Piri Piri Grilled Chicken

Whole butterflied chicken marinated with homemade piri-piri sauce and grilled to crispy perfection over hot coals is like a taste of southern Portugal and beaches and sunshine.

Years ago, we were driving around the Algarve in southern Portugal, looking for a meal.  Trying to avoid the usual touristy places, we pulled over to a little outdoor grill, with big uncovered barbecue pits, burning natural wood charcoal.  The old grill guy had a cigarette dangling from his lips but most of the smoke was coming from the fire.  He was grilling fresh sardines and butterflied whole chicken, slathered generously with homemade piri piri sauce.  The aroma was heavenly.  

It could have been the long day at a beautiful beach and the fresh sea air or the fact that I was pregnant with younger daughter, but: It was one of the best meals ever.  EVER.  I’ve recreated it a few times in the interim 19 years, tweaking the piri piri sauce or trying different marinades, but last weekend was one of the best yet.  

We sat and ate this, licking our fingers in a most uncivilized fashion and talking about what a great holiday that was and how we had never seen chicken grilled whole but split open before. Such a revelation! (Or perhaps we are easily impressed. Remember, this was way before Nigella.) But seriously, it is so much easier to deal with a whole chicken than to shift lots of pieces around! The Portuguese are brilliant. And so is this chicken.

Ingredients

For the piri piri sauce:

2.5 oz or 70g hot chili peppers

6 cloves garlic

1/4 cup or 60ml fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup or 120ml apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon flakey sea salt, like Maldon  

1 1/2 cups or 355ml extra virgin olive oil

(This is going to make way more than you need for one chicken, but it will keep in the refrigerator for two to three weeks.  Once you have tried it on chicken, you will need to add it to everything you are grilling: prawns, pork ribs, whole fish and who knows what else.  Trust me, you will.)

For the chicken:

1 whole chicken, cleaned and excess fat removed

Sprinkle of flakey sea salt to serve

Method

Cut the stems off of your chili peppers and put everything for the sauce but the olive oil in a blender.  

Blend until the peppers are in tiny, tiny pieces, occasionally scraping the inside of the blender down.

Add in the olive oil and blend again.  Set this aside in a covered bowl and deal with your chicken.

Using a sharp knife or poultry scissors, cut right up the backbone and then turn the chicken over and press down on the breast to flatten the chicken out.  Make a couple of slashes with your knife in the thigh meat.  This will let the piri piri sauce penetrate but will also help the thighs to cook faster so the breast meat doesn’t dry out on the grill.

Pop the chicken in a Ziploc bag and add in about 1/2 cup of the piri piri sauce.  Massage it all around from the outside of the bag.  Let this marinate all day or overnight, but for at least an hour or two.  If it's more than an hour, put the bag in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to grill, light your fire with natural charcoal, if you can get it.  Otherwise, some briquettes with a couple of handfuls of damp smoking wood added as you put the chicken on will have to suffice.  Our barbecue pit is much less deep (and wide) than the traditional Portuguese grills so we had to use the lid to keep the flames from completely consuming the chicken.  On the other hand, using the cover to control the flames also allowed for a whole lot of smoking to go on and that only adds to the flavor.  

Grill your chicken, skin side up for about 10-15 minutes, basting regularly with more of the piri piri sauce. (I think we used about another 1/2 cup during the grilling.)  

Then turn it over and grill the skin side for another 10-15.  Again, baste often.  

Do be careful not to let it burn!  A little charring is a good thing though.  Control your fire by keeping the lid on but just a bit ajar to allow oxygen in or your fire will die.  Depending on the size of your chicken, 30 minutes over very hot coals, with the lid mostly on, might just do it.  

Baking and grilling with the lid mostly closed.  And it is smoking like crazy!

Remember that it is baking as well as being grilled.  If you are concerned, do check the thigh/leg joint and leave it in the barbecue pit, if needed, for a further 10 minutes or until it is just cooked through.

Remove from the grill and cut the chicken into serving pieces.  Give the whole thing a light sprinkling of flakey sea salt.

(As you can see, we were pigs and took a half each, since our only side was a tomato and herb salad and our chicken was so tiny.  But I ended up eating only my breast and wing for dinner.  The leg and thigh were devoured the next morning, straight out of the refrigerator – cold.  Such enormous flavor!  Still brilliant.)

Enjoy!

Dutch Sandwiches

Toasted artisan bread spread with garlic mayonnaise then topped with grilled chicken and tomatoes makes a lovely lunch. 

Long ago, in an era we call BC (Before Children) we lived in Abu Dhabi and I worked at the InterContinental Hotel. My boss was head of marketing and I was in charge of Public Relations, which meant I entertained the journalists who came to see a performance at the hotel, or attend a restaurant opening, and I produced our in-house brochures and newsletter, among other tasks. I got along well with my boss and his wife, a Dutch couple of enormous height with an equally large sense of humor. Aside from me, all the executive staff lived in the hotel. (As I already had accommodation through my husband's company, I opted for a transportation allowance instead.)

One day they invited me to their hotel apartment for sandwiches. Much to my surprise, they brought out bread with ham and cheese on top. Apparently, in the Netherlands, all sandwiches were open-faced. And there I was thinking that a sandwich was a sandwich all over the world. From them, I also learned that the Dutch kiss three times upon meeting. Left cheek, right cheek, left cheek or the other way around. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s three times. Both lessons have stood me in good stead in the years since.

Here, then, I offer you, my Dutch sandwiches:

Ingredients
1 very small clove of garlic, minced finely
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
1 grilled chicken breast (Those of you who read Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken might have been wondering what happened to the third breast. Here it is.)
1 tomato
6 slices of artisan wholegrain bread

Method
Add the lemon juice to the minced garlic in a small bowl. The lemon juice will reduce the sharpness and pungency of the fresh garlic so leave it to steep for at least five minutes before adding the mayonnaise and mixing thoroughly.

Meanwhile toast your wholegrain bread slices, slice your chicken breast and your tomato.








Add a nice spread of the garlic mayo to each golden slice. Top with chicken and then tomato. Finish it off with a good grind of fresh black pepper and a sprinkle of sea salt, if desired.

1. Garlic mayo 2. Grilled chicken 3. Tomato slices

Best served with a glass of crisp white wine and eaten while watching England trounce poor Romania in the Rugby World Cup. I wonder how many times the Romanians kiss upon meeting. They could sure use some love right now.



Enjoy!

Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken

This Easy Caesar salad with grilled chicken recipe - with creamy homemade dressing - is a full meal, or divide it up as starters.

For years when I asked elder daughter what she wanted for dinner, this was her most frequent request.   After she went off to university, her little sister continued the tradition.  We even have bowls, big lovely salad bowls - one is large enough when making for side salad for everyone - which replace plates when we are having Caesar salad as a main course.  We have four such bowls.  It makes me sad tonight to be filling only two.

Ingredients for dressing

2 tablespoons fresh or reconstituted lime or lemon juice (You can also use vinegar, in a pinch.)

¾ cup olive oil

¼ cup cold water (Cold helps the dressing emulsify.)

1 small (45g) can of anchovies in olive oil

¼ teaspoon sea salt or to taste (Some anchovies are saltier than others so you can wait to add the salt until after the dressing is emulsified so you can taste it.)

¼ teaspoon powdered English mustard (Colemans)

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 large cloves of garlic, peeled

Method

Puree all together in a blender or with a hand blender until emulsified.  This will keep for a couple of weeks stored in the refrigerator in a closed jar.

Ingredients for chicken

One chicken breast per person

Sea salt

Black pepper

Vinegar

Olive oil

Method

Sprinkle the chicken breasts with your vinegar.

This can be a flavored vinegar, red wine, white wine, balsamic, cider, etc.  Your favorite vinegar. I keep several in my cupboards, but my go-to bottle for most marinating is plain white vinegar. I poke a hole in the lid with a sharp knife and then sprinkling is very easy. You don’t need much and, without other flavors and spices, the flavor of the charred chicken comes through.  I also always buy the same brand, same size bottle so I can reused the lid on each new bottle instead of flailing about with a sharp knife re-poking holes each time I run out.

Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. 

Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a Ziploc bag and pop the chicken in.  Zip it up and rub the oil all around. Leave bag of chicken in the refrigerator to marinate until you are ready to grill it.

When you are ready to grill, heat your griddle pan until it is screaming hot.  Imagining your grill pan is a clock and the lines on the grill run from 12 to 6 o’clock, put your chicken on point to the right at about 2 and 8 for three minutes.  Try to move the chicken with tongs. If it is still sticking, leave it on for another minute or so.

Turn the chicken over and point it to the left at about 11 and 5 for another three minutes.

Turn the chicken once more and keep it pointing left for about one minute.

Turn the last time and point it right for one more minute.   

Remove the breasts from the hot pan and allow to rest for a few minutes, lightly covered with foil.  These times are approximate, depending on the thickness of your chicken breasts. If you think yours may be thicker than average, cut the thickest part to check for doneness before serving and pop them back on the grill if you see any pink.

To serve, slice the chicken breasts on the diagonal.

Ingredients for salad

Salad greens (Romaine, Romaine hearts, Baby Cos, Rocket, Arugula – even some of your heartier spring mixes or mesclun. They need to be able to stand up to the thickness of the dressing.)

Caesar dressing

Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Grilled chicken

Croutons (optional)

Method

Make sure your greens are clean and dry.  Drizzle them with your Caesar dressing and toss until lightly coated.  Add the Parmesan and croutons, then the chicken.  Serve, with extra freshly ground black pepper if desired.