Puerto Rico's beloved roadside skewer of chicken or pork marinated in adobo and sazon, grilled over charcoal, glazed with a sweet barbecue-guava brush and traditionally topped with a chunk of bread on the skewer tip. Sold from smoky kiosks along beach roads, it is the island's definitive grab-and-go grill food.
Also known as: pinchos puertorriquenos, Puerto Rican pinchos, pinchos de pollo, pinchos de cerdo, pincho skewers
Ingredients
- 700 g pork shoulder or chicken thigh, in 3 cm cubes
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp sazón with annatto (or 1 tsp sweet paprika plus 1/2 tsp ground annatto)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 120 ml barbecue sauce melted with 2 tbsp guava paste
- 1 small baguette, in thick rounds
How to make it
- 1
Marinate the pork in the garlic, oregano, sazón, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper for 4 hours or overnight.
- 2
Skewer four or five cubes per stick and grill over medium charcoal 12-15 minutes, turning until browned and just firm.
- 3
Brush twice with the warm guava-barbecue glaze in the final 3 minutes.
- 4
Toast the baguette rounds at the grill's edge and cap each skewer with one, roadside-style, to mop the last of the glaze.
Pro tip: Guava in the glaze is the Puerto Rican signature — apply it late and watch closely, because its sugars go from lacquer to charcoal in about a minute.
