Piri Piri Chicken
If you had dined in at Nandos (www.nandos.com) you will know what a Piri Piri Chicken (Nandos call it Peri Peri) is but for those who does not, it is a type of chicken dish marinated in chillies, herbs and lemon then flame grilled. One of the best chicken recipes you will ever encounter especially if you love hot dishes. This wonderful recipe had originated in Africa using a type of birds’ eye chillies which is also called as the African devil. These type of chillies together with other herbs make the marinade so delicious, it was popularized by the Portuguese and discovered this great ingredient when they went out and explored Africa, they found this chilli which was locally called as pili pili, they used it in their local dishes then later renamed it as piri piri then the rest is history. Nandos then popularized it, in fact I would never had known this chicken marinade if not for Nandos, we loved their chicken as it is really good and it’s a healthier alternative to KFC as it is flame grilled from Malaysia to New Zealand we are a big fan of this dish. Now since we love it we tried to make it at home using our own recipe, I don’t know what Nandos really uses but this is my version and I can say that I got the flavours right.
Ingredients
8 chicken legs
1/4 cup olive oil
juice from 3 lemons
3-6 pcs birds eye chillies, finely chopped (adjust the chillies depending on your liking)
6 cloves garlic
2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp tomato paste
salt
Method
1. In a blender add all of the ingredients except the chicken, blend until it forms a smooth paste.
2. Place in a glass container and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 days, this allows the flavours to develop.
3. Once the marinade is ready rub chicken pieces with it and leave in the refrigerator for 24 hrs.
4. Prepare a charcoal barbecue and cook the chicken regularly basting it with the remaining marinade.
I thoroughly enjoy a mild piri-piri chicken.
Mandy
You made your own piri piri sauce, awesome. Its been a very long time since I last ate at Nandos
OMG, chilly padi inside, will die for this chicken for the spicy taste.
Did you just make another chicken dish for me? lol. I’ve never heard of Piri Piri chicken before but I know I am writing down this recipe and making it as soon as I can thaw out my chicken legs
. Wonderful post as always and I wanted to let you know your award will be posted on my blog at 5:30 pm today 
This is very tempting. I love nandos especially eaten with their sauce!
Lovely site.
I am a Filipino living in Cape Town
We often make this dish here, called Peri-Peri Chicken, made out of peri-peri spice which is of Portuguese origin. I must confess to make things easier we marinate the chicken using Nando’s peri-peri sauce, and they come in different strengths or shall I say degrees of spicyness.
Mabuhay ka kabayan. I’m bookmarking your blog for future reference. Hope you don’t mind.
Thanks!
i always see “ang sarap” on porn sites so it means delicious
oh btw the chicken looks really nice, thanks for sharing this legendary recipe.
LOL! Try doing an image search on Google for “Ang Sarap” you will be even more surprised.
Piri piri I was told was African for Chilli chilli, not a Portuegese dish but south African from a themed restaurant there ,
.