Piri-Piri Chicken

Technology had not been on my side the past couple of weeks. First with the sudden death of my laptop... It was working fine one morning and few hours later it just died... Then the next day the home internet decided to stop working too. Great! So apologies, if I haven't been in touch the past few days...

Anyway, the internet is up and running again, or at least for now... But I still have no laptop... so I'm posting this from the blogger app for the iPhone. I hope this will look alright.

OK, enough with my first world problems... And I want to share with you this piri-piri (or is it peri-peri?) chicken. 

I was first introduced to piri-piri chicken at Nando's (I think they call it peri-peri chicken there) several years ago. And I've been meaning to create a homemade version and so here it is... And I am very happy with the result... I'll be cooking this often I can tell you.

I don't think giving exact quantities for the ingredients is absolutely necessary here to be honest. It all depends how hot and spicy you want the chicken to be. I like mine spicy but still pleasurable.

I make the marinade by blending half an onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, about ten fresh red chillies (seeds and all), smoked paprika, a small bunch of fresh coriander (not just the leaves but also the stalks which will add to the flavour), zest and juice of one lime for freshness, a bit more tang courtesy of rice wine vinegar, a teaspoon of dried oregano, few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, a pinch of sugar to balance all the flavours, regular vegetable oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Blend until smooth.

As per usual I use chicken thighs and drumsticks only because I prefer the dark meat. I think they have more flavours and are cheaper than the white meat. And to really get the flavours of the marinade to penetrate into the chicken, I make few slits to the legs using a sharp knife. Then pour over the spicy marinade, reserving some for basting. Cover with cling film and keep in the fridge for few hours or overnight.

Take the chicken out about half an hour before cooking so that it's not fridge cold. I cook the chicken on the stove and finish them off in the oven grill to get the 'charred' look, basting a couple of times using the reserved marinade. But if the weather is nice, of course you can grill them outside on the bbq. I serve the chicken with brown rice and grilled corn on the cob. Utterly delicious.