Peri Peri Chicken – Nando’s Chicken Thighs

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Delicious piri piri/ peri peri chicken, or Nando’s chicken thighs, an easy homemade spicy version of the popular restaurant dish.

What is Piri Piri Chicken?

Although I’ve heard of peri peri or piri piri chicken many times before, I never knew, until recently, that this dish is a copycat of a famous restaurant dish: Nando’s Peri Peri Chicken, a chain restaurant originating in South Africa.

So, Nando’s chicken thighs are a Portuguese/ South African dish created by this restaurant, which became really popular not only in Portugal or South Africa but pretty much everywhere.

Peri peri sauce is of Portuguese origin and is a chili seasoning or marinade that has been around for centuries. Portuguese settlers discovered the bird’s eye chilies (pili pili chilies) and used those and other ingredients like garlic and lemon to create this really spicy marinade.

Piri piri is the way Portuguese call this dish or sauce and peri peri is the South African way of calling it.

Regarding the recipe itself, there is a debate if the recipe is actually South African or Portuguese. Probably a bit of both as it originated in South Africa, the meat is marinated in the sauce created by the Portuguese and was brought to Portugal from two Portuguese colonies: Angola and Mozambique.

You can even buy the typical sauce sold in small bottles, it is really hot and a little goes a long way. Use it to make this Peri Peri Dip, for instance.

How to cook Nando’s chicken thighs?

Blend the ingredients for the marinade together, marinate the thighs for several hours or overnight and bake. The result: utterly delicious meat, crispy and spicy on the outside and tender and moist on the inside.

The chicken:

• Usually, you would use a whole bird to make this recipe for peri peri chicken. It should be cut into pieces, marinated, and cooked.
• However, I used whole legs, which I divided at the joint into drumsticks and thighs. Only thighs or only drumsticks can be used instead. I prefer the thighs, they have more meat on them.

The chilies:

• I used 4 regular, rather long red chilies, the standard chilies sold here in Germany. They are not that spicy, under medium hot, so to say. In addition to those, I bought some Bird’s eye chilies. They were so hot, I only dared using one… it was hot enough for us.
• Do use more bird’s eye chilies according to your taste. If children are not eating and you are used to spicy food, you should definitely try using at least 2.

Marinade:

• Chop all the ingredients roughly and place them into a food processor.
• Process until you obtain a rough paste.
• Use the paste to massage the thighs and drumsticks very well, cover the glass or ceramic dish containing the meat with cling film and leave to marinate at least 4 hours or overnight.

How to bake peri peri chicken?

The original from Nando’s is made on the barbecue. However, grilling is something special that happens 5 times every summer. Tops!

So to make this recipe on the barbecue is not really much of an option when you want to make a quick, family dinner.

So, the oven it is. Oven-baked chicken is my favorite kind anyway, it is so versatile and so easy to make. And always a success in our house, I have a lot of recipes on the blog to prove that.

Have a look at this basic recipe for oven-baked chicken, for instance, these baked legs with honey mustard sauce or these oven-roasted legs with vegetables.

• To cook Nando’s chicken thighs perfectly, all you have to do is to place the marinated pieces on a baking tray and bake them for about 45-50 minutes or until the juices run clear.
• Don’t forget to baste the meat with some of the marinade and juices from the tray every 15 minutes or so.

How to serve Nando’s chicken?

• Serve immediately, with any kind of side dish you like. Perfect would be Nando’s Spicy Rice.
• Rice and cabbage salad/coleslaw would be nice, any kind of potatoes or the way the Portuguese serve it: with fries and lettuce, tomato and onion salad.