In this video, we show you a Pili Pili Chicken Recipe, which is more commonly known as Peri Peri Chicken and this is the Extra Hot version! Pili Pili is a Swahili word that means ‘Chili Chili’ or ‘Pepper Pepper’ and when we visited Zanzibar, we saw the pili pili chili peppers which are deemed as one of the hottest in the world. Since it was my birthday, my family surprised me with this extra hot Peri-Peri Chicken platter, which included Peri-Peri rice, coleslaw, sweet potato wedges and the peri peri sauce. Hope you watch the video to see the #DIFK announcement about the launch of our new website.
To make the Peri Peri Chicken (Pili Pili Chicken) you will need: Step 1 (First Marinade): 2 tbs oil (we’re using mustard oil) juice of half a lime 1 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp dried thyme 1 tsp salt (or to taste) 1/2 tsp ground black pepper 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 tsp paprika Apply this marinade to the chicken for about half an hour (whilst you proceed with the next step). We’re using a butterfly cut chicken and have made slits in the chicken.
Step 2 (Grill veggies): Peri Peri chicken is traditionally cooked on the BBQ, but due to the weather, we could not use the barbecue, so to create the same smokey BBQ flavour we decided to char-grill the veggies. Skip this step if you BBQ and just add veggies directly into blender. 1 small onion 4-5 garlic cloves 1 red capsicum (bell pepper) chilies of your choice (usually birds eye chilies) but we used a selection of scotch bonnet, jalapeno and green chilies. Remember we were creating our favourite ‘EXTRA HOT’ version, but if you prefer less spicy then use less chilies or de-seed (as per your taste).
Put the grilled veggies in a blender with: juice of half a lime 1 tbs brown sugar salt to taste 2 tbs oil 1/4 cup vinegar (we used apple cider vinegar) Marinate chicken for 4-6 hours or overnight for best results.
Cook the chicken at gas mark 7 for about 45-60 covered with foil, and then for another 15 minutes without foil (to get the char). Baste with the leftover marinade. You can also BBQ the chicken or cook it under the grill. Apply any juices in the pan to the chicken before serving to get that beautiful glaze and extra flavour. You can also use some coal once cooked to smoke the chicken. For this method, light up a small piece of coal, place in a little tin foil with some oil, place with the cooked chicken then cover with foil for a few minutes. This will give the authentic char-grilled Peri Peri flavour (like Nandos) without actually using a BBQ.
For the Peri Peri sauce recipe, add the reserved peri peri marinade mixture to a pan, and add a little water, then simmer on low heat for 10 minutes until reduced. For an optional flavour hit, add 1 tbs honey. This will balance the flavour nicely and trust us it tastes incredible!
We served the Nandos Style Peri Peri Chicken with homemade Peri Peri rice, Sweet potato Wedges, coleslaw and the pili pili hot sauce and it tasted amazing!!! In fact, this was probably the Extra Extra hot version of the famous Nandos Peri Peri sauce marinade recipe and we absolutely LOVED IT!
You can view our regular Peri Peri Chicken Recipe (not extra spicy version) which we filmed last year here: https://youtu.be/vn_MsxBI1PA
We hope you have seen how easy it is to make the Nandos Style Peri Peri Chicken Recipe. In the Swahili language, this would be known as pilipili wa kukuyanga (piri piri or peri peri chicken). Please do give the Pili Pili Chicken and Sauce Recipe a try as it is super delicious! You can taste the amazing flame grilled smokey flavour and the spicy chilies in the super delicious Peri Peri Chicken recipe. Please give it a try and let us know in the comments below how you found it!
Don Imran Family Kitchen 