Tom Kerridge’s peri-peri chicken recipe is as good as any you might have at a certain Portuguese chicken restaurant chain.
What is Peri-Peri Sauce?
Peri-peri, also known as piri-piri or the African Bird’s Eye chile, is a hot pepper that’s a close relative of the tabasco pepper. These peppers grow wild in Africa but are now commercially produced in parts of Africa and Portugal and used in sauces and spices, and even have pharmaceutical applications.
Recipes vary, but peri-peri sauce is typically made from crushed chiles, lemon, pepper, garlic, salt, onion, bay leaves, vinegar, and oil. To make peri-peri sauce, all of the ingredients are pureed together. The mixture is kept raw if being used as a marinade, but it is simmered in a covered pot over low heat for about an hour if being used as a condiment.
© allrecipes.com
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🌶🌶 Do You Like It Hot?
How much chilli heat do you like in your food? Tom’s peri-peri chicken recipe uses a medium chilli sauce which is ok for most people. But you can adjust the heat easily by choosing a mild, medium, hot or extra hot sauce instead.
Be warned, if you choose the extra hot sauce then you will definitely need to put some toilet roll in the fridge if you know what I mean 🥵.
Peri-Peri Chicken
Ingredients
- 8 skinless and boneless chicken thigh fillets
- 75 ml medium–hot peri-peri sauce
- ½ tsp hot smoked paprika
- sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
For the dirty rice
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 red onion finely chopped
- 1 red pepper halved, cored, seeds removed and finely chopped
- 1 green pepper halved, cored, seeds removed and finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 pinch saffron strands
- 200 ml chicken stock
- 1 chicken stock cube crumbled
- 500 g cooked brown rice freshly cooked and drained or 2 pouches
For the coleslaw
- 250 g red and/or white cabbage finely shredded
- 1 carrot grated (about 100g/3½oz prepared weight)
- 2 tbsp fat-free Greek-style yoghurt
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp light mayonnaise
- sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 240C/220C Fan/Gas 9. Line a baking tray with an ovenproof silicone mat or baking paper.
- Slash the chicken thighs with a sharp knife and put in a bowl. Add 50ml/2fl oz of the peri-peri sauce, the smoked paprika and a little sea salt and pepper. Turn the chicken to coat well in the sauce then lay on the baking tray and cook for 20–25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, to make the dirty rice. Heat the oil in a sauté pan over a high heat. Add the onion and cook for 4–5 minutes until starting to brown. Add the peppers and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the paprika and cumin and cook for 1 minute. Grind the saffron with a pestle and mortar and add to the pan with the stock and stock cube. Simmer for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until the stock cube has disolved. Add the rice and warm through for 5 minutes.
- To make the coleslaw, mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- Remove the chicken from the oven, tip the juices from the tray into the rice and stir through. Cook the rice for a further 2 minutes. Wave a cook’s blowtorch over the surface of the chicken thighs to lightly char, then brush with the remaining peri-peri sauce.
- Serve the chicken with the rice and coleslaw on the side.
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