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Nando’s chicken recipe-How to make copycat peri-peri chicken

I have been a loyal customer of Nando’s peri-peri chicken and always want to create a homemade version of Nando’s chicken recipe. 

And finally, I have done it!

I want to share how I make it in this article, and all you need are some chilies plus some common ingredients in the kitchen pantry. 

Since I live in an apartment, I use the grill pan and oven instead of an open-fire grill. The result just blew me away!  

Let’s get into the details. 

The word peri-peri is from Swahili, a language used by the locals in East Africa. It means pepper or spicy chili. The sauce was of Portuguese origin, but the Portuguese settlers had made it widely popular in African countries like Mozambique and South Africa.

How to make Nando’s peri-peri chicken taste like the original, juicer, and better flavor.

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How to make Nando’s peri-peri chicken

This Portuguese BBQ peri-peri chicken (also called piri-piri chicken) has become a famous spicy food since the South African food chain Nando’s Chicken opened up stores worldwide. The chicken is marinated with peri-peri sauce, a chili sauce made with African bird’s eye chilies, vinegar, lemon juice, and spices. The spicy, tangy, and garlicky flavor has won over many gastronomers and garners a legion of fans.

1. Ingredients for the peri-peri sauce (Nando’s sauce)

The peri-peri sauce is an integral part of Nando’s chicken recipe. It has a unique flavor that no other hot sauce comes close to. It is used as the peri-peri marinade for the chicken and the dipping sauce while serving. Here is the rundown of some common marinade ingredients for peri-peri sauce.

Chilies

The primary ingredient for peri-peri sauce (also spelled as piri-piri sauce) is chili, making it a spicy sauce. I use three types of chilies in this recipe.

The original recipes of peri-peri sauce are made with the African bird’s eye chili. However, since this type of chili is unavailable where I live (Malaysia), I choose to use the local bird’s eye chilies, which are similar. 

Besides that, I also use the local large red chilies, which are less spicy than the bird’s eye chili.

The last one is the non-spicy red bell pepper. You may also want to try using cayenne pepper,

The combination is necessary because this chili has a different flavor and level of heat. You may want to remove as many seeds as possible if you can’t take the heat rather than reduce the chili. The more chili you use, the more flavor you will get.

I have made a video on preparing the peri-peri chicken, which is included on this page. You can refer to how I removed the seeds in the video, starting from xx. xx minutes.

Give the chilies a few rough cuts to reduce the size and lessen the workload of the food processor to blend them into a paste in the next step.

Onion and garlic

The aromatics in the recipes are onion and garlic. Have a few rough cuts for the red onion, and bash the garlic cloves. Both of them will give some texture to the sauce besides their flavor. The sauce will become too diluted without them.

Note: I char the onion and bell pepper by broiling them in the oven. The goal is to introduce some charred flavor, but you can do without it by directly blending the raw onion and bell pepper with other ingredients.

Vinegar and lemon

The acidity of the peri-peri sauce comes from wine vinegar and lemon. I use wine vinegar, but you can substitute it with other white vinegar. 

As for the lemon, you need the lemon juice for the acidity and the lemon zest for the flavor. It is easier to zest the lemon before cutting it in half. Be careful not to use the white part when zesting the lemon, as it is bitter. The yellow part of the peel holds the essential oil filled with lemon flavor, which you need. On the other hand, lemon juice has an acidic, tart taste different from the zest. Therefore, it is best to use both in preparing the peri-peri sauce.

Other spices

Oregano is the main herb for peri-peri sauce. Paprika is also required to provide the flavor of the chili. My recipe includes oregano, rosemary, black pepper, salt, and sugar. Sometimes, I use white pepper, which makes no significant difference.

2. How to prepare the homemade peri-peri sauce

  • Cut the onions into small chunks. Deseed the bell pepper and cut it into large pieces. Please place them in a baking tray on the oven’s top rack to broil until they are partially charred. Remove and let it cool.
  • Remove the stems and seeds of the large red chilies and bird’s eye chilies. You may consider wearing a glove to avoid the burning feeling. You can also rub your hands with oil before handling the chili if you do not want to use the glove.
  • Cut the chilies into one to two cm sections.
  • Place the chili, onion, garlic, vinegar, part of the lemon juice, and other spices listed in the recipe into a blender or food processor. Blend for two minutes or until it turns into a smooth paste.
  • Transfer the chili paste to a small pot. Add the bay leaves.
  • Bring it to a boil and simmer over low heat for ten to ten minutes to break down the ingredients. You must keep stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the pot, especially in the final few minutes when the sauce has become thicker.
  • Discard the bay leaves. Transfer the cooked sauce back to the blender.
  • Add the remaining lemon juice, lemon zest, and olive oil.
  • Blender for half a minute, and the peri-peri sauce is done.

You can adjust the spice level by changing the number of chilies in the recipe. Similarly, You can change the amount of lemon, herbs, and garlic according to your preference. Nando has a variety of sauces with different levels of spiciness. The taste profile of this sauce is approximately the peri-peri sauce with moderate heat offered in the Nando restaurant in Malaysia.

How to make nando's peri-peri chicken taste like the original, juicer, and better flavor.

3. Brine the chicken for extra juiciness

Brining the chicken is an optional step to enhance the flavor and ensure the meat’s juiciness. You may want to skip this step if you are short of time or looking for a simple way to prepare the peri-peri chicken. It may not make a huge difference, especially if you are using fresh chicken, but I think there will be a noticeable improvement for frozen chicken.

The chicken brine I use is basic since I will marinate the chicken with the peri-peri sauce in the following step. I use chicken hindquarters (whole chicken legs), but the process is the same if you brine the entire chicken.

Here is what I do:

  • Clean the chicken hindquarters thoroughly. You may use chicken breasts, chicken thighs, chicken wings, or other chicken pieces.
  • Add 4 tbsp salt, 4 tbsp sugar, and 2 tsp crushed black pepper to a large container.
  • Pour 1 cup of hot water into the container. Stir to dissolve the sugar and salt.
  • Add half of the tap water and some ice cubes to cool the water. 
  • Place the chicken into the water. Mix well.
  • Place something heavy (I use the lid of my pan) on the chicken so they always submerge in the brine.
  • Transfer it to the refrigerator and let it sit for at least half a day or overnight.

4. Marinate the chicken with the peri-peri sauce

After removing the chicken from the brine, marinate it for at least half a day or overnight with the peri-peri sauce. This step is essential to develop great flavor.

  • Pat dry the chicken
  • Place the chicken in a large container.
  • Rub the chicken with a sufficient amount of peri peri marinade. You can add more than required as you will use the extra to apply onto the surface before roasting it in the oven.
  • Keep it in a ziploc bag (or freezer bag) and place it in the refrigerator to marinate it for half a day or overnight. Prolonged marination helps to yield tender chicken.

If you think it is OK to speed up the work by sacrificing that slight extra juiciness, you can skip this step and move straight to marinate it. If so, please remember to season it with salt. You do not need to do this if you brine the chicken because there is sufficient salt.

5. Grill, then roast the chicken

The final step of my Nando’s chicken recipe is to grill the marinated chicken. However, setting up an outdoor grill is impossible since I live in a high-rise apartment. Therefore, I have to settle with a grill pan on the stovetop.

Here are the steps:

  • Heat some oil in the grill pan over medium to high heat.
  • When the pan is hot, grill the chicken skin side down until it forms the charred marks. Then, turn to the other side and continue grilling.
  • The grill pan behaves differently than the open-fire grill, as the side of the chicken will not brown effectively. To overcome this problem and get the best result, lift the chicken with tongs to char all sides of the chicken. Move the chicken from time to time to ensure it is grilled evenly.

Note:

If you use the open fire to grill the chicken, the heat from the charcoal is sufficient to cook the chicken effectively. However, this is not the case when cooking it with a grill pan. There is a chance that the surface is already brown and charred, but the inside is still raw. Therefore, when the charred marks are formed, I remove the chicken from the grill pan and then transfer it to the oven to finish cooking.

  • Transfer the chicken to the oven rack
  • Brush the extra marinade abundantly on both sides of the chicken.
  • Place the chicken in the oven and roast at 150°C/300°F for about thirty minutes. The chicken is cooked when the internal temperature reaches 70°C/160°F.
  • Remove and serve.

I have also made some grilled vegetables and oven-roasted corn as side dishes, my favorites when dining at Nando’s peri-peri chicken.

Note: After grilling, the chicken is placed in the oven to ensure the inside is fully cooked. It is best to use a meat thermometer to check the temperature by inserting it into the thickest part of the chicken to monitor the internal temperature. The use of low temperatures will prevent the color of the skin from darkening during roasting.

6. Verdict for my Nando’s chicken recipe

The taste of my homemade Nando’s copycat is almost identical to the original taste of Nando’s peri peri chicken, which is the reference for my homemade version. 

However, if I want to be picky, I prefer my Nando’s chicken recipe because it is juicier (most likely because I brine the fresh chicken). As for the peri-peri sauce, Nando’s version tastes more vinegar, and my homemade sauce has a more lemon flavor. Another plus point of the homemade sauce is that it is free from chili seeds, whereas the store-bought version has quite a fair bit of chili seeds.

The homemade version lacks the smoke flavor, which is expected. Although I tried to infuse some smoke flavor by heating a few charcoals until smoky, then covering them with the chicken during marinade, it did not introduce much smoke flavor to the chicken. 

Lastly, I also want to point out that the flavor of Nando’s chicken in different regions may not be the same. For example, Nando’s restaurants in Malaysia offer a few peri-peri sauces with varying heat levels. Therefore, I used the medium heat peri-peri sauce as the benchmark while developing Nando’s chicken recipe.

A related recipe to this Nando’s chicken recipe

If you like fast food style chicken like Nando’s of KFC, you will love the Malaysian-style fried chicken (ayam goreng) with a deep savory and spicy flavor. It is crispy on the outside, with the flavor of the spices down to the bone. So, you may view it as a spicy version of KFC.

Yield: 3 chicken hindquarters

How to prepare Nando’s peri-peri chicken

peri-peri chicken recipe square

I have been a loyal customer of Nando’s peri-peri chicken and always want to create a homemade version of the Nando’s chicken recipe.  And finally, I have done it!

I want to share how I make it in this article, and all you need are some chilies plus some common ingredients in the kitchen pantry. 

Let’s get into the details. 

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

Ingredients A (for the sauce)

  • 1 red bell pepper (broil)
  • 1 medium-sized onion (roughly chopped) (broil)
  • 5 bird's eye chilies (roughly chopped)*
  • 5 large red chilies (roughly chopped)*
  • 8 cloves garlic
  • 80ml red wine vinegar
  • 30ml lemon juice
  • 2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary
  • 2 tsp paprika
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper

Ingredients B (for the sauce)

Ingredients C (chicken brine)

  • 4 tbsp salt
  • 4 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp crushed black pepper
  • 1 liter cold water
  • 1/2 liter hot water
  • Some ice cubes

Ingredients D (others)

  • 3 chicken hindquarters
  • Vegetables to grill the chicken

Instructions

Make the peri-peri sauce

  1. In a food processor, add ingredients A. Blend until it has no large chunks. 
  2. Pour the puree into a saucepan, add Ingredients B. Mix and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to avoid it from sticking and overburn.
  3. After 10 minutes, remove the bay leaves. 
  4. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, and zest.
  5. Return the sauce to the food processor and blend until it becomes a smooth sauce.

Brine the chicken

  1. Dissolve the salt and sugar in hot water in a large container. Add the black pepper, cold water, and some ice to cool it.
  2. Place the chicken in the brine and let it sit for half a day or overnight.

Marinate the chicken

  1. Pat dry the chicken.
  2. Marinate the chicken with the peri-peri sauce for half a day or overnight.

Cook the chicken

  1. Remove and place it on a grill pan. Sear on both sides until the charred marks are formed on the surface.
  2. Place the chicken on an oven rack, and apply more peri-peri sauce on both sides.
  3. Roast in the preheated oven at 150°C/300°F for 30 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 70°C/160°F.
  4. Serve.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

3

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 742Total Fat: 44gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 32gCholesterol: 133mgSodium: 10618mgCarbohydrates: 51gFiber: 7gSugar: 31gProtein: 40g

This data was provided and calculated by Nutritionix on 10/3/2021

Bridie

Friday 4th of November 2022

Hello! I am trying out the recipe and wanted to clarify Step two of making peri peri sauce - do you simmer for ten minutes with just the bay leaf, then add oil/lemon? Or do you add oil/lemon at the same time you add the bay leaf?

KP Kwan

Saturday 5th of November 2022

I simmer the bay leaf with all the blended ingredients for ten minutes. You can check out the video, which is helpful.

KP Kwan

Sunday 3rd of October 2021

Hi, this is KP Kwan. I am happy to see you in this comment area, as you have read through my recipe. I am glad to reply to any questions and comments as soon as possible.

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