Frango Piri-Piri
Algarve-Style Grilled Chicken with Chilli Oil
In the Algarve this is frango da Guia, after the village near Albufeira that made it famous: a small chicken opened flat, salted, grilled over charcoal until the skin blisters and brushed with chilli oil at the end. It comes with chips, a tomato salad and more chilli oil on the table. The original is simpler than most of what has been done to it since. Brush the chilli on late, or it burns.
Guia's claim rests on Restaurante Ramires, opened as a small café in 1964 by José Carlos Ramires. The restaurant says its recipe drew on cooking from Portugal's then overseas territories in Africa, and that it is the reason Guia is known as the capital of grilled chicken. A second well-known house, O Teodósio, has been grilling there since 1982.
The chilli is the small, fierce African bird's eye. Its name comes from pilipili, the Swahili word for pepper. Chillies reached Africa from the Americas on Portuguese ships and became part of the cooking of Angola and Mozambique; accounts of the dish's history link its spread in Portugal to people returning from those countries in the 1970s. The spelling peri-peri, familiar from British high streets, came by way of southern Africa.
Local descriptions of the marinade mention garlic, lemon, oregano, oil and a splash of spirit, with the exact formula kept secret. At Guia the birds are small, and the chilli sauce is often served separately.
Ingredients
For the chicken
- 1 chicken, about 1.3 kg
- 4 garlic cloves
- 10 g flaky sea salt (about 1 tbsp)
- 40 ml lemon juice (1 lemon)
- 45 ml olive oil (3 tbsp)
- 15 ml whisky or brandy (1 tbsp), optional
- 1 tsp dried oregano
For the piri-piri oil
- 6 to 8 dried piri-piri chillies, crushed, or 4 fresh red bird's eye chillies, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 100 ml olive oil
- 15 ml lemon juice or white wine vinegar (1 tbsp)
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
To serve
- Chips
- Tomato and onion salad
Method
- Open the chicken Put the chicken breast side down. Cut along both sides of the backbone with strong scissors and remove it. Turn the bird over and press hard on the breastbone until it cracks and the chicken lies flat. Cut two deep slashes in each leg.
- Marinate Crush the garlic to a paste with the salt. Stir in the lemon juice, oil, spirit and oregano. Rub this all over the chicken, including under the skin of the breast. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 24.
- Make the oil Stir the piri-piri oil ingredients together in a clean jar. Leave for at least an hour. Keep it in the fridge and use it within 3 days.
- Grill over charcoal Light the barbecue and wait until the coals are covered in grey ash. Bank them to one side. Cook the chicken bone side down over a medium heat for 20 minutes with the lid on, then turn it skin side down and cook for a further 15 to 25 minutes, turning every 5 minutes and moving it away from the coals if the fat flares.
- Or roast Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Put the chicken skin side up on a rack over a roasting tray and roast for 40 to 45 minutes, until the skin is blistered and deep golden.
- Brush Brush the skin with piri-piri oil for the last 5 minutes of cooking.
- Check and rest Push a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh, away from the bone. It should read at least 75°C. The juices should run clear, with no pink meat. Rest for 10 minutes, then cut into pieces and serve with more oil at the table.
Food safety
Cook chicken until the thickest part reaches at least 75°C, the juices run clear and no pink remains. Do not baste with marinade that has touched the raw bird. Home-made garlic and chilli oil must be kept in the fridge and used within 3 days; do not store it at room temperature.
Slashing the legs lets them cook at the same pace as the breast.
Brush the chilli oil on late. Chilli and garlic scorch and turn bitter over a long cook.
The heat builds. Start with less oil than you think you need and let people add their own.