Dada Cooking

Recipes

Peri-Peri Chicken

Blend red chillies, roasted red capsicum, garlic, lemon, vinegar, paprika and oregano, marinate a spatchcocked chicken for at least 4 hours, roast at 200°C (400°F) for 40-45 minutes, then char it on a hot grill; about 1 hour 10 minutes plus marinating for 4.

Peri-peri chicken is a spicy, tangy grilled chicken from the Portuguese and Southern African kitchen, named after the small, fiery African bird's eye chilli. The chicken is opened out flat, soaked in a blended sauce of red chillies, roasted red pepper, garlic, lemon, paprika and oregano, then roasted and finished on a hot grill so the skin chars and blisters. Some of the sauce is kept back for basting and dipping. Serve it with rice, chips, corn or a crunchy salad.

A whole spatchcocked peri-peri chicken with charred red chilli-coated skin on a white platter with lemon wedges, a bowl of chilli sauce and fresh red chillies Start cooking mode

Ingredients

Peri-peri sauce

  • 8 red bird's eye chillies, stems removed
  • 1 red capsicum, roasted, skinned and seeded
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 lemon, zested and juiced
  • 2 tbsp white vinegar
  • 60 ml olive oil

Chicken

  • 1 whole chicken, about 1.6 kg
  • 1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve

Method

  1. Blend all the sauce ingredients until smooth. Pour about one third into a jar and keep it in the fridge for basting and serving.
  2. To spatchcock the chicken, put it breast side down and cut along both sides of the backbone with kitchen scissors. Remove the backbone, turn the chicken over and press firmly on the breastbone to flatten it. Make 3–4 deep cuts in the legs and breast.
  3. Rub the rest of the sauce all over the chicken and under the skin. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.
  4. Heat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Put the chicken skin side up on a rack set over a lined roasting tin and roast for 40–45 minutes, until the juices run clear at the thickest part of the thigh.
  5. Heat a grill pan or barbecue to high. Grill the chicken skin side down for 4–5 minutes, then turn and brush with some of the saved sauce and grill for 2–3 minutes more, until charred in places.
  6. Rest the chicken for 10 minutes, then cut it into pieces. Serve with lemon wedges and the rest of the sauce.

Tips

  • Heat level: 8 chillies give a medium-hot sauce. Use 4 for mild or 12 for very hot, and seed them for less heat.
  • Chicken pieces: use 1.2 kg bone-in thighs and drumsticks and roast them for 30–35 minutes.
  • Oven grill: no barbecue? Finish the chicken under the oven grill on high for 4–5 minutes, watching closely.
  • Sauce: the extra sauce keeps for 1 week in the fridge and is good with grilled fish or prawns.

Questions

What does peri-peri mean?

Peri-peri (or piri-piri) is the name of a small, hot African bird's eye chilli, and of the tangy chilli sauce made from it in Portuguese and Southern African cooking.

How spicy is peri-peri chicken?

This version is medium-hot with 8 chillies. Use 4 for mild or 12 for very hot, and seed them to reduce the heat.

Do I need a barbecue?

No. Roast the chicken in the oven, then char it on a grill pan or under the oven grill on high for 4-5 minutes.

Can I use chicken pieces?

Yes. Use 1.2 kg bone-in thighs and drumsticks and roast them for 30-35 minutes before grilling.

Is this peri-peri chicken halal?

The recipe is pork-free and lists no alcohol. It is not halal-certified: use halal-certified chicken and check the labels on the vinegar; use plain white vinegar.

A Dada Cooking original recipe. Quantities are metric first, with US amounts in brackets.