This is a recipe from Lorraine Pascale. Another you must try this dish. I’ve adapted the recipe a bit – my notes, as always are in italics. I served it with some roasted vegetables – delicious! We like it hot so I used a combination of Thai and Habanero Chilies along with some “Tabasco sauce with Habanero” for that ready mixed, perfectly flavored hot sauce taste. As always – enjoy!
1 x 1.5kg/3lb whole chicken cut into pieces – I cut each half breast into 3 pieces – easier to control the cooking time, 2 drumettes, 2 wing pieces, 2 legs, 2 thighs – it’s a week night meal and yes, I left the skin on
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon – juiced
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
Peri Peri Sauce
5 garlic cloves, chopped/mashed
1-5 red chillies (peri peri or piri piri means hot and describes the taste of the birds eye chili used to make this sauce, so be brave – awesome if you can get birds eye chilies, otherwise substitute Thai or Habanero – just not as much. These are hot chilies with a sting to them, so start with less and add more – remember my taste, season, taste rule applies to hot sauce as well)
2cm/1in piece of ginger, grated
50ml/2fl oz vegetable oil or olive oil
25ml/1fl oz white or red wine vinegar
3 tbsp soy sauce
1-2 tbsp Tabasco with Habanero sauce (again as hot as you dare!)
2 heaping tsps smoked paprika
1 1/2 tsps dried oregano
1 tsp sugar
1 lime, zest and juice
1 onion roughly sliced
2 small rutabagas chopped
1 potato chopped
5 Thai chilies – whole or cut down the middle
Olive oil, salt, pepper to taste
Method
Preheat the oven to 400F
Place the chicken pieces in a large baking pan and season well with salt, pepper, lemon juice and a drizzle of oil – put it in the oven and start roasting the pieces (the next step should take you about 10 minutes)
Make the peri peri sauce – peel and roughly chop the garlic and ginger, halve and finely chop the chillies and place both in a small bowl. Add the rest of the peri peri sauce ingredients and stir to combine – taste, season and taste again – the combination of lime, smoked paprika and oregano are what add the peri peri flavor to the sauce
Remove the chicken pieces from the oven, paint the pieces on both sides with the peri peri marinade and return it to the oven to continue baking for a further 20 – 25 minutes – if the chicken has released a lot of water, drain it before you put the marinade on
Rub the vegetables with olive oil, salt and pepper, place on a foil lined baking tray and roast in the oven
At the end of the cooking time the marinade will thicken and coat the chicken like a second skin and should be browning nicely – it’s not burnt, this is the peri peri style and what contributes to the taste of the sauce – if it starts to look like it is charring, tent loosely with foil to prevent it from burning – but again, that’s the beauty of peri peri chicken which is usually bbq’d or grilled
Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan and tent with foil
Continue to roast the vegetables in the oven – a further 10 – 15 minutes, test for tenderness – taste, season if necessary and taste – remove from the oven
Pour the excess oil out of the baking pan, deglaze the pan on top of the stove using the stock and a wooden spoon to stir up the brown bits from the bottom – reduce this to a thick syrup consistency. Add this to the remaining peri peri sauce and serve separately with the chicken and onion/potato mixture (oh yes, and water!). I’ve also made this before using a whole chicken – also pictured below for your reference – I prefer roasting the cut up chicken.
