A Brief History of Rotisserie Chicken

by Creative Commercial Creative Commercial Pty Ltd

Our mouth starts watering just by the mention of the name, rotisserie chicken or pollo la brasa, and we start dreaming of the delicious scent, emanating from burning coal. The crisp skin that wraps the juicy and soft meat is a wonder, which fuses so well with Andean yellow potatoes that have been fried to perfection. Meat/chicken prepared through Commercial Rotisserie also tastes very good, though you can do it at home as well.

The History

The story of how rotisserie chicken came into being dates all the way back to the year 1950. Roger Shuler, who was of Swiss origin, used to have a chicken farm close to Lima, the capital of Peru. With the earnings he made on the farm, he hoped to be able to provide for his family, but the farm kept going downhill in spite of all of his efforts. He thought that if he was not able to sell his chickens at a faster rate, they will die and he will lose all the money that he had put on the farm and chickens. This is when he got this brilliant idea of trying to sell the younger chickens.

For this purpose, he, along with this cook, invented a new recipe in the house. They marinated the chicken brine and then cooked the chicken on a slow heat using algarrobo coals. Spending an hour in cooking gave them the world famous result of chicken over coals or pollo a la brasa. Commercial Rotisserie Machine of today works on a similar principle.

Eat as much as You Want

Mr. Shuler announced, using a sign on his gate that people could eat as much chicken prepared over coals as they wanted for a paltry sum of 5 soles. And he did this without the commercial rotisserie machine which was yet to be invented.

People started coming and they were pleasingly surprised by the flavour which was being offered at such a low price. He was able to sell all his young chickens in the matter of a few days. However, Mr. Shuler had learned that the failure of one venture could open the doors to an even better venture. He called his business Blue Farm (Granja Azul).

A Challenge for Others

The fame that this business gained in a very short time proved to be devastating for other eating places. In those days, it was customary to eat using lots of utensils and decorum; restaurants used to be places of luxury. The fact that people could eat using their bare hands at the rural eatery weakened the fascination that people used to have for restaurants in Lima. No one used to be criticized if they wanted to get the very last strands of meat from the small bones of chicken at the farm. And if you so wished, you could ask for more absolutely with no worries of any additional costs. The beginnings of commercial rotisserie were being laid.

Very soon, rotisserie places started cropping in other parts of the city to cash in on the new recipe.