Chicken al Pastor is a variant of the more famous pork al pastor.
⭐Al Pastor (which means “shepherd style” in Spanish), is a popular pork dish in Central America where the pork is marinated in pineapple, chilies, achiote paste, cumin, and oregano, then stacked and vertically roasted on a spit that slowly turns with a pineapple on top that bastes the pork with its juices.
⭐The concept of Al Pastor was brought to Central Mexico by Lebanese immigrants in the early 1900s. They cooked their thin cuts of meat stacked together in a cone shape on a vertical rotisserie, known as shawarma, just like Greek gyros and Turkish doner kebab.
It is a dish that comes directly from a movie, which I have already mentioned: @themenufilm
The Third course of the dinner in the movie: Memory
▶There is an elderly woman in the room who just keeps drinking wine alone. She is chef Julian’s mother and he himself tells a sad anecdote from his childhood.
He narrates that when he was little, he witnessed the violence used by his drunken father against his mother, almost killing her by tying a shoelace around her neck.
The child intervened by injuring the parent in the leg with a pair of scissors stuck in his thigh.
All that pain is poured into Memory, a dish that includes:
▶ Smoked Bresse chicken thigh al pastor and tortillas with traditional masa
There are two elements: the infamous scissors embedded in the meat and a secret for each table of diners printed on the tortillas.
▶Bresse chicken is a true excellence of French tradition and is distinguished by its white plumage, blue legs, and red comb, I used a free-range chicken for what in Mexico is called Chicken al pastor.
If you want to find out more about the movie’s plot, I invite you to search for another recipe on the blog that is found in the film:
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 9 Hours
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 6 people
- Cooking methods: Grill
- Cuisine: Mexican
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 6 chicken thighs
- 1 pineapple
Tools
- 6 Metal Skewers
Steps
For traditional tortilla preparation, follow the recipe HERE.
Season the chicken thighs with a mix of onion, achiote paste, lime, salt, oregano, pepper, cumin, garlic, chili, and 1/3 of the blended pineapple.
Keep in the fridge for at least 6 hours.
Do not discard the marinade.
Using 2 skewers for each kabob.
Cut the rest of the pineapple into cubes.
Skewer about 3 halves of thighs, then a half pineapple ring and repeat, alternating with pineapple and thighs, ending with pineapple.
Repeat to make a second and third kabob or until ingredients run out.
GRILL
Preheat the grill to medium-high heat.
Clean the grills and generously oil them with olive oil.
Once hot, add the skewers and grill for 4-5 minutes.
Flip the skewers, brush them with the marinade, grill the other side for another 4-5 minutes.
Continue cooking until the chicken reaches 149°F, turning every 5 minutes.
BAKE
Preheat the oven to 392°F.
Place in a baking dish
Bake for 30 minutes, then flip the skewers.
Brush the skewers with some marinade.
Bake another 15-20 minutes or until the chicken reaches 149°F.
then in grill mode, grill for 3-5 minutes per side.
Let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving accompanied by tortillas.
The scene from the movie “The Menu” from which the recipe is taken:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j87mkesLZ4o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j87mkesLZ4o
You can also find the DVD online.

