Chicken piri piri recipe: Rick Stein’s version is ‘the ultimate Saturday night treat’

One of the most comforting things to do on a weekend night is to order a takeaway and stay in watching your favourite TV show.

That’s why Rick Stein’s piri piri chicken recipe might come in handy, especially now it’s grilling season, as it’s a straightforward and “moreish” take on the classic dish.

In his book, Rick Stein’s Long Weekends, the chef explained: “If you are going to call something ‘piri-piri’, make it hot! You find this dish all over Lisbon.

“I particularly recall Casa da India, where Sas and I stopped in for a beer and looked longingly at the piri-piri chicken on a charcoal grill in the window.”

Piri piri chicken recipe

Ingredients

One x 1.5kg chicken, jointed into eight pieces, or eight large chicken thighs

One lemon cut into wedges, to serve

For the marinade:

Two tsp salt

Two cloves garlic, crushed or grated

1/2 lemon, juice

For the piri-piri sauce:

7-8 dried piri-piri chillies, or 5–6 red jalapeño and one red bird’s eye, roughly chopped, seeds left in

One clove garlic, roughly chopped

One 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar or juice one lemon

125ml olive oil

One 1/2 tbsp smoked hot paprika

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp caster sugar

One tsp dried oregano

Instructions

Combine all marinade elements in a single container. Submerge the chicken pieces entirely, ensuring thorough coverage, then seal and refrigerate for sixty minutes.

To create the piri piri sauce, blend all constituents apart from the oregano until a thick consistency is reached. Subsequently, fold in the oregano. If the sauce appears excessively dense, gradually incorporate additional olive oil. This condiment can be preserved in a sterilised glass vessel in the refrigerator for up to fourteen days.

Preheat the oven to two hundred degrees Celsius. Arrange the marinated chicken on a baking sheet and roast for approximately twenty-five minutes.

Simultaneously, preheat the grill to a high temperature. Transfer the chicken to the grill for five minutes to achieve a crisp exterior, then apply four tablespoons of piri piri sauce. Alternatively, grill the chicken for fifteen minutes, skin-side down, to induce a crisp and slightly charred surface. Flip and continue cooking for ten minutes or until the internal temperature attains seventy-five degrees Celsius.

Apply piri piri sauce as previously described. Serve accompanied by lemon wedges and an additional serving of piri piri sauce.