Fauzia’s Kitchen Fun

Peri Peri Chicken

Fauzia's Kitchen Fun

Servings : Serves 4-5

I have been experimenting for a while now, trying to come up with a good and authentic-tasting peri peri sauce from scratch so as to make my home-made version of spicy Peri Peri chicken and FINALLY I believe I have landed on the perfect combination. If you like grilled chicken and love the spice, this is definitely a must-try recipe!!

The word Peri Peri comes from the Swahili word Pili Pili which stands for pepper/spicy chilli. So this dish is normally most enjoyable spicy. But of course you can always adjust the amount of chilli to suit your personal taste.

Ingredients for Peri Peri Sauce

  • 2-6 birds-eye red chillis (adjust spice level to your taste....2 will be mildly spicy whilst 6 will be very spicy)
  • 1 big red capsicum/bell-pepper
  • juice of one lemon
  • 2 tbsp. paprika powder
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tbsp. oregano
  • 1/2 tsp. red chilli powder
  • 1/2 cup oil (vegetable or olive)
  • 5 cloves of garlic
  • 4 tbsp. dark vinegar
  • 1 tsp. black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp. red or orange food coloring

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken, skin removed and cut into quarters then make 2-3 slits on each piece (approx 1kg-1.5kg)

Instructions

For the Peri Peri Sauce

This sauce is used for marinating the chicken and any leftover is normally cooked down and served as a dip. I prefer making the sauce up to a day ahead of using as the flavors tend to develop with a bit of time. So you can go ahead and prepare the sauce up to a day before you need to use it.

Blend all the ingredients of the sauce until smooth, then pour into a container and refrigerate until needed. You can make the sauce in bulk and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks and use as and when required.

Prepare the Chicken

To get the maximum moistness and succulence in your chicken and to infuse flavor into the meat, take a container big enough to hold the chicken quarters. Add 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, half cup white vinegar, juice of 1 lemon, throw in some roughly chopped fresh herbs like coriander or parsley. Then add COLD water and swirl/mix everything together. Now add in your cleaned chicken pieces, they should be completely immersed in the water. Cover the container and refrigerate it for 1-4 hours. Then drain out the liquid, rinse out the chicken quarters properly to get rid of any excess salt and proceed with the marination.

Pour the prepared sauce over the chicken pieces, making sure it goes into the slits. Cover and refrigerate. Allow to marinate at least overnight or for up to 2 days.

When ready to cook, shake the excess marinade off the chicken pieces. First grill the chicken on a bbq/charcoal grill (or under the broiler grill of your oven) for about 5 minutes per side, just to seal the chicken pieces so they stay nice and moist inside, and this gives the chicken that awesome bbq flavour especially if done on a charcoal grill.

Then place the chicken quarters on a greased tray, brush some sauce over them and pop it in a pre-heated oven at 170 C and bake for about 20 minutes (turn them over midway through the baking). Next, reduce the temperature to 120 C and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Make sure to brush the chicken with some of the peri peri sauce once more during the baking so they stay moist. Once done, remove and keep the chicken covered to retain moisture.

If you did not bbq the chicken on a proper charcoal grill, you can at this point light a small coal, place it on a piece of foil and put it in the center of the dish holding the cooked chicken. Drop some oil on the lit coal and cover the dish so that the smoke released from the coal gets absorbed into the chicken. This will give your chicken a good bbq aroma.

For the remainder of the marinade/sauce, just pour it into a small saucepan, add about half a cup of water and simmer until the sauce thickens and is cooked. You can use this to serve with the chicken.

Serve your delicious Peri Peri chicken with fries, fresh salad and a cold drink.

Enjoy! 🙂

227 thoughts on “Peri Peri Chicken”
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227 Replies

  • Thank u for reply,am going to
    Thank u for reply,am going to make the sauce now. Can you please please get recipe for peri peri salt,the one that you get in nados to sprinkle on fries. Thank you may Allah swt bless you and your family.

  • Hi, can I ask what type/brand
    Hi, can I ask what type/brand of dark vinegar you used? I’m in the UK, and the olnt kind of “dark” vinegars you can buy are balsamic, and malt. I’m guessing, from the comments regarding balsamic, that you used malt, but I would like to know for sure 🙂

  • Hi Fauzia, I’m still confused
    Hi Fauzia, I’m still confused about which vinegar you use. You mentioned it contains acetic acid and caramel. All vinegars are made of acetic acid. The 2 with caramel added are balsamic and east asian black vinegar. Both of these have very strong, disctinctive tastes.

    What is the name or brand of the ‘dark vinegar’ you use?

  • Hi, thanks for sharing the
    Hi, thanks for sharing the recipe. I tried making it once and my parents (who hate Nandos btw) fall in love with it and I just made another batch of marinade for tomorrow. I had Nandos once but I don’t really think its the same as what I had seem to have a REALLY strong lemon base. Bird’s eye chili is native in malaysia. We call it “Cili Padi” (rice or small chili) or thai chili. Curious enough, normally three of those pack a punch but it was really mild as a marinade and the kids love it. I use apple cider vinegar instead of dark vinegar and for my second attempt, I use turmeric powder instead of red colouring. I used a powder red colouring but it turn the chicken cherry red-pink. I tried grill option in my oven but it end up charring the marinade instead of really cooking the chicken so I end up baking on 200C for 40 minutes and it turn up well and juicy and delicious. I tweeted about it and a local Nandos branch pop up in my feed and ask about these homemade peri peri marinade. I guess, we could drive them out of business hehe

    • Hi, I actually have never
      Hi, I actually have never added shan masala in this recipe, it is extremely flavourful without it. Also, shan masalas are really salty so take care that you do not oversalt the dish. You can freeze the sauce for up to a month.

  • Assalamualaikum
    Assalamualaikum
    This is no doubt the best chicken I had yet… I cooked them for a family lunch and all were craving for more.. Even the dip was over.. The taste lingers even after few days… This is the best.. Jazakallah for sharing such a wonderful recipe. May Allah reward you abundantly..

  • Thanks for this great recipe!
    Thanks for this great recipe! I love the Nandos garlic sauce, but it’s way to expensive to cook with at ~1$ per ounce. I changed it a little to 7-8 spoons of cider vinegar, 1 tsp tumeric for color and added some onion -not exact but fresher and maybe better than the bottled kind.

  • Hi there, I have been trying
    Hi there, I have been trying to find a decent recipe for years and it is such a let down when they don’t come up to expectations. Yours is the best without doubt. Nandos marinates then roasts then grills from what I can find out, do you think we could brine then roast for a short time ( Nandos 30 mins ) then charcoal grill to finish with baste on the grill only. slap some sauce on after. What do you think? Thanks again.

  • Aoa the recipe looks
    Aoa the recipe looks delicious i m planing on making it tonight 🙂 i dnt have a grill and i dnt think my oven has a broiler can i just bake the chicken ?? Will it taste same or is grilling necessary??

    • Simply baking it may end up
      Simply baking it may end up making it a bit drier than if you grilled/broiled it first. The grilling helps seal the meat so that all moisture is retained in the chicken during baking. You could try though. 🙂

  • A.aleikum Fauzia. I loveee
    A.aleikum Fauzia. I loveee this page. Im getting married In December In shaa Allah so learning your recipes which are easy to understand. Although im afraid of trying some 🙁 hope il be as good as cook as you

  • Mine didn’t taste like nando
    Mine didn’t taste like nando’s because I don’t have a chargrill, and because I used habenero chillies instead of bird’s eye, it tasted more like jerk chicken, but it still tasted great. Thanks for the recipe, and I will definitely be trying some of your other recipes! 🙂

  • Salaams. Fauzia
    Salaams. Fauzia
    Tried the peri peri chicken exactly and it turned out awesome. Very very tasty. But I have one question, can I BBQ the whole procedure instead of BBQ it for 5 minutes and then putting it in the oven. Thanks

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