Nando's Style Chicken

Nando’s Style Chicken

Nando’s style chicken, or piri piri chicken is always a firm favourite. But just how hot do you like it?

I tend to go for the Extra Hot when I go in there but I know that may be a little bit too much for some of you.

The key to making this chicken is to marinade the chicken in a sauce that suits your tastes. To cool down the sauce, use a less hot chilli, to pep it up a bit use a more hot chilli.

I recently bought a bag of dried Amarillo chillis (Peruvian chillis) and I have been using these for my sauce. They’re fruity but with a nice kick, especially if you leave the seeds in.

Cooking surfaces

BBQ Temperature

Ingredients

For the piri piri sauce

2 Amarillo Chillis, deseeded if you don’t like it spicy, seeds in if you do (subsitute other chillis, African Birds Eye are good, if you don’t have these or want to buy them)
2 cloves garlic
10 basil leaves
1 handfull of fresh coriander (with stalks)
Juice of 1 lime
6 tbsp light olive oil
1 tsp Maldon salt

For the Chicken

1 chicken, spatchcocked

Equipment

Meater+ Wireless Thermometer or Big Green Egg Genius
Thermapen Professional

Method

To prepare the Piri Piri Sauce

Put all of the ingredients into a blender and mix until you have a rough paste.

To prepare the chicken

To spatchcock the chicken, turn it so the breasts are facing downwards onto your chopping board.

Take a heavy duty pair of kitchen scissors and cut down either side of the backbone from the back to the neck and discard the backbone.
Turn the chicken over and open out. Use the flat of your hand to push down on the breasts and flatten.
For authentic Nando’s style chicken you can take a sharp knife and cut the carcass in half down the breastbone.
With a sharp knife cut three times across each breast and two to three times on the legs and thighs. This will allow the marinade to penetrate and flavour the meat.
Now rub in your marinade all over the chicken. I suggest you do this on a baking tray as it’s going to be messy.
Place into your fridge for at least 2 hours but preferably overnight.
Once the chicken has marinaded, light your Egg and setup for a direct cook at 180°C (use just the stainless steel grid).
Cook the chicken skin side down for about 25 minutes.
Now turn your chicken and cook until it reaches 74°C internal temperature. This will take about 15 minutes. I use a Meater+ thermometer or Meater Block to measure this and then check the chicken is cooked all over with a Thermapen when the Meater indicates it is done.