Pollo Asado simply defined, is marinated grilled chicken. Found in both Cuban and Mexican cultures, the chicken can be prepared any number of ways, and in my neck of the woods, is usually found in the form of citrus marinated halved chickens, grilled over mesquite wood.
Since we were planning to make tacos, I went a slightly different route, and used boneless chicken thighs, and prepped and marinated them in the same way I do carne asada:
Boneless thighs:
Then dusted with carne asada rub:
After that, I squeezed the juice from a very large Valencia orange, poured it in a bag, then added the chicken along with cilantro and onion slices so it could take a nice bath in the savory mixture.
As dinner time approached, I fired up the Oval for the usual indirect cook along with a few chunks of oak:
Meanwhile, The Missus set everything up to start making homemade tortillas.
While she was working on that, I put the chicken on:
When the chicken was close to being done, I moved it to the hot side of the grill:
After I pulled the chicken, I let it rest for just a bit:
Then I cut it into strips. You can see how moist and juicy it was:
Time to make tacos. The tortillas were super soft and pillowy, just the way I like them. They may not be the prettiest tortillas, but they blow the doors off the best and freshest store bought tortillas any day of the week. We dressed the tacos with fresh pico de gallo, and hot salsa roja:
The tacos were superb! We'll be doing chicken tacos like this a lot more often.
Since we were planning to make tacos, I went a slightly different route, and used boneless chicken thighs, and prepped and marinated them in the same way I do carne asada:
Boneless thighs:
Then dusted with carne asada rub:
After that, I squeezed the juice from a very large Valencia orange, poured it in a bag, then added the chicken along with cilantro and onion slices so it could take a nice bath in the savory mixture.
As dinner time approached, I fired up the Oval for the usual indirect cook along with a few chunks of oak:
Meanwhile, The Missus set everything up to start making homemade tortillas.
While she was working on that, I put the chicken on:
When the chicken was close to being done, I moved it to the hot side of the grill:
After I pulled the chicken, I let it rest for just a bit:
Then I cut it into strips. You can see how moist and juicy it was:
Time to make tacos. The tortillas were super soft and pillowy, just the way I like them. They may not be the prettiest tortillas, but they blow the doors off the best and freshest store bought tortillas any day of the week. We dressed the tacos with fresh pico de gallo, and hot salsa roja:
The tacos were superb! We'll be doing chicken tacos like this a lot more often.
