Whole Peri-Peri Chicken Braaied on the BigGreenEgg

This Whole Braaied Peri-Peri Chicken Recipe is a South African classic and one of my favourite meals. There are hundreds of recipes to make this spice as well as pre-made ones to buy, we sell many on our website www.biltong.co.uk . We have a large range from Nando's “who are now synonomous throughout the world for Peri-Peri chicken” plus many other brands. I am going to use a couple of different one plus other ingredients to make up my favourite recipe “Robertson’s Peri-Peri Spice” and “Spillers Peri-Peri Oil”. By using these pre-made one you will save yourself a lot of time. But I will give you a recipe to make up your own Per-Peri if you don’t or cannot get hold of these.

A little bit about the history of Peri-Peri, although Piri-Piri Sauce is a Portuguese staple spice “South Africans love it” is ubiquitous in the former Portuguese African colonies. South Africa borders Angola and Mozambique and this is probably where the connection arose. Piri-piri is the spelling of the name as used in the Portuguese language, namely in the Portuguese speaking Mozambican community. There’s a lot of debate about how the piri-piri pepper came to Portugal it is believed the peppers were originally brought back on Columbus’s voyage to the Americas. Most people believe that the Portuguese took the chiles to their colonies of Mozambique and Angola, where they were christened a Swahili word “Pili pili” that means ‘pepper-pepper,’ and naturally cross-pollinated. Eventually, one of the varieties made its way to Portugal, where, for some reason, it retained its African name.

I love hot spicy foods and this recipe is for a Hot Peri-Peri, so if you don’t like it hot then make sure that you cut down on the spice to meet you tastes.

SERVES 2-3 - PREP 15 MINS - MARINADE 1HR-24HR - COOK TIME: 30-40 MINS

Ingredients for the Peri-Peri Marinade

spatchcock
o1 free range chicken Spatchcocked you can use baby chickens
4 tbsp Spillers Peri-Peri Oil
½ - 1 tsp Robertson’s Peri-Peri Spice (depends how hot you like it)
2 Peri-Peri (bird's-eye) fresh or ¼ tsp dried chilli
3-4 cloves of garlic chopped
½ tsp grated fresh ginger
Juice of a lime or lemon
¼ tsp Salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Ingredients for the Peri-Peri (if you cant get the ones I have used)

6 Peri-Peri (bird's-eye) fresh or ½ tsp dried chilli
3-4 cloves of garlic chopped
2 tbsp Olive Oil
½ tsp grated fresh ginger
Juice of a lime or lemon
¼ tsp Salt
¼ tsp black pepper
1 tbsp sweet smoked paprika
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Method for cooking Peri-Peri Chicken

Preheat the Braai to 180°C (360°F).
Spatchcock the chicken (A spatchcock, otherwise known as "spattlecock", is poultry or game that has been prepared for roasting or grilling by removing the backbone and sternum of the bird and flattening it out before cooking) ask your butcher to do this for you if you aren’t happy to do this.
Score the chicken deeply.
Pour the Peri Oil over the chicken making sure that you rub it into all the cuts and on both sides. This is going to help marinade the chicken as well as make sure that it does not stick to the grill.
Sprinkle the Robertson’s Peri spice all over, once again making sure that it gets into all the cuts and on both sides.
Mix the chilli, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper and lime/lemon juice together crush or grind into a paste and spread over the chicken, again make sure that it covers everything.
Leave to marinate over night or for at least 1hr, the longer the better.
Place on the braai open-side up and cook for 15 mins, turn and do the same on the other side. Turn up the braai and brown off, if needs be for 5-10 mins, you don’t want it to burn but you do want the skin to be nice and crispy, to caramelise and give you that great braai taste. Keep an eye on how things are going, you don’t want it to burn.
After 30 mins of cooking poke a knife into the leg or thigh and see it the juice runs clear, if it does its cooked if not give it another 5-10 mins and check again.

All that's left to do is make a selection of rice, chips, coleslaw or a fresh salad and serve, fabulous. This just smelt divine while it was cooking, the lime juice just lifts it giving it a fresh taste with all those spices just zinging around your mouth.

Win 1 of 3 Free Peri-Peri Packs

Once again this week we are giving away three packs of free goodies, if you would like to win one of the Peri-Peri spice packs then please leave some feed back and it could be you (entry closes 14th December 2012). Also I love to hear what you think about what i'm cooking, feel free to leave suggestions as to what you would like to see me cook. Enjoy, until next week take care. Larry