Four tips and six recipes to prepare the best anticuchos

Whatever ingredients we use, when preparing anticuchos – skewers, fierritos or call them what you want – it is important to take into account some general considerations.

• First : if wooden chopsticks are used, it is advisable to immerse them in water for a few hours beforehand. This way they will get moist enough not to burn on the grill.
• Second : if instead classic irons are used, they must be cleaned very well after use and before storing them for future use. How do they wash? With dishwasher, well rinsed. But the most important thing comes later: after having dried them, it is essential to pass a little cooking oil over the entire surface – except the handle – and only then to put them away. This will prevent them from rusting.
• Third : if we are going to use red meat, white meat, fish or sausages, they must be cut into pieces of size as close as possible. Because? Only in this way can we achieve an equal degree of cooking in each of them.
• Fourth : forget the small irons that mix some meats with others, because in this mode it is also impossible to find an exact cooking point. In other words, if they are chicken, they are chicken; if it’s beef, it’s beef. The times are different in everyone and combining them will only make some pieces raw and some overcooked.

With all these precautions taken, all that remains is to start cooking. Charcoal, gas or electric barbecue? The one you prefer or have on hand, because you can make anticuchos in each of them. The rest is just picking a recipe – like the ones shown below – and tossing it around.

It is probably the most popular and favorite anticucho of all: the one that contains beef plus some vegetables, obviously some sausage, salt and patience.

Beef anticuchos (six or seven units)

—250 gr. seat or loin cut into cubes

—300 grams of grilled chorizo ​​cut into similar pieces

—1 large onion, quartered

—1 red bell pepper, cleaned and diced

—1 green bell pepper, cleaned and diced

—Salt and olive oil

In a bowl put the onion and the cut peppers, add a little olive oil and stir. Next, start assembling the anticuchos in the following order: one piece of onion, one of pepper, one of meat; onion, pepper, sausage; onion, pepper, meat… like this until they are full. Once ready, season with a little salt and cook on the grill over medium heat on each side, until they reach the desired degree of doneness.

For those who prefer a softer meat anticucho, without vegetables or other ingredients, this is an excellent option: pure pork, well marinated and ironed, which will be roasted slowly on the grill.

Pork anticuchos (five or six units)

—½ kilo of pork cut into cubes

—½ cup red chili sauce

—¼ cup red wine vinegar

—Salt and ground oregano

In a bowl, mix the chili sauce with the vinegar, plus a pinch of oregano and salt. Then pass the cubes of meat through it and start poking them in the small irons until they are finished. Finally, cook them on a grill over medium heat and on all sides, until the desired doneness is obtained.

Want something lighter? Chicken is a great alternative. Here the recipe.

Chicken skewers (five units)

—1 chicken breast cut into cubes

—1 onion, quartered

-2 finely chopped garlic cloves

—The zest of the skin of a lemon

—Salt and olive oil

Put the chicken breast cubes plus the onion and garlic cloves in a bowl. Season with salt, grated lemon zest and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Mix well and leave for half an hour at room temperature. Then alternate on the skewers (previously passed through cold water) a piece of onion with a piece of chicken until each unit is finished. Then cook on the grill over medium heat on all sides.

This recipe also has an Asian variation. For this, you just need to replace the olive oil, salt and lemon zest with sesame oil, soy sauce and a touch of honey, respectively. Different, but also rich.

For those who do not eat meat, the option of composing 100% vegetarian skewers is not only valid but also much cheaper. Be careful, however: it is advisable to favor vegetables with a certain consistency and a certain volume so that they can be well pricked on the skewer and then roasted correctly, without falling apart or deforming.

Anticuchos with vegetables (four or five units)

—1 Italian squash, cut into large cubes

—1 large eggplant cube

—1 onion, quartered

—1 red bell pepper, diced

—500 grams of whole mushrooms

—Salt, pepper and olive oil

Put all the cut vegetables in a bowl and season them with salt, pepper and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Mix well and leave for half an hour at room temperature. Then stick them on the skewers alternately, until they are all complete. Finally, mark them on the grill at medium temperature, since we only need the anticuchos to warm up and brown slightly.

They say that meat kebab It comes from a Quechua word that gives the name to the preparation made up of llama meat cooked on a small stick. Over time, this led to the traditional heart anticuchos, which originated in Peru and can be eaten in many parts of the world, including Chile.

This leads us to conclude that the original anticucho is Peruvian and is made with heart meat. How come? Here the recipe.

Heart anticucho (two units)

—250 grams of beef heart, cleaned and cut into cubes

—¼ cup aji panca paste

—1 finely minced garlic clove

—¼ cup red wine vinegar

—½ tablespoon ground oregano

—½ cup marigold oil

—Salt and cumin

Mix the chilli paste with the garlic, oregano, vinegar, a pinch of salt and the cumin in a bowl. Also add the oil and stir. Immerse the heart cubes in the mixture, cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for at least four hours.

After this time, remove the meat from the marinade and stick it on the sticks, then cook them for about five minutes on each side over high heat, constantly adding (using a brush) more of the remaining marinade on the skewers.

You can also make fish skewers, you just have to be careful to choose a kind of good consistency and, of course, cook it to the right extent on the grill, as indicated in the following recipe.

Conger eel skewers (two units)

—300 grams of conger eel cut into cubes

-1 finely minced garlic clove

—Salt, pepper, sweet paprika and olive oil

Put the conger cubes in a bowl and add the minced garlic. Season them with salt and pepper to taste, along with a touch of sweet paprika and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Stir and leave to stand at room temperature for ten minutes. Thread the fish cubes onto the skewers until they are full, then place them on the grill over medium heat. Cook on all sides until the fish is golden brown.

*Prices for products in this item are current as of August 30, 2022. Values ​​and availability may change.