Chicken with potatoes: this will be the largest festival dedicated to grilled chicken

Peruvian gastronomy is rich and diverse, but when it comes to choosing a dish among all that variety, there is one that is inevitable on our tables, and that is undoubtedly the grilled chicken. Although it is the fixed order for celebrations, family reunions and important dates (it even has its own day!), this simple combination does not need excuses to enter our menu; however, to Nachi Benza, creator of the FILO gastronomic festival, it seemed that the proximity of the National Holidays would be an excellent setting for the first edition of the event dedicated exclusively to this flag dish.

Since its creation in 2017, FILO has been gaining more and more followers for its theme dates. The ceviche and the hamburgers, for example, have already had their own editions, and the grilled chicken was always a card up the sleeve, only it required polishing logistical issues to be a reality.

“Grilled chicken was always on our minds, but because of the ovens, we never considered it as a very viable option. Talking in all this time that we already have with the event with friends from chicken shops, they told us that they could move their things and we saw that the issue of the ovens was not going to be an inconvenience. So, more than for Grilled Chicken Day (which is celebrated in July), we decided to do it on this date for the National Holidays,” Benza told Provecho.

There will be 15 restaurants that will participate in the ‘pollera’ edition of the festival that has been baptized with great precision as “Pollito con papas”. From the ultra classic Roky’s, Villa Chicken and Mediterráneo to new bets such as Tori and Pollos Guapos will be part of the event, which chose its participants also considering the popular voice.

“We support each other a lot in our community (on social networks). In fact, every time we go to do an event and the theme is already selected, we start asking our own FILO community who their favorites are. Logically, in addition, we have been working on this for a long time and we know who the most loved or well-known are”, explains Benza.

different flavors

Although grilled chicken is the star of this edition of FILO, each participating restaurant has different profiles and different ways of preparing this dish. And they not only arrive with the traditional bet, but with their own adaptations of this classic and ‘B’ dishes to accompany it.

“Each restaurant has 2 dishes, in total there will be 30 different dishes to choose from, and each one has its star after the chicken. There are those who are wearing anticuchos, others tequeños of different types. There are a couple that are bringing pasta to accompany the grilled chicken, which seems to me to be a totally different combination and I think that for Peruvians, grilled chicken with pasta can work very well. One option is huancaína, another is pesto”, says Benza.

The “Pollito con papas” festival will also motivate diners to rediscover a tradition that is no longer so present in chicken shops: that of the aguadito. “It was common that in the chicken shops of yesteryear you would find the aguadito, which was made to take advantage of the chicken carcasses. That was lost over the years, but there are chicken shops that are now going to carry aguadito”, says the organizer

A great call is expected

After the COVID-19 pandemic, FILO has been organizing various events as part of its own revival, including an ‘online’ edition. The first physical event was held in October 2021 for 1,500 people in Páchacamac. In addition, there was also the event dedicated to cebiches, held on the Costa Verde, and Volume 4 of the Burger Fest, held in May. However, with “Pollito con papas”, Benza hopes to have the largest FILO call, not only post-pandemic, but in the history of the event.

“Before the pandemic, we were experiencing a fairly strong flood. At the last event we had, which was a Burger Fest, there were 8,500 people. The trend was to continue growing”, explains Benza, who hopes to resume this growth thanks to “Pollito con papas”. “This is going to be our biggest FILO in the history of all of our events. We expect between 12,000 and 15,000 people”, says the businessman about the festival that generates natural expectation among the thousands of fans of grilled chicken.

“It is the most consumed dish by Peruvians, the restaurant that is repeated the most anywhere in the country. In addition, the space chosen, the Exhibition Park, is perfect. It is a giant space, open and central. It lends itself to this celebration”, says Benza.

IMPORTANT DATA:

• FILO will be held on Saturday, July 30 at the Exhibition Park.
• The festival will also feature live music by the bands Bareto, Hey Hey Camagüey, Orquesta La Picante and Los Smiks.