruvian chicken recipe uses the whole chicken, but in this recipe we’re going to use just chicken thighs.

You can basically break this recipe down into two main parts: 1) making the marinade and 2) making the green sauce. You’ll need a food processor or a blender for both.

The marinade for the Peruvian chicken is basically a blend of spices like cumin and paprika with some garlic and sugar. It creates that reddish amber hue based that brings beautiful color to the dish.

The creamy green sauce is out of this world. You might want to double the recipe and have the green sauce for other uses like to use for a burrito or simply on rice. You can add it to vegetables or even use it as a salad dressing. It’s essentially cilantro and jalapeños with creaminess of mayonnaise and sour cream. Once you have a taste, you’ll be making this all the time!

You can serve Peruvian chicken alone with some side dishes or, more traditionally, serve it on a bed of white rice topped with the green sauce. Again, that green sauce is sooooo good! If you want to take your white rice up a notch, try our Lime Rice recipe, which is similar to the white rice at Chipotle, only with no cilantro!

Looking for the perfect delectable dish? Try our Thai Coconut Green Curry Soup, Red Curry Chicken, or Thai Peanut Chicken Lettuce Wraps!

What You’ll Need for an Easy Peruvian Chicken Recipe

Start by getting all the ingredients together so you can have them on hand and make things go more smoothly. This recipe uses 2 lbs of chicken thighs.

Simple Peruvian Chicken Marinade

For the marinade, you’re gonna need:

• Garlic cloves: you don’t even need to mince the garlic cloves. You’re gonna toss them in the blender, but you do need to peel them. If you like your sauce, more garlic, feel free to add more than four garlic cloves to your taste. Keep in mind the garlic will be cooked along with the chicken.
• Soy sauce: If you don’t have soy sauce, on hand, you can add a half tablespoon of salt.
• Paprika: Paprika brings that beautiful red color to the Peruvian chicken dish. If you like your sauce, a little more spicy, feel free to add a bit more.
• Cumin: Cumin is the perfect marinade spice for chicken. Especially with the combination of sweet and spicy notes in this dish.
• White sugar: A bit of sweetness balances out this marinade perfectly.
• Dried oregano: The oregano season is another ideal spice for chicken.
• Extra virgin olive oil: A little olive oil will help keep the chicken skin from burning in the oven.
• Lime juice (juice from 2 limes): You can use about two limes for the marinade, which should yield 2 tablespoons. Don’t worry if you don’t get exactly that amount or you get a little more. This citrus flavor is perfect with the spiciness.
• Black pepper

Green Sauce for Peruvian Chicken

Just like with the marinade, you can tweak this green sauce recipe to fit to your liking. But this base recipe is simply phenomenal. You’ll need:

• Fresh cilantro: Give the cilantro a rough chop. You’ll be throwing it in the blender, so you don’t need to be precious about making it nice. You can reserve the stems for vegetable stock if you want.

• Jalapeños: D-stem the jalapeños and give them a rough chop. If you like the sauce to be very spicy. Add some of the seeds. The more seeds, the spicier. In this recipe, we left them out.
• Mayonnaise: Mayonnaise is one of two creamy elements in this green sauce recipe.
• Sour cream: sour cream also lends some creaminess. If you don’t have sour cream or would prefer a little sweeter, you can substitute Greek yogurt.
• Garlic cloves: a couple of garlic cloves gives the sauce some more punch, but remember you’re not going to be cooking the sauce so be careful if you tweak it for your taste. 
• Lime juice (juice from 1 lime): You’ll use another lime for juicing to yield about 1 tablespoon. So in total you’ll be using three limes. You might want to get one more for garnish. 
• Salt and black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil

How to Make Peruvian Chicken with Green Sauce

Rinse chicken thighs and pat dry. Prepare the marinade by combining all the marinade ingredients (garlic, soy sauce, paprika, cumin, sugar, extra virgin olive oil, black pepper, dried oregano and lime juice) in a food processor or blender.

Put chicken and marinade in a Ziploc bag and allow it to marinate for at least two hours, up to overnight.

Once the chicken has marinated and you’re ready to cook it, Preheat oven to 500°. Place chicken thighs in a roasting pan or baking dish and bake for 25 – 30 minutes until the chicken is 165 degrees. While the chicken is cooking, you can prepare the green sauce. (See below.)

If you’d like crispier skin, broil on high for about 2 minutes at the very end. Remove chicken with a pair of tongs and place the pieces on a serving tray.

Creamy Green Sauce

De-seed and de-stem the jalapenos and cut into large pieces. Rough chop fresh cilantro.

In a food processor or blender, add: jalapenos, cilantro, mayonnaise, sour cream, garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper. Blend on medium high until creamy. Continue blending and slowly add the extra virgin olive oil to emulsify.

Serving Peruvian Chicken with Green Sauce

One of the best ways to serve Peruvian baked chicken thighs is warm over rice, topped with green sauce.

Also try: Cream Cheese Chicken Thighs or classic Steak Bulgogi recipe!