Piri Piri Chicken
Roasted Chicken With Spicy Bold Chili Flavors
One of my favorite food magazines is Milk Street. These magazines are always filled with the most delicious, but usually more complicated recipes. If you want hard core cooking lessons at home without paying the price, buy this magazine and cook away. I have tried many of there recipes and they never disappoint.
In one of there issues they have a big article on Piri Piri Chicken, which is a recipe from South Africa. It’s known for it’s spiciness, bold flavors and extra moist chicken with a very crispy skin. It’s usually roasted over an open fire or grill. The picture on the front cover looked so delish that I had to try it, but I wanted to make the recipe more accessible to the every day cook. Therefore I added some of my personal tricks to keep the meat moist, but with less steps and I slow roasted it in the oven since it’s winter in the midwest and most people don’t want to fire up a grill.
The chicken I used was from a local farmer, which I believe always has more flavor and moisture as long as it isn’t over cooked. I like to roast it in my cast iron dutch oven, but a granite roasted also does a very good job browning the skin. While the chicken is roasting, I always add enough broth to cover the bottom of the pan which results in a very moist chicken. I also slow roast it 300-350 degrees till it’s done. At the very end, I take the chicken out of the oven, increase oven temperature to 450 , place dutch oven back into the oven without the lid, roast for another 15ish minutes or till skin is nice & crispy.
You will have plenty of the spicy sauce leftover to dip the chicken in or you can use the sauce from the bottom of the pan, such crazy deliciousness. I know I will be making this many times in the future. Thanks again for visiting my 2nd home, Emma’s Daily Bread. CHEERS TO A HAPPY & HEALTHY DAY!
Piri Piri Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 3-4 LB Chicken If your chicken is bigger, you will just need to roast it longer.
- 3 TBSP Chili Powder
- 1 TBSP cumin
- 1 TBSP Coriander
- 1.5 TBSP Salt
- 2 TBSP Coconut Sugar Omit to keep meal Whole30
- 4 Jalapeno or Fresno Peppera Deseed for less spiciness
- 3 Garlic cloves
- 1/3 Cup Lemon Juice Each lemon has approximately 2 TBSP Juice
- 14 Cup Red Wine Vinegar
- 1 Cup Cilantro Leaves May also use small stems
- 1 Cup Chicken or Vegetable Broth
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small bowl mix the chili, coriander, cumin and salt. I don't usually rinse off the chicken, I just pat dry if needed. Using your fingers gently remove breast and thigh skin from the flesh. Using 2 TBSP of the spice mixture put it under the skin & rub it into the flesh, as seen in the image below. Set the chicken aside while getting the rest of the sauce together.
- Place the rest of the spice mixture, coconut sugar, jalapeños, & garlic cloves in a food processor. Pulse until ingredients are mixed & finely chopped. While ingredients are mixing, drizzle in the lemon juice & red wine vinegar. All the chili spices create a deep, rich, red spicy sauce.
- Pour enough broth into a dutch oven to completely cover the bottom of the pan. Using 1/4th cup of the spicy mixture, brush all sides of the chicken including the bone side, set aside the leftover sauce for later use. Place chicken into the dutch oven, breast side up, and cover with the lid. Roast chicken for one hour or until breast temperature is 160 degrees & thigh temperature is 175 degrees. Every 15-20 minutes I baste the chicken with the liquid from the bottom of the dutch oven.
- Follow these steps if you would like your chicken skin to be crispy. Once chicken is almost done roasting, remove from the oven. Increase oven temperature to 450. Remove lid, roast chicken for another 15-20 minutes. After it's done roasting allow chicken to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
- Finely chop cilantro leaves and small stems, sprinkle a couple tablespoons on top of the chicken for presentation & mix the rest with the leftover spicy sauce. Use the remainder of the spicy sauce as a dipping sauce.
- Because this dish already has a lot of bold flavors,I like to serve simple sides with it such as spring veggie salad drizzled with an olive oil vinaigrette dressing, wild rice or quinoa cooked in veggie broth which adds great flavor and creaminess. Any roasted veggies such as broccoli, cauliflower, and root veggies would also be delicious with this dish. This time I served it over a bed of wild rice.
