Australia · Nando's Australia · Recipes
PERi-PERi Chicken (Copycat)
A home version of the flame-grilled peri peri chicken format: chicken breasts marinated in a blended chilli, pepper and herb sauce, then pan fried or grilled until charred at the edges and cooked through. The sauce simmers first so the raw chilli heat settles into a tangy, garlicky flavour. It has not been kitchen-tested for this site yet, so treat it as a starting point. The home cost below is an estimate per serving, for one of the four servings this batch makes.
What it costs: restaurant vs home
| Option | Cost |
|---|---|
| Non-Veg1/2 PERi-PERi Chicken at Nando's Australia (typical price, from the menu page) | $15.95 |
| This home version, per serving | $7 |
| You save | $8.95 (56%) |
Restaurant price is the typical figure from our Nando's Australia menu data (prices vary by location). Home cost is an estimate for the ingredients listed, per serving.
Ingredients
| Amount | Ingredient | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | red bell pepper | roughly chopped |
| 5 | bird eye chillies or Thai chillies | to taste, seeds removed for less heat |
| 8 cloves | garlic | peeled |
| 0.25 cup | distilled white vinegar | n/a |
| 0.25 cup | olive oil | plus extra for frying |
| 2 tsp | dried oregano | n/a |
| 2 tsp | paprika | n/a |
| 2 tsp | dried rosemary | n/a |
| 1 tsp | salt | n/a |
| 0.5 tsp | sugar | n/a |
| 0.25 cup | fresh parsley | loosely packed |
| n/a | juice of half a lemon | n/a |
| 2 | bay leaves | n/a |
| 0.25 cup | mayonnaise | optional, for a creamier sauce |
| 4 | large chicken breasts | cut horizontally into 8 thin pieces |
Method
- Make the sauce: put the pepper, chillies, garlic, vinegar, olive oil, oregano, paprika, rosemary, salt, sugar, parsley and lemon juice in a food processor and blitz until smooth with no large pieces left.
- Pour the blended sauce into a saucepan, add the bay leaves and simmer gently for about 20 minutes, then lift out the bay leaves and leave the sauce to cool for 10 minutes.
- Blend the cooled sauce again until very smooth. Stir in the mayonnaise now if you want a creamier sauce, and set aside about a third of it for brushing and serving.
- Coat the chicken pieces in the remaining sauce. You can cook straight away, but a few hours in the fridge, or overnight, gives a deeper flavour.
- Heat a little oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Lay the chicken in a single layer with space between pieces and sear for about 3 minutes per side until nicely coloured.
- Turn the heat to low and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes until the chicken is cooked right through with no pink left, reaching 74 degrees C in the thickest part.
- Brush the cooked chicken with the reserved sauce, rest for a couple of minutes, then serve with rice, chips or salad.
Tips
- Thin chicken pieces cook fast and stay juicy; thick breasts dry out before the outside colours properly.
- Keep a little sauce aside before marinating, never brush cooked chicken with sauce that touched raw chicken.
- For extra char, finish the pan-fried chicken under a hot grill for a minute or two.
Recipe credit: adapted in our own words from the tested recipe by Moribyan. Their Nandos Peri Peri Chicken copycat was the reference point for the blended chilli sauce, the simmer step and the pan-fry method here. Our wording, quantities and method above are our own. The recipe above is complete as published here; the original is credited only as a reference for readers who want to compare: original tested recipe at Moribyan.
See the full Nando's Australia menu & prices The original item: Non-Veg1/2 PERi-PERi Chicken