These Peruvian Grilled Chicken Skewers with Avocado Aji Verde Sauce are my favorite, so flavorful and great for summer grilling!
Peruvian Grilled Chicken
When I make these Peruvian Grilled Chicken Skewers at home, everyone is happy!! They’re so juicy, made with boneless, skinless chicken thighs and a spicy avocado aji verde sauce. The sauce is so good you’ll want to put this on everything! I’ve been putting it on my eggs, steak tacos, etc! It’s adapted from my favorite Peruvian chicken recipe with green sauce only easy to make all summer on the grill, especially for parties. Try it with rice and my quick black beans. Or make it with grilled corn salad. More grilled chicken recipes I love, Grilled Bruschetta Chicken, Cilantro Lime Grilled Chicken and one of my most popular, Grilled Pollo Sabroso.
Why This Peruvian Grilled Chicken Works
- Always a hit! These are a favorite with my picky husband and kids. And any meal that can make my whole family happy is a winner with me!
- Flavorful! The longer they marinate the better!
Avocado Aji Sauce Ingredients
To make my spicy avocado aji verde sauce, blend all the ingredients below:
- Avocado: for healthy fats and a creamy texture. I use 1 ounce which is about 1/4 small haas.
- Jalapeños: for spice. I like the sauce spicy, so I leave the seeds from the jalapeno in, but you can make it milder by omitting the seeds.
- Cilantro, for freshness and flavor.
- Liquid: Olive oil, white vinegar, water
- Aromatics: Garlic
- Spices: Cumin and salt
About the Spicy Avocado Aji Verde Sauce
The creamy avocado sauce made with jalapeños will be very spicy if you leave in the seeds, which is how I like it. A little goes a long way! If you prefer milder sauces, remove the seeds. This aji sauce will last 5 days in the refrigerator, so you can use it over anything from scrambled eggs and rice and beans to steak tacos and grilled chicken.
Peruvian Chicken Marinade Recipe
Combine all the ingredients below in a bowl or zip-locked bag and marinate the cubed boneless, skinless chicken thighs for at least 3 hours or as long as overnight. See exact measurements in the recipe card below.
- Light beer: I used Corona light, but Modelo or Dos XX would also work.
- Sazon with achiote: You can buy sazon from the supermarket or make your own sazon seasoning from scratch.
- White vinegar: If you don’t have regular white vinegar, swap it for apple cider vinegar.
- Spices: Cumin, salt, garlic powder, oregano
How to Make Grilled Peruvian Chicken
Here’s how easy it is to make them. See full recipe in the recipe card below.
- Put the chicken cubes on metal skewers. If you’re using wooden ones, you will need to soak them in water first. If you don’t want to make skewers, leave the thighs whole and skip this step.
- Preheat your grill to medium and oil the grates so they don’t stick. Grill the chicken skewers for about 5 minutes on each side, until the chicken is cooked through in the center.
What to Serve with Peruvian Grilled Chicken Skewers
- I usually serve this grilled chicken with white rice, and some of my favorite summer salads, like grilled corn salad and cucumber tomato salad.
- Try this with cilantro lime rice and my quick black beans. Or make it with Arroz Congri.
Most Asked Questions
- Can I make these chicken skewers with chicken breast? Sure, I love dark meat because it’s never dry but chicken breast will work fine too.
- Can I make chicken skewers in the air fryer? Yes, you can make them in the air fryer without the sticks. Air fry them 400F 12 to 14 minutes, shaking the basket halfway.
Your comments are helpful!! If you’ve tried this delicious grilled peruvian chicken recipe or any other recipe on Skinnytaste, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear your thoughts, variations and feedback. And if you took some photos of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can re-share on my stories!
More Latin Recipes You’ll Love:
- Peruvian Green Sauce
- White Beans with Aji Verde Sauce
- Lomo Saltado (Peruvian Beef Stir Fry)
- Air Fryer Empanadas
- Peruvian Chicken with Green Sauce
Peruvian Grilled Chicken Skewers with Avocado Aji Verde Sauce
Equipment
- metal skewers or bamboo skewers
Ingredients
- 2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 6 ounces light beer, I used Corona light
- 1/2 tablespoon Sazon, homemade or 1 Sazon packet with achiote
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
Avocado Aji Verde Sauce (makes 2/3 cup)
- 1 ounce avocado
- 2 jalapeños, stemmed, with seeds*
- 3 tbsp fresh cilantro
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tbsp white vinegar
- 3 to 4 tablespoons water
- 1/8 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus 1/8 teaspoon
Instructions
- Cut chicken into long strips. Place in a large bowl and marinade with beer, vinegar, sazon, salt, garlic powder, cumin and oregano. Marinate 3 to 4 hours or overnight.
- After it’s marinated thread onto 6 small metal skewers.
- For the Avocado Aji Verde Sauce, place all ingredients in a mini blender and puree until smooth, adding enough water so it’s pourable over the chicken. Refrigerate until ready to eat. Can be refrigerated up to 4 days.
- To grill the chicken, preheat the grill to medium and oil the grates. Cook chicken about 5 minutes on each side. Serve drizzled with sauce.
Fabulous recipe! Love the easy marinade and the sauce is soooo good so I doubled that recipe.
Served with your rice and black beans and some Peruvian roasted potatoes.
Not sure what I did wrong. Flavour was good but I thought there would be more if a spice coating maybe too much beer. Marinade was vert watery.
super good
This one was a home run. Leftovers would be great in a wrap! We served with canned black beans and grilled summer squash.
The chicken was so flavorful and the Avocado Aji Verde Sauce was so delicious. Will definitely make it again. Super easy and quick to cook.
Flavorful, moist, easy to make … there is nothing not to love about this chicken! Will be keeping the recipe on a short list of to do again recipes!
This recipe was fantastic ! I didn’t have chicken thighs so I used chicken breasts. It was tender, tangy and delicious. My husband – who has a limited palate and I struggle to find things he likes, cleaned his plate and took leftovers for lunch. Will definitely be in our rotation.
I am so glad you love it as much as we do!!
Adding to the rotation, for sure. This recipe is a 10! Full of flavor in visually appealing
looks awesome….can I use chicken broth instead of beer since my kids need to eat GF?
I think you should delete your comment because obviously it was not Gina’s error it’s yours for not properly reading. Giving it lower stars because you made an error is horrible.
Incredibly delicious! The sauce is very versatile—great on the chicken, of course, but it could serve as a dressing for salad/veggies as well.
Love this recipe! I put the sauce on everything (especially eggs!). Yum
Is it really just 1 oz. of avocado in the sauce?
Scroll to the bottom of the recipe, all the ingredients, with measurements, are there.
I accidentally read as 2 boneless skinless thighs and tripled amount of spice. Oh my lol
Delicious! Can the sauce be put in the freezer?
Not sure?
This was a huge hit. Made it for company and everyone loved it. The only thing I did differently was served the chicken thighs whole not cut up and skewered. Will be making this again!
My whole family loves this dish, especially the Aji Verde sauce. So yummy!!
Great chicken, great sauce. I cooked chicken using air fryer instructions.
Company worthy dish! This recipe has been a go to all summer. We serve it with cilantro lime rice, quick black beans and Mexican corn salad. Perfect for entertaining and a big hit.
Made this exactly as written and it was a huge hit! Everyone loved it and appreciated the freshness of the sauce. Definitely a keeper! Thanks you!
Very good taste!
Delicious! We also replaced the jalapeño with a poblano pepper once since that’s what we had and it had a similar flavor.
This recipient is so easy and so delicious! Will make it one of my go tos! As always you deliver wonderful healthy dishes!
Thank you!
Just tried this for a Labor Day cookout where we decided to expand beyond the typical burgers and dogs. It was FABULOUS! We’ll be making this every summer, probably multiple times.
I loved it, I air-fried thighs and put them on top of a salad. It was a dinner Salad. Was amazing.
Delicious! I used chicken breast cutlets instead of thighs on skewers. I also used Serrano peppers instead od jalapeno as that is what I had in my fridge. Spicy but super flavorful. Will definitely be making this again.
This recipe is perfection. It is so perfectly flavored. I made three slight substitutions (chicken breast instead of thighs, one jalapeno instead of two and a whole avocado in the sauce). I will definitely be adding this to our rotation.
This was a homerun meal!!!! Exactly what you want after a long day! I seared thin chicken breasts because I was lazy and didn’t want to mess with skewers, but gosh! It was good! I served it over cilantro lime brown rice and it was glorious!!!!
Can I bake this in the oven?
How long and at what temp?
This is totally inconsequential, but I noticed your aji sauce is completely blended and smooth. Mine has bits of cilantro in it! Any tips?
You need to blend longer
So easy and so good!!!
Excited to try this recipe this weekend. I have Sazón without Annatto. If I use this, will it greatly affect the flavor of the chicken?
Helpful to reference which book recipes are in unless they are website exclusive. I know I like to have the cookbooks in front of me and not a screen
Only online, most recipes in books are only exclusive to the books.
What could be substituted for the avocado? My mother is allergic to avocados.
Have you tried the peruvian green sauce? It’s delicious
where do you get the spices? Amazon?
I’m just curious- the recipe says 4 servings. It also says one skewer per serving- yet the recipe instructs you to make 6 skewers. Is this recipe really for 6 servings? I made this and it was delicious but just confused by amount of skewers made and 4 serving suggested.
I have the exact question!!!!
So sorry it is 6 servings, thanks for catching that!
This was absolutely delicious and the sauce was wonderful! I did marinade for 24 hours. Next time I am going to split some cornish hens and try I bet they will be awesome! Thank you !
Did you use a full packet of Sazon?
AMAZING!!! I used chicken breast instead of thighs and this was still so flavourful! My husband couldn’t get enough of the sauce and I think this is his new favourite. We saved half for leftovers a few days later and it was still as tasty as ever.
So happy you loved it!!
Is it 1 full packet of Sazon or just 1/2 teaspoon?
LOVED this!!
ST Arroz Congri was my side.
A delicious dinner- thanks Gina!
Great!!
So yummy! My boyfriend and I are sober and cooling with alcohol is something I shy away from; made the marinade with non-alcoholic Bud Zero and it was still great!
This was SO GOOD. I also used 1/2 avocado but otherwise changed nothing. I could absolutely drink that sauce and it would make me happy. Do yourself a favor and do the thighs over breast. The thigh is so juicy and just perfect.
I made this recipe for dinner and it is as delicious as it looks! The only changes I made were to use a poblano pepper instead of the jalapeños – hubby doesn’t like things too spicy, and added some veggies to the skewers with the chicken! It was pretty easy to make and was a huge hit!
This recipe was SO GOOD. I didn’t change anything. Came out so flavorful. I shared the recipe with my extended family and one of my cousins made it the day after I shared it with her, and she had the same reaction! This one’s a keeper. Paired well with the Mexican-inspired corn salad.
If making your own Sazon, how much should you use? You only mention the packet.
1/2T
So so SO GOOD! We will do this again! And that sauce… OMG. I’m thinking I’m going to grill up some shrimp too to drizzle with the sauce. And maybe put it on turkey burgers instead of any other condiment. Thank you!
This was an amazing summer dish! We loved this and the avocado sauce on the side was delicious. It was easy and we will be making this again. The chicken thighs didn’t dry out at all and it was a very impressive but simple meal.
These were so easy and had a ton of flavor! My kids even tried and liked the Aji Verde sauce. A definite keeper!
How much of the Sazon seasoning is used. Is it one packet or 1/2 tbsp?
If not using packet it is 1/2T.
The chicken turned out great. It marinated for about 24 hours and I cooked it on my 5 in 1 air fryer on the grill setting at medium. Super quick and delicious, and the Verde sauce accompanied the chicken very nicely. I ended up using 1/2 of a Haas avocado and just a pinch of the seeds from the jalapenos which gave it nice heat without being overpowering for me. I even got my daughter to eat it and she typically only likes chicken that’s be battered and fried – lol. I am going to play with reducing the amount of salt the next time around I am salt sensitive, unfortunately. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
So glad you liked it!
I am one of the weirdos that can’t stand the taste of soapy cilantro…. Would parsley work as a substitute? I struggle with recipes that call for cilantro.
wondering the same thing! have you tried parsley yet?
Wow! Flavor was spot on. Loved the addition of the avocado to the green sauce. Bone in chicken thighs were on sale this week so I used them instead. Took off the skin, marinated according to the recipe and grilled them whole. 10 minutes per side and they turned out perfect.
Made this for dinner tonight. We decided it’s a definite keeper. Very easy to make, tender and flavorful. I also like that it’s largely “do ahead,” so I can set things up, then have minimal work to do when it’s close to dinner time.
Delicious!!! I thought it would be hard to make the sauce but it was a cinch!
We marinated the chicken overnight and made this last night; it was really good!! Served with brown rice and a light salad. Will definitely make again!
Looks delicious! I will try this week.
Question, what do you mean by white vinegar?
Do you use white wine vinegar or distilled white vinegar? Thanks!
Distilled. 🙂
Put your air fry instructions in with the recipe.
Would this work with chicken breasts rather than thighs? Any recommended adjustments? Thanks so much. Your recipes are great!
I’d love to know about breasts instead of thighs also!
I made this last night. Since I didn’t have a lot of time I marinated and cooked the thighs whole (no cubing and putting them on kebabs). Also, my husband has Celiac disease so I subbed some white wine for the beer. And finally, because I started so late, I only marinated them for an hour and a half. Thank goodness I had the Sazon seasoning! All this to say, it still turned out delicious! I can’t imagine how much better it would have been if I marinated it overnight and one day, I’ll find out. The avocado jalapeño sauce was perfect. I also made the rice and black beans recipe as a side. The sauce topped that great. (I doubled the sauce because I knew my family would scarf it down!)
Thanks Gina! I love that your recipes turn out delicious every time even when I can’t follow them to a “T”!
So happy you enjoyed it Laura!!!
Can we airfry this instead of grilling? If so, what temperature and for how long?
Sure! If you keep them whole, 400F 14 minutes, turning halfway.
I have a new stove which comes with an oven air fryer. Must I keep chicken pieces whole or can I use the strips as the recipe suggests for grilling? I have a rectangular basket I can use on top of a cookie sheet. So I can shake it half way thru. Cook about 14 min.?
Looks fabulous. Can’t wait to try b
Strips or whole, doesnt matter either way as thigh meat is very forgiving. 14 min should do it!
I’m just curious- the recipe says 4 servings. It also says one skewer per serving. Yet the recipe instructs to make 6 skewers. Is this recipe really for 6 servings?
Beer has barley, which is a gluten. I was considering substituting chicken broth. What are your thoughts?
Ahh good point!! You can omit the beer here, it will still be ok!
Is this one avocado????
it’s 1/4 small haas
Is there any way to make this recipe Celiac friendly? It looks delicious and I would love to try it!
I dont think anything here has gluten
I’m celiac too and I use a gluten-free beer instead. Turns out great! You can call around to your local liquor store and see if they have any in stock.
Can’t wait to try this! That sauce is amazing, and what a great way to use it up for a bbq!
I think the servings, calories or the amount of chicken is off compared to the calories. 2 lbs of chicken for 4 servings is 8 oz of chicken thighs each serving, which on its own is 300 calories.
Thanks I just updated!