If you’re looking for a way to make your next gathering easier, ordering catering from Alpaca Peruvian Charcoal Chicken is a great idea. The food at the Peruvian pollería is so good.
For more, check out all of our restaurant reviews.
I’m one of those people who likes to make everything. If it’s possible to make it home, I want to make it.
So anytime we host a party or we get invited to a party, there’s a very good chance I’ll make a few things. I just enjoy it and I like having an excuse to make food — especially cute food.
But, not everyone is like that. And if you’re not that type of person, but you are in charge of this year‘s Friendsgiving (or you’re going to one where you need to bring a dish), we have a solution for you: Alpaca Chicken catering.
We actually didn’t know that until we were invited to a Friendsgiving at Alpaca Chicken in Wilmington, NC by Tabletop Media (the company that handles Alpaca Chicken’s PR). We went with no expectations and were so impressed by the food that we will absolutely be back.
The black beans were some of the best black beans in my life. When we were done eating, I had to ask what the secret ingredient in them is.
It’s not love (I mean, there’s probably love in there, but that’s not the secret). One of my friends asked me if the secret ingredient is alpaca.
It’s not that either.
If you like the idea of having your next party catered, Moe’s Original BBQ also does catering in similar areas as Alpaca Chicken.
We got to check that out a couple years ago when we hosted a big party and it was a huge hit.
Alpaca Chicken History
This Alpaca Chicken review is based off our experience at the Wilmington, NC location.
So a brief little history about Alpaca Chicken. We’re calling it that, because we are on an informal basis with the restaurant now, however, its official name is Alpaca Peruvian Charcoal Chicken.
Spoiler alert: It sells chicken.
It’s actually a pollería, which is a Spanish term for a restaurant that sells chicken. They’re very popular in Peru where pollo a la brasa, a 24-hour marinated whole chicken, is cooked on a rotisserie spit over wood charcoal.
The easiest way to think about it is just like Italians are known for pizzerias that serve (of course) pizza and Mexicans have taquerias that serve tacos, Peruvians have pollería that serve pollo a la brasa.
I didn’t just come up with that on my own. Fabian Llamas, co-owner of Alpaca Peruvian Charcoal Chicken, said it in an interview I read.
Speaking of Fabian, you may recognize his name. Well, in part.
The Alpaca Chicken location was previously Fabe’s Charcoal Chicken. There was another location in Southport too.
Okay, let’s take a step back to 2007.
Nora Palma, an immigrant from El Salvador, was a year shy of retirement when she moved from Washington, DC to Durham, NC to open a Latino-focused Administrative Services store.
She became immersed in the Durham area and decided to open something it was lacking: a pollería. With her children, she opened Mami Nora’s in 2007. Four years later, Mami Nora’s opened a location in Raleigh and the restaurant just kept expanding through North Carolina.
Nora finally retired in 2015 and passed the restaurant to her children, Ruby and Ranbir. The children sold one Raleigh restaurant to a family member and kept the rest, but lost the name. Mami Nora’s became Alpaca.
Fabe’s Charcoal Chicken was a sister restaurant to Alpaca Chicken, in that Fabian’s sister is married to Ranbir Bakhshi.
So, it makes sense that, eventually, Fabe’s was folded into the Alpaca Chicken restaurant chain, which now has expanded to 19 restaurants in North Carolina.
We met Fabian at our Friendsgiving meal and he was so kind and personable, just the type of person who you’re happy to see succeed.
Alpaca Chicken Food
The draw of Alpaca Chicken is, of course, the chicken.
It’s marinated for 24 hours, seasoned with a spice blend, and cooked on a rotisserie spit. The chicken is so incredibly flavorful.
Very often when you cook a whole chicken, the seasoning starts and ends at the skin. This happens to me at home sometimes. It’s really hard to season the meat of the chicken, but Alpaca Chicken has figured out a way to serve really flavorful and not dry chicken.
If you want to make it even more tasty, you can add one of two Peruvian hot sauces.
The green sauce (literally called just that) is delicious, but for me it was so spicy. Pete loves spice so he put a bunch on top of his rice. I was glad that I tried it off of his plate and not on my actual food because it was good, but too hot for me.
There is a more mild sauce, a yellow sauce simply called yellow sauce, so if you want flavor without the heat, go with that one.
My absolutely favorite bite of food was the black beans.
I know, I know. Black beans are usually something you’re not excited for, but these are incredible. They’re also not gluten-free. I was a little curious about that so I asked Fabian what that was about. He told me that there is Knorr chicken seasoning added to the beans. That makes them delicious, but it also makes them not gluten-free.
Little does he know that I am going to use this seasoning anytime I make black beans from now on. Good thing I eat gluten.
You can order rice two ways, either plain white rice, which is a good vehicle for the black beans, or Arroz Chaufa, a phenomenal Peruvian stir fried rice with chicken, sausage, egg, carrots and scallions, which contains soy so it is also not gluten free.
I bring these things up because if you are ordering this to cater your next gathering, you want to make sure that you are addressing people’s allergies and dietary restrictions.
As far as other sides, there’s coleslaw, yellow corn, and chicken soup (those weren’t at our meal), plus green beans and yuka fries (which were).
The one-year-old at our Friendsgiving absolutely loved those. Personally, I thought they were a little plain, and since I wanted to fill my entire stomach and then some with the black beans, I was glad I only put one of those on my plate.
However, the maduros (which are fried sweet plantains) are a whole different story. They were the perfect texture, the perfect amount of sweetness, and I could’ve eaten my weight in them.
If you like plantains, you can also order tostones, which are sliced and smashed plaintains.
There were also two salads, a house salad and a quinoa fresh salad, which had a bunch of items like queso fresco, hard-boiled eggs, quinoa, crunchy yuca, and (everyone’s favorite) choclo (which is a Peruvian corn that looks like hominy).
Alpaca Chicken makes a cilantro vinaigrette that went after my heart.
I really like cilantro. We grow it in our garden and I use it to make cilantro lime rice and a cilantro lime crema. I thought about making an aioli with it, but I never thought to use it in a salad dressing, so I am also stealing that idea.
Sorry Fabian.
And dessert. We didn’t even get to dessert yet. You can get flan, which comes in individual, disposable ramekins.
Remember, you want to flip them before you serve them. The way they’re packed, the runny caramel is on the bottom of the smooth custard, so you can’t see that when it’s upside down.
You can also order alfajores. They’re a pair of soft, shortbread cookies with a sweet dulce de leche between them.
When we used to work at the local farmers market, there was a baker who sold these. That was the first place I ever saw them and they were lovely.
We stopped selling at the market a few years ago, and never actually make it downtown to go, so it’s nice to know that there’s somewhere else I can get alfajores locally.
Alpaca Chicken Catering
If you are having any parties this holiday season, or even next year, like in the spring when communion and graduation parties roll around, definitely consider getting it catered by Alpaca Chicken. That is so incredibly easy for you and your guest will be so satisfied.
The restaurant does everything for you.
You can order either a family-style spread, like we had, boxed lunches with come with chicken and your choice of sides, or a chicken wrap tray with 10 wraps.
The family-style options come with chicken and sides, unless you order the specials tray, which gives you the choice of tacos, chop chop, or jerk chicken specials.
You can order drinks: house made chicha morada or horchata — both of which was available at our Friendsgiving; both of which we forgot to try — tea, or lemonade. And desserts (the two we mentioned already, or a tres leches cake).
You can see the full Alpaca Chicken catering menu here.
Like I said before, I like cooking at home. I like the way my food tastes, which is a conceited sounding statement, but I really do season the way I like. So, sometimes when we go out to eat, I’m disappointed because dining out is expensive and sometimes underwhelming.
So big props to Alpaca Chicken for impressing me and Pete. We were both so satisfied with the meal, and, if you’ve been paying attention to this review, you know that my new goal in life is to re-create two of Alpaca Chicken’s recipes.
If that isn’t the highest grade you can give a restaurant, I don’t know what it is.
Have you eaten at Alpaca Chicken before? Be sure to let us know your favorites in the comments.