Pollo al Ataud (Coffin Style Chicken)

 

Coffin Roasted Chicken

Mexicans are obsessed with death. It is probably the one true thing that fascinates and intrigues us all. Death is part of our heritage; our traditions are plagued with notions of death, which is believed to be a right of passage to new life and other worlds. Ancient cultures in Mexico left detailed descriptions of several underworlds that a soul would go through to reach the place in which the soul would be cleansed and reborn again. The harshness of those underworlds would depend on how the person would have died. When someone first mentioned to me the idea of roasting chickens in a coffin, I didn't think it was weird, if any, I felt curious about it, after all, I come from traditions such as 'pan de muerto' (bread for the death), 'calaveras' (sugar skulls) and 'Momias de Dulce' (candy mommies).

My portion of chicken

I heard so much about how delicious anything cooked in a coffin is, that as soon as I arrived home, I asked for a master class on coffin roasting. I must begin by telling you that an 'ataud' (coffin) has little or no resemblance to the real thing. A roasting coffin is a box made of stainless steel in the inside and wood in the outside that is reinforced with steel in the corners. Depending of your needs, this roasting coffin comes in different sizes. I went to Edmundo Perez, master of the grill in my family and he showed me the secrets of his home made 'ataud'. Check my facebook page here to get detailed pictures of the coffin and the afternoon we spent making this dish!

The coffin heating up

If you don't have the inclination to make a 'coffin' for this recipe, I suggest you cook it in one of those cast iron pots with lid that are quite popular at the moment. Just add a teaspoon of olive oil (if you have chili and garlic oil it would be nice too) and 1/4 cup of beer (lager preferably). Put it in the oven at 130 degrees for 2 hours for similar, although not identical results!

You can also use this marinade to cook the chicken on the bbq!

Pollo al Ataud
(Coffin Style Roasted Chicken)

Equipment:

Blender

A roasting coffin

Togs

1 bag of charcoal

wood

oven gloves

Ingredients:

Mundo with the chicken!

For the marinade:

1 tbs of dry oregano
20 grams of achiote paste (sold online here)
1/4 cup of lime juice freshly squeezed
1/4 cup of orange juice freshly squeezed
1 tsp of salt
2 garlic cloves peeled
1 tsp of chilli flakes (optional)

For the chicken:

1 full chicken (I prefer organic or corn fed)
4 or 5 good size potatoes

Onto the Cooking:

The chickens inside the coffin

Preparing this chicken is really simple, the secret is to marinade the chicken overnight, so start by preparing the marinade the day before you are going to cook the chicken, it truly enhances the flavour and tenderness of the meat  if you marinade it overnight. Liquidize all the ingredients for the marinade. Put the chicken in a chopping board and 'break' the breast bone with a good pair of scissors or a good knife so that the chicken is open or flat (don't worry if you can't do this, it would taste nice either way, but this makes it easier to marinade evenly).

Full view of the 'Ataud'

Put the chicken in a big resealable plastic bag (or a bowl if you don't have one), pour the marinade over the chicken and make sure that every part of the chicken has marinade on it.  Close the bag and leave it in the fridge overnight, if you can, turn the chicken a couple of times to make sure everything has a chance to be in contact with the marinade. Mundo recommends to marinade the chicken the longest possible on the breast side, as this is the driest side of the chicken.

The following day, when you're ready to cook the chicken, drain the marinade but don't discard it and set the chicken aside. Wash the potatoes but don't peel them, rub them in the leftovers of the marinade and set them aside. If you are using an 'ataud' (coffin), assemble it about four hours before you want to eat by placing the first of  the roasting grills in the bottom of the coffin. Then place the second grill on top and fill it with bbq charcoal and lit it up.  Leave it for about one hour as this process will heat up the coffin and the grill at the bottom. The charcoal must be treated the same way as you would in a BBQ.

The chickens ready!

After the hour, carefully take the grill with the charcoal out and set it aside. Place the chicken and the potatoes in the bottom grill and put the grill with the charcoal back on top. Wood is added at this point. The chicken will slowly roast in the coffin for an hour, then take the top grill with charcoal out and turn the chicken and potatoes, put the grill with charcoal back on and let it roast for another 45 minutes to an hour, by then it should be ready to eat! The third grill can be placed on top of the one with charcoal and wood to heat tortillas, roast some thinly sliced courgettes or anything else you need to heat up. At the end, the chicken is tender, juicy and truly scrumptious! Serve with a portion of Mexican Red Rice or a fresh salad.

I want to thank Mundo for his advise and help with this posting. I had a great time watching him work and the meal was outstanding!