Best Portuguese Chicken In Piri Piri Sauce Recipes

PORTUGUESE PERI PERI CHICKEN

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425F
• Rehydrate dried chilies in a small pot of simmering water on the stove for 20 minutes. Remove stem and seeds.
• Butterfly the chicken: Rinse inside and out, removing innards. Pat dry. Place on a cutting board, breast down. Using sharp kitchen scissors, cut along both sides of the spine, remove and discard. Turn the chicken over, and placing your hand on the breast bone, press down hard with the palm of your hand, to flatten.
• Make the marinade by blending the marinade ingredients into a paste with a blender or food processor. Brush a layer of the marinade on the bottom of your large sheet pan.
• Place the thinly sliced potatoes on top of the marinade and sprinkle with a generous pinch of kosher salt, overlapping slightly but not too much.
• Brush all sides and crevasses of the chicken with the marinade, coating fairly heavily. (You will add more marinade during cooking, so be sure to save the remaining.) Place chicken, skin side down on the potatoes and place in the hot oven.
• Turn chicken over after 15 minutes, and place back in the oven. After 15 minutes, brush more marinade all over the chicken on the skin side, really lathering it up. Return to the oven and bake until cooked through another 15-30 minutes, or until leg/ thigh reaches an internal temperature of 165 F. The bigger the chicken, the longer this will take. ( A large, 5-6 pound chicken may take an additional 20 minutes!) To crisp the skin and get it deeply brown, broil for a few minutes. A little char is good here!!! Remove chicken when done and let rest 5-10 minutes before serving. You can continue to cook the potatoes or crisp them up ( with broiler) while resting the chicken and cutting it into pieces.
• While chicken is roasting, combine Cilantro Sauce ingredients together, either in a bowl- mixing by hand, or in a food processor. Serve cilantro sauce on the side.

PIRI PIRI SAUCE

Steps:

• Combine all of the ingredients except the garlic in a saucepan over high heat. Cook, stirring, for 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic, remove from heat, and allow to cool to room temperature. When the mixture is cool, pour into the bowl of a food processor and pulse several times until smooth. Strain the sauce through a fine mesh strainer. Pour the sauce into a glass container and cover. Let sit for 7 days before using.

PIRI-PIRI CHICKEN

Steps:

• For glaze:
• Melt butter in small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add cilantro and garlic; cook until garlic begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Add piri-piri sauce and lemon juice. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 2 minutes. DO AHEAD: Glaze can be made up to 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Rewarm before using.
• For chicken:
• Finely chop cilantro, ginger, shallot, and garlic in processor. Add piri-piri sauce, 1/4 cup oil, lemon juice, coarse salt, and pepper; process marinade to blend.
• Place chicken, skin side up, on work surface. Using palm of hand, press on breastbone to flatten chicken. Tuck wing tips under. Pour half of marinade into 11x7x2-inch glass baking dish. Open chicken like book; place skin side down in single layer in dish. Pour remaining marinade over. Cover; chill at least 4 hours or overnight, turning chicken occasionally.
• Remove top rack from barbecue. Prepare barbecue (medium heat). If using 2-burner gas grill, light 1 burner. If using 3-burner gas grill, do not light center burner. If using charcoal grill, light briquettes in chimney and pour onto 1 side of lower grill rack. Place disposable aluminum pan on unlit part of grill. Place upper grill rack on barbecue; brush with oil.
• Remove chicken from marinade. Arrange skin side up on grill rack above drip pan. Cover barbecue; grill until skin is browned and instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 165°F, turning often, about 40 minutes. Transfer to platter. Pour warm glaze over.

TRADITIONAL PORTUGUESE PIRI PIRI SAUCE FOR CHICKEN

Steps:

• Add all ingredients to a bowl and whisk together.
• Brush on chicken before barbecuing (or baking in oven @ 350 °F for 1.25 hours WITHOUT opening the door during during entire cooking process.) It helps the flavour if you marinate the chicken for a few hours prior to cooking!

PORTUGUESE CHICKEN IN PIRI PIRI SAUCE

Steps:

• Mix all ingredients for the marinade together. If you find it annoying crushing up the garlic you can buy it pre crushed from the shops.
• Use a sharp knife cut chicken into six pieces so that you have the breast and lower part of the chicken as well as the 4 drumsticks and wings, (visualize the look of the chicken at Nando's). Cut off any excess fat but leave most of the skin as it will add to the flavor.
• Make several small incisions into the chicken to later help it absorb the marinade.
• Bask the chicken well in the marinade and allow it to marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
• Meanwhile mix the Piri Piri seasoning with the lemon juice and the oil. You can find Piri Piri seasoning easily from the shops and it saves you having to chop if 10-12 red chillies and chop up a bay leaf and such, just makes the process a lot simpler. Also add a pinch of salt.
• Pre heat the grill and insert the chicken. Bask the chicken frequently with any excess marinade.Turn the chicken frequently and make sure it doesn't burn.Cook for approximately 30 minutes.
• Remove the chicken from the grill/BBQ and allow it to cool before lathering it in the Piri Piri sauce. Serve with potatoes and what ever else you desire.
• Charcoal grill or BBQ preferred but gas grill works almost as well.
• Seven easy steps to Heaven!