Make your own piri piri sauce or peri peri sauce from scratch from the comfort of your kitchen with this recipe. This piri piri sauce is versatile that you can add it to just about anything.
What is Piri Piri?
Piri Piri or peri peri is a type of pepper that originated from the Carribean, then in southeastern Africa and was made popular by the Portuguese.
Piri Piri is synonymous to hot pepper and it is called differently depending on the country it is being used. The Portuguese call it Peri Peri while piri piri is common in English as it can be found in African chilli.
Piri Piri Sauce (Peri Peri Sauce)
Piri piri sauce is Portuguese in origin and it is a versatile tangy (marinade) hot sauce made from piri piri pepper. The hot pepper is the major ingredient in making the sauce with other common ingredients like red pepper, lemon etc The authentic piri piri sauce would call for paprika, oregano, onions, garlic, bay leaves, salt and lemon juice. The ingredients used for this sauce these days allows for flexibility.
Here is my own version of this delicious sauce, I use this hot sauce all the time. You can also go wild with what you use the sauce with. As mentioned earlier this hot sauce is not only versatile but delicious too. you might just find yourself adding it to anything and everything. Well, I did and that includes sandwiches too.
Use this hot sauce in place of your regular hot sauce or sriracha. The flavour and the level of heat in my peri peri sauce are just spot on. I won’t assure you of the authenticity of this sauce as I have never been to Portugal (where it originated from) but one thing I can tell is that this piri piri sauce is better than Nando’s.
Related post: If you love making your own sauce at home then you would love this green sauce recipe or this super easy tomato sauce.
Ingredients
4-5 birds eye chilli
3 mixes chillies (about 60g)
½ tsp ground bay leaf
1 tsp salt
4 cloves garlic
black pepper
1 tbsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp Oregano
Juice of 1 lemon
⅓ cup malt vinegar
1 large red bell pepper
½ cup vegetable oil (substitute with any unflavoured oil)
How to make Piri Piri sauce
- roughly chop the onion, red bell pepper, put all ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree. Check for salt and seasoning and adjust accordingly. This hot sauce would make about 2 cups
- Use the sauce as desired or store in an airtight container and refrigerate until you are ready to use.
How to store
- This peri peri sauce would keep for up to a month in the fridge in an airtight jar.
What to use this on
This homemade hot sauce can be used on absolutely anything and not just chicken alone. Slather Piri Piri sauce on chicken and grill or put on an open fire. Add it to sandwich filling, this is perfect on any meat it touches. A great marinade for chicken and meat.
Click for Piri Piri Chicken recipe
How To Make Piri Piri Sauce
Here is my own version of piri piri sauce, I use this hot sauce all the time.
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 4 pieces birds eye chilli
- 3 mixes chillies about 60g
- ½ tsp ground bay leaf substitute with 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp Oregano
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ⅓ cup malt vinegar
- 1 large red bell pepper roughly chopped
- ½ cup vegetable oil substitute with any unflavoured oil
Instructions
- Roughly chop the onion, red bell pepper and put all ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree to smooth paste. Check salt and seasoning and adjust accordingly.
- Use the piri piri sauce as desired or store in a tight container and store in the refrigerator. Refrigerate until you are ready to use. This peri peri sauce would keep for up to a month in the fridge
Notes
If you made this recipe, don’t forget to leave me feedback. Tag me @myactivekitchen on Instagram and save away to your Pinterest
Gerard says
Brilliant recipe. Thank you.
Best chilli wishes - from the southern tip of Africa! Continued success ...
George Gale says
Looks interesting–but I don’t know what “3 mixes chillies” means. Unknown term in the US, sorry.
Ajoke says
Hello George, so sorry about that. It is jalapeno, a mixture of red and green one. Here in the UK, it is labelled mixed chillies. The recipe would be adjusted to suit both worlds. Thank you
Christy says
This sounds wonderful! What side dishes would one pair with peri peri grilled chicken?
Ajoke says
Thank you Christy. I would pair this chicken Piri Piri with Spinach rice (recipe on the blog) potato wedges or chips. You can even have it as salad.
Christy says
Thanks! I'll give this a try next week.
Yets says
Please do you have pictures of birds eye red chilli and the 3 chilli mixes?
Ajoke says
Hello Yets. The recipe will be updated soon with pictures of chillies used. Kindly bear with me.