Some says Peri-Peri, and the others say Piri-Piri…
This spicy Portuguese Chicken is quite addictive. I first had the Peri-Peri Chicken at the South African franchise restaurant called “Nandos” and loved it. The spicy peri-peri (or piri-piri) sauce made with bird’s eye chili, garlic, herbs, and lemon awakens your tongue and quickly salivates all over inside your mouth. Although the sauce itself has its origin marked at Portugal, it is widely used in African countries like Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa.
The spiciness of peri-peri sauce can be adjusted by the amount of chilies, or even using less spicy kind of chilies. The best way to cook the Peri-Peri Chicken is to GRILL them. For not having an out door grill in my high rise cosmopolitan kitchen, I baked it in the oven instead. It came out great but, of course, the smoky grilled flavor would have been even better. If you have a BBQ grill, use it!
The sauce can be made in less than 5 minutes, and all you need to do is to marinade chicken ahead of time. You will love this chicken IF you can bear the heat!
The sauce ingredients…
I mixed two kinds of chilies to reduce some heat (bird’s eye is too spicy for me). Yes, I am a WIMP!
If you want the suicidal heat…, go for 10 or even 15 of these tiny bird’s eye chilies.
Put them in a blender.
Blend until very smooth.
Pour 1/3 cup of sauce over chicken legs and spread all over. I scored chicken so the flavor will penetrate better to the meat. Marinade at least 1 hr. Overnight is even better.
Place them on a pan lined with foil (Spray the pan with oil before you place the chicken).
Bake them in an hot oven (425F) for 20-25minutes, baste with more sauce as you turn the chickens to the other side.
Hmmmmm… Looks delicious! Salivating as I know how they will taste…
I served my families these Peri-Peri Chicken with potato, corn, and roasted pepper salad. I drizzle a little more Peri-peri sauce over the chicken to knock them out.
Well, everyone survived and finished the chicken off to the bone.
Dinner was done and the clean up was a breeze!
Now I have to come up with what to serve for tomorrow night…
Ingredients
Directions
- In a blender combine everything except the chicken and the extra salt, blend until very smooth.
- Score chicken legs with a knife a few times.
- Pour 1/3 cup of the sauce over chicken and toss well. I sprinkle a few dashes of extra salt on top of chicken. Marinade the chicken at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Grill your chicken or bake.
- To bake, preheat the oven to 425ºF
- Place chicken on a baking pan lined with foil, spray with oil,and place chicken. Bake for 15 minutes, turn over, baste with extra sauce, and continue to bake for another 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked and browned.
- Serve with extra sauce on the side.
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
I love spicy! Don’t often see the little bird’s eye chilies, alas – although there are other things one can use. This recipe really would be great on the grill. Chicken is on sale this week at the supermarket – this might be making an appearance. Really good recipe – thank you.
Bird’s eye chilies are furiously spicy. You can substitute with red finger chilies to reduce the heat.
I’m no good with chilies either, but love the nandos chicken! I always ask for the least spicy one haha. Thanks for sharing this, would love to try it soon, am sure my family would really enjoy. No need to pay nandos prices for these anymore!
Hope you like it, Esther.
I have been craving Peri Peri Chicken since I became addicted to Nandos while I lived in Wales just one short month three summers ago! So glad to see someone else finally shares my longing! I’ve tried to recreate their spicy chicken pitas, but my recipe so far just hasn’t quite hit the spot.
You can bet that I will be giving your recipe a try SOON! Now, if you figure out a way to make peri peri salted chips I will be impressed!
Thanks so much for sharing your recipe!
I know Nandos chicken is so additive. I hope you get to like the recipe. It is not exactly the same, of course, but will clam down the craving for sure. I have not tried peri peri salted chips yet. Can’t wait to try them out.
Dear Holly, I live in middle east, unable to find Piri Piri chilli, however found Bird chilli from Thiland. Does it same as Bird Eye chilli piri pieri OR its different and not suitable for the recipe. Please advice. Million Thanks in advance.
You can use Thai bird eye chili. They are pretty similar.
OMG this sounds amazing. Have pinned for another day, thanks.
BTW You are welcome to join in my monthly food blogger event THE SOUP KITCHEN, here for entry details and current theme. New theme each month. All bloggers are welcome, hope to see you participate soon.
Thanks for the invitation. I will think of what to make.
I love peri-peri chicken! My friend from South Africa gave me some peri peri sauce and I use it all the time. I like the flavor it has not just heat! She also gave me some spicy Portuguese seasoning. It’s good to have this recipe so I can still make it when I run out!
Nice job!
I’ve been wanting to try peri-peri chicken after seeing it on Australian blogs. It looks so easily and delicious
Thank you for the recipe!
Thanks Michelle. It is packed with flavor and I highly recommend to grill them if you can.
Can you believe I’ve never eaten in a Nandos?! Every thinks it’s criminal but I’ve never been that pumped to try it. Having said that, I LOVE chillies and these photographs are beautiful. Lovely post.
Most people who have been to Nandos seemed to like their chicken. I did. If you like chillies you will love it.
Everyone I know that’s been has loved it – I must try!
my brother introduced me to peri peri chicken when i visited canada last year and i swear i haven’t stopped raving about it ever since! it tasted better than anything i have ever tasted!!!
This looks amazing, Holly! Could you tell me where I can get those chicken legs? They look so much more elegant than drumsticks and I;d love to get them to try this recipe!
Holly, this looks so good. Can’t wait to try it. We miss you!! When I read your blog, I can hear your voice! Keep posting!
Thank Lily. It is so nice to hear from you. I miss all of you, too.
So delicious! The chicken looked amazing hot and sizzling out of the oven. I couldn’t find birds eye chili in my supermarket and had to resort to poblano/jalapenos. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Hi Yaoli, So glad to hear that you liked it. I love spicy peri-peri sauce and I believe it is as good as with poblano/jalopenos. Thanks for leaving the comment for me. I appreciate it.
What a lovely blog to chance upon while searching for peri-peri craving-soothing daubs online
I’m about to try this recipe out. I’ll post back with results, I’m sure!
I’m Portuguese and I was surprised to see this recipe here! In Portugal it is called Piri-Piri Chicken, and it’s a dish that reminds me of childhood days! We usually marinate the chicken overnight and after barbecued we put a little bit more sauce on it! And a tip is to eat the sauce that drips from the chicken with potato chips or bread!
Just made this for dinner tonight and it was so delicious!!! My fiancee and I loved it!
A great recipe which we have used many times now and is at the top of of favourites.
We use the breast of chicken and score both sides to let the meat absorb more but that is the only difference in the recipe.
The longer it marinates the better and we save some of the sauce to go in just before the end as we like more liquid on the plate.
having a Barbie with friends, attempted to make your peri peri marinade but unfortunately never turned out as mus-tardy col and liquid…but a paste kind of sauce..proof will be in the pudding..in all honesty never used the quantities mentioned but perhaps half of them….nevertheless can’t wait to put my chicken thighs on the coal…Thanks Holly!!!
Hi – Iove your Piri Piri recipe. I’ve just uploaded mine at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQKFJAZ_iHk
We went through many recipes to get the right mix between tangy, flavoursome and spicy. We hope you like it.
T
So, I’m kind of loving your site right now. I’ve just started to let my chicken marinate. I’m planning on leaving it for a good four or five hours. Unfortunately, I could not find any bird’s eye chilies, so I am using red habanero peppers for comparative heat. I’m also using a couple of red Mexican chilies, and a sweet bell, to see how it works. Thanks so much for these recipes! Hopefully, mine will come out half as delicious as yours seem to have done. I think I’m going to try your cola braised chicken next.
Hi Guerdy
I hope your peri peri chicken turned out good. Thank you for your sweet comment. The cola brasied chiken is another popular recipe from my blog. Hope you like it, too.
Made this tonight and it was delicious. I wasn’t able to locate bird’s eye peppers, aka piri piri peppers ( probably get them at the chinese grocery) so I used 5 Serrano peppers. It was spicy but I could have taken a little more heat. Habaneros might make a good substitute using fewer. Your milage may very.
cold and snowing here so I baked in a rack over a pan.
When I’m grilling or baking like this, I like to cut the backbone out of a whole chicken, flip it and remove the breast bone/cartilage and flatten the chicken out and bake on a rack or grill whole. I think it keeps the chicken moister than when cooked in pieces. quarter it to serve. This was plenty of sauce for a whole chicken.
This smelled great cooking and was a big taste hit. I cant wait to grill chicken this spring / summer.
Hi Don
You are right. Cookig the whole chicken will bring better in flavor and more moist. I am glad that your peri peri chicken turned out great.
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