The best version of El Pollo Loco grilled chicken recipe! This recipe was inspired by the grilled chicken served up in Sinaloa Mexico. Made famous by El Pollo Loco restaurants, now you can cook these mouthwatering morsels in the backyard of your own home…
El Pollo Loco Grilled Chicken Recipe
Mexican Style Marinade
Marinade Ingredients:
- 1/2 Cup rice vinegar
- 1/4 Cup lime juice
- 1/4 Cup orange juice
- 1/4 Cup pineapple juice
- 2 tsp ancho chile powder
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1-2 pinches safflower
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1/4 tsp ground cayenne
- 1/4 tsp ground clove
- 1/4 tsp ground coriander (cilantro seed)
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
That’s a lot of ingredients – and a lot of great flavor! Grab a large enough bowl, and mix all of the wet ingredients separately, mix, and then add the dry ingredients. Whisk everything together.
For this grilled chicken recipe you will need a halved chicken. You can either get one pre-halved, or do it yourself.
Put the chicken halves in a zip lock bag. Pour the marinade into the bag, until the chicken is fully submerged. Seal the bag and move it around, to cover the chicken fully. Place in the fridge for 24 hours.
Grilling the Chicken
Time to fire up the grill! Set it up for cooking in the 350ºF range, preparing for 2-zone cooking.
Place the chicken halves away from the heat, and close the lid. Cook to a core temperature of 145ºF. At this point, rotate the chicen, so the other side faces toward the heat source, so you get even color.
Cook until core temperature hits 165ºF in the thigh and 161ºF in the breast. Pull the El Pollo Loco grilled chicken off the heat, and rest for ~10 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
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I know people who have worked at El Pollo Loco This recipe is NOT an El Pollo Loco copycat! This is more of a jerk chicken!
El Pollo Loco doesn’t use sweet spices like cinnamon, allspice and cloves!
Hello Maam, while we appreciate you for dropping by, no thanks for dropping shade. Here’s what we got for you..
Ummm yes, a copycat recipe is intended as an attempt to copycat the original, not be the actual original. If it were the original then it would be titled “Original El Pollo Loco Chicken Recipe”.
Also, spices like cinnamon, allspice, and cloves are commonly used in Jerk Chicken, however they are just spices with varying flavor profiles, none of which a true Chef or Pit Master would consider to be “sweet”. This type of mistake could only be made by a rookie who associates spices/flavors like cinnamon with things like Cinnabon or Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.
Best wishes Maam.
What is saflour?
It’s supposed to be safflower, it was spelled incorrectly, sorry about that. It’s a spice.
Recipe calls for 1-2 pinches saflour. Did you mean saffron or safflower powder. Both are sort of the same. Thanks.
Yes, you are exactly correct, it’s supposed to be safflower, it was spelled incorrectly, sorry about that.