Piri Piri Chicken

Makes
4 servings
Cook Time
2 1/2 hours
Active time plus cooling
30 minutes active
Rating
4

Piri piri can refer to a finger-staining chili pepper sauce—usually spiked with garlic, sugar and plenty of cayenne, lemon and paprika—or to whatever the sauce douses. Its origins are Portuguese, but today it is found in South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia. Ancho, chipotle and regular chili powders tasted off in this recipe, but New Mexico or California chili powders worked well. If you can’t find either, purchase whole chilies, toast and seed them, then finely grind them. Or simply leave out the chili powder and increase the paprika to ¼ cup. Fresno chilies are fresh red chilies similar in size and shape to jalapeños, but with pointy tips; if they are unavailable, fresh cherry peppers work well, too.

Tip

Don’t reduce the number of fresh chilies in the sauce; all eight were needed for flavor and color. To reduce spiciness, remove some or all of the seeds and ribs from the chilies before processing. And don't substitute Thai chilies for the Fresnos; they pack far more heat.

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