Name: Chicken Piri Piri
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 100 min
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken (substitute with other chicken parts); 11/2 cups piri piri sauce; 1/2 tbsp salt

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If you love hot and spicy food, then this Piri Piri chicken is for you. It is delicious and moist and you can adjust the hotness of the recipe by adding more or fewer chillies to hot sauce. If you want to know how to make Piri Piri chicken like Nando’s, then you are at the right place.

Piri Piri chicken also called Peri Peri chicken is easy to make. You will be happy to know it doesn’t require much effort too. In fact, just the chicken marinade (Piri Piri sauce) and the oven or grill does most of the job for you.

The chicken requires marinating, the longer the better. Marinade in homemade Piri Piri sauce for at least an hour in a cool place or in the refrigerator overnight for optimised flavour.

I have spatchcocked the chicken and grilled in the oven but it can also be oven baked as well. This recipe is great with a whole chicken, you can use any other part of chicken like thigh, wings or breast. Chicken Piri Piri is best made on an open fire or grill just like you have in Nando. Can I just quickly that this easy homemade Piri Piri is better than Nando’s.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken 1.2 kg (substitute with other chicken parts)

11/2 cups Piri Piri sauce

1/2 tbsp salt

How to spatchcock chicken

Spatchcock simply means splitting a chicken open and then grilling it. In this case, the backbone (spine) of the chicken is removed by laying the whole chicken flat to form a butterfly shape. This method of cooking is used to allow the chicken to cook faster. If a whole chicken would take about 1.5 hours to cook, a spatchcocked chicken would take lesser time

Remove any giblet from the chicken and clean it.
Place the chicken breast down, i.e. the back of the chicken would be face up to you
Using kitchen scissors, carefully cut along the back of the chicken. This bit is around the neckline of the poultry.
Break the breastbone. Turn the chicken breast to face you and press down the two ends of the chicken to break the middle (breast region)
Chicken is ready to be seasoned and slathered with marinade.

How to make chicken Piri Piri

Season the chicken with salt.

Place chicken in a ziplock bag. Add half a cup of the Piri Piri sauce and rub together making sure it is well distributed on the chicken. Leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight preferably. If you need to make the chicken immediately, make incisions on it or remove the skin, marinade with the hot sauce and oven bake or grill immediately.

Preheat the oven at 200°C/ 392°F or medium-high heat if using the oven/gas grill. Alternatively, cook on an open fire (barbeque)

Bring out the chicken from the fridge, remove chicken from marinade and shake off any excess drips.

Transfer chicken to a baking tray and bake for 30 minutes to 45 minutes or according to the cooking instruction on the chicken package. Baste chicken every 10 minutes with another half cup from the remaining marinade.

After chicken is fully cooked, leave to rest for some minutes. Serve with remaining 1/2 cup Piri Piri sauce and side of choice with a lemon wedge.

What to serve with Piri Piri chicken

Spinach rice

Jollof rice

Stovetop Broccoli

Easy roasted potatoes

Crispy potato wedges

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