Anticuchos: Peru's Street Food Skewers (With Ají Marinade Recipe)

Walk down almost any street in Lima after dark and you'll find them: charcoal grills sending up smoke, vendors fanning the coals, and skewers of deep red-brown meat sizzling over the flame. This is anticuchos — Peru's most iconic street food, and one of the clearest windows into how Peruvian cuisine turned necessity into something extraordinary.

What Are Anticuchos?

Anticuchos are grilled skewers marinated in a rich, smoky ají panca sauce. In their most traditional form, they're made with beef heart (anticuchos de corazón), sliced thin, threaded onto skewers, and grilled hot and fast over open coals. The result is tender, deeply savory, and carries a marinade so good that home cooks in Peru — and increasingly in the U.S. — have adapted it to chicken, beef sirloin, and vegetables.

What makes an anticucho an anticucho isn't really the protein. It's the marinade: ají panca paste, garlic, cumin, vinegar, and salt, built to tenderize, flavor, and char beautifully over open flame.

Origins: A Dish Born From Resilience

The story of anticuchos goes back to colonial-era Peru, and it's worth telling accurately rather than glossing over it. During Spanish colonial rule, enslaved Africans brought to Peru were typically given the cuts of meat that colonizers discarded — organ meats, including beef heart, among them. Rather than treat these cuts as scraps, they transformed them, developing marinades built around ají panca, a mild, smoky, dark red Peruvian pepper, along with vinegar, garlic, and spices that both tenderized tough cuts and infused them with flavor.

Over generations, this dish moved from a food of necessity to a defining icon of Peruvian cuisine — served at every level of society, from street carts to fine dining tasting menus. That arc says something important about Peruvian food more broadly: many of its most celebrated dishes carry real history, and that history deserves to be told rather than smoothed over for marketing purposes. It's part of why Peruvian food is having a moment in the U.S. right now — the cuisine's depth goes well beyond what most people have tried.

Anticuchos Today

In Peru, beef heart remains the traditional and most common version — you'll find it at street carts, chicharronerías, and late-night spots that stay open for the after-party crowd leaving bars and clubs. It's the kind of food that exists at every hour and every price point, which is part of why it's so woven into daily life.

In the U.S. and in home kitchens more broadly, anticuchos have expanded well beyond beef heart. Chicken thighs, beef sirloin, and even portobello mushrooms for a vegan version all take beautifully to the same ají panca marinade. The technique and the flavor profile are what carry the dish — the protein is flexible. If chicken skewers are more your speed, our Ají Amarillo Chicken Skewers use a related approach with a different pepper base.

Where and How Anticuchos Are Served

Traditionally, anticuchos are sold from street carts with a small charcoal grill built right into the cart, the vendor fanning the coals between orders. They're also a staple at chicharronerías (restaurants centered on fried pork) and at anticucherías dedicated specifically to the dish.

The classic plate isn't just the skewer. Anticuchos are almost always served with a boiled yellow potato, a piece of corn on the cob (choclo), and a side of ají amarillo sauce for dipping. The potato and corn balance the char and smoke of the meat, while the ají amarillo sauce adds a bright, tangy heat that contrasts with the deeper, smokier marinade on the skewer itself.

The Marinade: Where the Flavor Actually Comes From

If you take one thing from this guide, take this: the marinade is the dish. Ají panca paste is the backbone — it's a mild pepper (roughly 500–1,500 Scoville units, similar in heat to a poblano) with a deep, smoky, almost raisin-like flavor rather than aggressive heat. Combined with garlic, cumin, vinegar, oil, and salt, it creates a marinade that both tenderizes and deeply flavors whatever protein it touches. For more on how Peru's peppers differ from one another, see our complete guide to ají amarillo.

Marinate for a minimum of 4 hours. Overnight is better, and if you're working with beef heart specifically, the extra time makes a real difference in tenderness.

Anticuchos Recipe

Yield: 4 servings | Prep time: 20 minutes (plus marinating) | Marinate: 4 hours minimum, overnight preferred | Cook time: 10–15 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 lbs protein of choice: beef heart (traditional), boneless chicken thighs, beef sirloin, or portobello mushrooms (vegan option)
• 1/3 cup ají panca paste
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons neutral oil, plus more for grilling
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste
• Wooden or metal skewers (if using wooden, soak in water for 30 minutes before grilling)
• 4 small yellow potatoes, boiled until fork-tender
• 4 pieces corn on the cob, cut into thirds and boiled or grilled
• 1 bottle Aji Pepper Sauce Amarillo, for dipping

For the salsa criolla (optional but recommended):

• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• Juice of 2 limes
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• Salt to taste

Instructions

• Cut the protein into 1 to 1.5-inch cubes (or slices, for beef heart) and pat dry.
• In a bowl, whisk together the ají panca paste, minced garlic, cumin, vinegar, oil, and salt to form the marinade.
• Add the protein to the marinade, tossing to coat fully. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
• While the protein marinates, make the salsa criolla: combine sliced red onion, lime juice, cilantro, and salt in a bowl. Let sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes to soften the onion.
• Thread the marinated protein onto skewers, leaving a small amount of space between pieces for even cooking.
• Heat a grill or grill pan to high heat. You want it hot enough to char quickly without overcooking the interior.
• Grill the skewers for 2 to 4 minutes per side, depending on the protein, until well-charred on the outside. Beef heart and sirloin are best served medium-rare to medium; chicken should reach 165°F internally; portobellos need just enough time to soften and pick up char.
• Let the skewers rest for a few minutes off the heat.
• Plate the skewers with boiled potato, corn, and a spoonful of salsa criolla on the side.
• Serve with Aji Pepper Sauce Amarillo alongside for dipping — this is the traditional finishing touch that ties the whole plate together.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are anticuchos? Anticuchos are grilled Peruvian skewers, traditionally made from marinated beef heart, though chicken, beef sirloin, and vegetables are common today. The defining feature is the ají panca marinade, which gives the dish its smoky, savory character.

Can I make anticuchos without beef heart? Yes. While beef heart is the traditional and most authentic version, chicken thighs and beef sirloin are widely used substitutes that take on the ají panca marinade just as well. Portobello mushrooms work for a vegan version.

What is ají panca? Ají panca is a mild, dark red Peruvian pepper known for its smoky, earthy flavor rather than intense heat. It's typically sold as a paste and forms the base of the anticucho marinade, along with garlic, cumin, and vinegar.

Can I make anticuchos vegan? Yes. Portobello mushrooms are the most common vegan substitute — their texture holds up well on the grill, and they absorb the ají panca marinade effectively. Marinate for at least an hour, since mushrooms don't need the same tenderizing time as meat.

What sauce goes with anticuchos? Ají amarillo sauce is the traditional accompaniment, served on the side for dipping. Its bright, tangy heat contrasts with the smokier, deeper flavor of the ají panca marinade on the skewer itself.

The Finishing Touch

A great anticucho starts with the marinade and finishes with the dipping sauce. For the ají amarillo side that traditionally accompanies the plate, Aji Pepper Sauce Amarillo is made from Isabel's original family recipe — the same sauce behind Aji Pepper Sauce's hero SKU. It's available on our DTC store and on Amazon.

Aji Pepper Sauce Amarillo is vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, and made with no artificial colors or flavors — so it fits easily into whatever version of this dish you're building, beef heart or otherwise.