The Portugal Papers

Boa Tarde! (Good Afternoon!)

My second attempt at Portuguese cooking is a very common dish here – Piri Piri Chicken! Once again, let’s start by checking in with my advisor, Google.

You will find churrascarias (translates to barbecue restaurants) selling grilled, split, whole and half chickens everywhere – it’s their version of fast food, and it’s delicious! For the at home cook, it is acceptable to roast your chicken in the oven, slathered in the spicy piri piri sauce.

Start by making the marinade. You’ll need olive oil, honey, orange juice, lemon zest/juice, paprika, oregano, salt & pepper, lots of garlic, and of course piri piri sauce! Note: I did not make my own piri piri sauce. Traditionally, you would use tiny bird’s eye chilies, but as this was my first attempt, I went with store-bought. (Ina says store-bought is fine!) I’m sure heat level varies by brand – I used about two big tablespoons of sauce, mixed into the other ingredients, which resulted in a nice kick but wasn’t overwhelmingly spicy.

Whisk everything altogether and add to a large storage bag with your raw chicken. I used chicken thighs because I like them. The recipe says to marinate for four hours or overnight. Your girl forgot to start cooking until late in the afternoon, so mine only marinated for about 2 1/2 hours. It’s fine.

When you’re ready to cook, preheat a cast-iron skillet in a hot oven. I was feeling fancy and used the fan (convection) setting! Add a little oil and the chicken, and I went ahead and dumped in the marinade too, so that it would reduce and thicken in the oven. I cooked my chicken for 30-40 minutes, and basted it with the sauce a couple of times during the process. That’s it!

Traditionally, you would eat this with a pile of french fries or roasted potatoes to soak up all the sauce. As we are trying for moderation (sometimes), we went with brown rice and salad (note the roasted chickpeas on top!). Lisa said this was an A+ dinner, and even asked for more sauce!

And as promised, I checked to make sure the raw salads greens were safe to eat here. My advisor said it was fine.

I hope you and your loved ones are well.❤️