Pollo a la brasa... divine pleasure!!!!!

One Peruvian dish that everyone here must have tried in Peru is Pollo a la Brasa and this to has an interesting story that surrounds it (the truth of which is debated). This story is also a tale of two immigrants from Switzerland, Roger Schuler and Franz Ulrich and begins in 1946 when Roger Schuler established a chicken farm in Santa Clara, Ate with hopes of selling the chicken to districts like Miraflores. His products were known as "Productos Avícolas de La Granja Azul” (Poultry products of La Granja Azul). 

However, 4 years later in 1950 business went sour meaning many chickens were not sold, fearing that he would lose more money he spoke with Franz Ulrich and together they devised a method of cooking chicken over algarrobo charcoal and marinating the chicken in panca, soy sauce, black mint, salt and pepper. Algarrobo comes from the Prosopis pallida tree which can be found throughout Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. To cook this chicken, they built a mechanised rotisserie to cook many chickens at one time, this system of cooking chicken became known as planetario. To gain the attention of the local people they placed a sign in front of the central railway that stated “Eat all the chicken you can for 5 soles!” and built a small rustic restaurant in his house. This small restaurant became known as La Granja Azul. 

What set La Granja Azul aside from restaurants at the time was that the place was generally cheaper than most restaurants, also at this time restaurant were seen as a place of luxury and prestige but with the introduction of a restaurant like La Granja Azul people were happy eating with their hands and could do so without criticism. It was not long till another Swiss by the name of Steinmann opened up a restaurant closer to the centre of Lima, he called it El Rancho and it implemented the same mechanised rotisserie that Schuler and Ulrich created. 

It was not until the 1970´s that Pollo a la Brasa became popular very soon many other restaurants that served Pollo a la Brasa popped up to keep up with the ever increasing demand. Each restaurant played with the recipe however, the method of cooking it remained the same. 

La Granja Azul which is still located in its historical place is still serving people today and to celebrate the creation and popularity of Pollo a la Brasa the 21st July has been named Day of Pollo a la Brasa. Statistics have shown that every month 12 million Pollo a la Brasa’s are sold nationwide also according to the INEI (The National Institute of Statistics and Informatics) 24.4 kilos of Pollo a la Brasa per a family in Peru was consumed in 2014.

Written by: Gringo Perú