Homemade Peri Peri Chicken

Even the sauce is homemade, you know? Well, I finally stepped into the kitchen and did some cooking! After dunno how many weeks of Dahmakan and Grabfood, I got tired.

Not only did I get tired of the food, I had some disappointments with inconsistency in quality of the meals I ordered. If there is one more thing that disliked, it's the anxiety of waiting for my food and dealing with riders who have trouble locating my office.

So I decided to food prep again. How does that look?

The thing about food prep is that you want to prep food that is tasty (obviously) which you will want to eat and food that would still taste good even after a few days in the fridge.

In the past, I admit, I had wasted food when did not eat what I prepped. I would prepare four days worth and eat only two. Why? Because the food was not appetizing. 

To kick-start my food prep, I though why not make something really tasty and spicy like Peri Peri chicken. And why not challenge myself and make the Peri Peri sauce?

There are many recipes on the internet and you can go crazy just browsing and trying to make comparisons. So I chose the easy way out and followed the recipe that popped out right at the start of the search.

It's not difficult to make, the ingredients are easily available and all you need to do is just run them through the blender and then simmer the sauce for about 20 minutes.

The sauce is pungent and super hot, depending on how many chilies and the type of chilies used. I used a combination of regular red chilies and red cili padi because though I love it hot, I cannot tolerate if it is way too hot.

I made the sauce a day before to save time. To make the Peri Peri chicken, I used Piri Piri seasoning to rub all over the chicken before roasting.

Like so.

Then I roasted the chicken and basted with my homemade Peri Peri sauce.

I must say that it turned out quite well, don't you think?

I will share the recipe below which I freely adapted to suit the amount that I needed and also the ingredients available to me.

By the way, this is the red wine vinegar that I used.

Homemade Peri Peri Sauce

Recipe source : Adapted from Simply Delicious

Ingredients :

- 1 big onion, chopped

- 1/2 head of garlic cloves, chopped

- 4 red chilies + 5 red cili padi

- 1 big ripe tomato, chopped

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- juice of 3 lemons

- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar

- 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

- 1/2 tbsp dried oregano

- 1/2 tbp smoked paprika

- 1 tbsp sugar or to taste

- 1/2 tbsp salt or to taste

- 1 bay leaf

Method :

1. Put all ingredients except bay leaf into a blender and bend until smooth.

2. Pour blended ingredients into a saucepan and add bay leaf.

3. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. 

4. Taste and adjust for seasoning.

5. Cool completely, remove bay leaf and store sauce in an airtight jar and keep in the fridge.

Homemade Peri Peri Chicken

Ingredients :

- 1/2 chicken

- 3 tbsp Piri Piri seasoning

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1 cup (or more) homemade Peri Peri sauce

Method :

1. In a bowl, mix the Piri Piri seasoning with olive oil.

2. Rub the mixture all over the chicken.

3. Place chicken on a metal rack and roast at 180C for 45-50 minutes, basting with the Peri Peri sauce after the initial 20 minutes and continue to roast and baste every 10-15 minutes until chicken is fully cooked.

4. Serve with extra Peri Peri sauce.