Homemade Piri Piri Sauce

Spicy Piri Piri Sauce makes a fabulous marinade for grilled chicken, pork or fish. Brush extra on as you grill too! 

After a long day of surf and sun in the Algarve, on the southern coast of Portugal, we were starving. The smoky aroma of a charcoal grill wafted through the open windows of our car, making all our tummies rumble. With a decisive turn of the wheel, my husband pulled up along side the ramshackle hut. We claimed a rickety table where we could watch the grizzled grill guy do his thing. 

He had a basin of whole chickens, which were split open at the backbone, marinating in spicy piri piri sauce. His grill was a simple mesh grate over a huge brick pit filled with glowing charcoal. As he cooked the chickens, he basted them liberally with more piri piri sauce. Best chicken we ever put in our mouths. Seriously.

Many times since that holiday almost 23 years ago, I’ve made piri piri sauce and used it to marinate and baste a variety of meats. Our favorite is chicken, followed closely on by whole fish. The aroma of piri piri sauce being licked by flames from an open charcoal fire is always a great reminder of a beautiful country and a wonderful family holiday in Portugal.

Homemade Piri Piri Sauce

Piri piri sauce makes an excellent marinade for chicken, pork, fish or shrimp. Use more piri piri sauce for basting as you grill the meat and fish. This recipe makes 2 1⁄4 cups or 532ml. 

Ingredients

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

11⁄2 cups or 355ml extra virgin olive oil

Method

Cut or pull the stems off of your chili peppers. Put the peppers, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar and salt in your blender.

Blend until until you achieve a homogenous liquid, occasionally scraping the inside of the blender down. Add in the olive oil and blend again.

Marinate chicken and pork for at least one hour or even overnight. Seafood should be marinated only 20­-30 minutes before grilling. Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 16th edition of the 2024 Alphabet Challenge, brought to you by the letter P. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the P recipes below:

• Culinary Cam: A Parade of Pickles, Including Pickled Chard Stems 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Creamy Potato Salad with Crunchy Fennel 
• Blogghetti: Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Swirl Bark 
• Food Lust People Love: Homemade Piri Piri Sauce 
• A Messy Kitchen: Layered Berry Panna Cotta
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Palak Paneer Paratha 
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Parsley Pesto 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Pork Carnitas (Instant Pot) 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Puneri Batata Vada 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Southern Potato Salad 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Creamy Potato Salad with Crunchy Fennel 

Here are my posts for the alphabet challenge, thus far:
A: Anchovy Deviled Eggs
B: Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly
C: Cecilie's Favorite Coleslaw
D: Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing
E: Everything Pizza Tartin
F: Baked Chicken and Feta Meatballs
G: Grape Juice Jigglers
H: Crispy Bacon-wrapped Chicken Hearts
I: Raspberry Rhubarb Ice Cream
J: Java Dry Spice Mix Chops 

K. Korean Barbecue-style Meatballs 

L. Easy Lamb and Fresh Tomato Curry 

M. Fresh Mint Sauce 

N. Miso Butter Noodles 

O. Spicy Orange Braised Short Ribs 

P. Homemade Piri Piri Sauce - this post!

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Easy Tartar Sauce

This easy tartar sauce has just three ingredients but it’s my absolute favorite to accompany any fish from cod to salmon, whether deep fried, baked, poached or pan-fried.

If you'd like to make the salt and vinegar chip crusted cod fingers you see with the tartar sauce in these photos, the link is here. So crunchy and delicious! Even better, they are baked not fried! 

I have a personal rule that if a restaurant menu has fish and chips on it, I have to order that. It’s a family favorite and we spend much time discussing the merits of 1) the flakiness of the fish 2) the crunchiness of the coating 3) the batter to fish ratio 4) the crisp outside vs fluffy inside of the chips aka French fries and 5) the texture and flavor of the mushy peas. 

No one else seems to like tartar sauce so I judge that completely on my own. For me, that tartar sauce is a must-have side for dipping but rarely does a restaurant sauce match the one I make at home. 

Easy Tartar Sauce

I recommend using a microplane to grate the onion if you have one. If not, use the smallest holes on your normal grater. Personally, I don’t want to crunch on a piece of onion. Aside from the capers, I don’t like bits in my tartar sauce. And speaking of the capers, you can substitute the larger ones for the non-pareils but chop them up with a sharp knife so they are better distributed in the sauce. 

Ingredients

about 1 tablespoon finely grated onion

1 – 1 1/2 tablespoons non-pareil capers, plus pickling juice

3/4 cup or 173g your favorite store-bought or homemade mayonnaise

Method

Grate the onion directly into the bowl so you don’t lose any of the onion juice. (See note above about the grater to use.) Add in the capers. 

Stir in the mayonnaise along with a tablespoon of the pickling juice from the caper bottle. 

Cover with cling film and chill until ready to use but at least 30 minutes so the flavors can meld. 

Serve with your favorite fish! 

Enjoy!

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