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.
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 meat 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 1-2 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.
Where Pinchos come from
The bread on the tip is the Puerto Rican signature and it is functional: it toasts over the fire and soaks up the glaze and the drippings, and it is eaten last. Kiosks at Luquillo and Piñones have made the format a fixed part of island life, and the glaze recipes are guarded.
Puerto Rican pinchos: guava glaze and a bread-capped tip
Guava gives the island version away: barbecue sauce loosened with guava paste is brushed on only in the final minute or two, because its sugar burns. A chunk of toasted bread speared on the tip soaks up glaze and drippings and is eaten last. Chicken thigh or pork shoulder goes on in 3 cm cubes after hours in adobo and sazón. Spanish Pinchos morunos sit at the other end of the family, a bar tapa of 2 cm cubes in a cumin-pimentón paste served with lemon, while these are kiosk food ordered several at a time. Achiote colours the Pincho centroamericano as well, through a thick adobo with sour orange, but that skewer is eaten with warm tortillas and curtido.
Compare: Pinchos morunos · Pincho centroamericano
How Pinchos are cooked
The marinade and the glaze are two separate things and conflating them is the standard error. Adobo and sazón go on hours ahead as a wet rub — garlic, oregano, cumin, achiote, salt, a little oil and vinegar — and the sweet barbecue-guava glaze is brushed on only in the final minute or two, because its sugar burns.
The bread goes onto the tip toward the end so it toasts and picks up glaze without drying to a crouton. The skewers are grilled over moderate charcoal and turned regularly; the sugar in the glaze means the last stretch of the cook needs watching closely.
Ingredients and shopping
Chicken thigh or pork shoulder in three-centimetre cubes. Adobo — the Puerto Rican garlic-oregano-salt blend — and sazón, which carries achiote for colour. Both are sold ready-made and are used that way on the island.
For the glaze: a barbecue sauce loosened with guava paste or guava jelly, with a splash of vinegar or a little hot sauce if you like. Bread — a chunk of pan sobao or a small baguette — for the tip. Bamboo skewers, soaked.
How Pinchos are served
Off the skewer with the toasted bread eaten last, extra glaze or hot sauce, from a roadside kiosk. A cold Medalla. They are ordered several at a time and eaten standing, often with tostones or alcapurrias from the same kiosk.
Common mistakes
Glazing from the start
The sugar in guava and barbecue sauce burns black. It goes on in the last minute or two only.
Adding the bread too early
It dries to a crouton. It goes on the tip toward the end so it toasts and takes glaze.
Skipping the sazón
The achiote in it is what gives Puerto Rican pinchos their colour. Adobo alone leaves them pale.
Chicken breast
Thigh has the fat to survive a charcoal grill and a sugary glaze. Breast dries out.
Pinchos: questions and answers
What is sazón?
A Puerto Rican seasoning blend containing achiote, which gives the meat its characteristic orange colour. It is used alongside adobo.
Chicken or pork?
Both are standard. Use thigh rather than breast for chicken, and shoulder for pork — both need fat to survive the grill.
Sources and further reading
- Pinchos: Puerto Rico's Favorite Grilled Skewers — Go Puerto Rico
- Luquillo Kiosks, Puerto Rico — topuertorico.org (Puerto Rico travel portal)
