Roasted chicken is far more common in Latin America than everyone else outside the region might think. The highest consumption is in Peru, where those retail outlets are ubiquitous. Peruvians love roasted chicken − it is a national dish.
I am kind of nerdy and I love to read about the origin of words. It is astonishing to see the wealth of a language and the multiple influences it has, particularly with Spanish.
I came across the other day the word ‘rotisería,’ which comes from French, rotisserie, which in turn originated form the verb rôtir, to broil or roast. In Southern Spain, rotisería means a “prepared foods store.” However, the word is extensively used in Latin America in countries like Argentina or Paraguay. Over there, a rotisería is a retail outlet that mainly sells ready-to-go roasted meats.
In Mexico and Nicaragua, it is spelled differently: rosticería. These outlets sell primarily roasted chicken, with a series of other goodies that you can add to it. Like in other countries, these broiled chickens are purchased on days when you do not have time to cook or simply don’t want to. It comes in handy and is a nutritious and tasty food.
In addition, it is even a type of chicken grown by certain producers – the rosticero chicken. In Mexico it is mainly a female chicken, with an average weight in the range of 1.2 to 1.6 kg. The rosticero chicken might be the most profitable bird to grow. Many would think that it doesn’t make sense to not let the chicken fully express its potential, but from the financial point of view, it does, particularly today with high raw material prices.
Interesting to see that the word broiler in English has the same link to broil or roast. Nowadays, broiler is a word that has been imported by many languages to designate the fattening chicken we grow now.
What do you think?
