Fiery and tangy, these grilled piri piri chicken thighs don’t skimp on flavor.
This grilled chicken delivers sharp heat layered amongst fresh citrus and herbs. With its roots in Portuguese-African cuisine, it is loaded with vibrant flavors that go perfectly with the smoky char of flame-cooked chicken.
While piri piri chicken is usually made with chicken legs or even whole chicken, I’ve gone with thighs for this recipe. I love the mix of bone-in chicken and crispy-charred skin that thighs give you, and it just makes things a bit easier when it comes to cooking.
What is Piri Piri Chicken?
Piri piri (or peri peri) chicken is a Portuguese dish with its roots firmly in Angolan and Mozambican cuisine, where Portuguese settlers in Southern Africa would combine the local chilies with their own garlic and lemon-based marinades to baste grilled chicken with to make frango piri-piri.
At its heart is its iconic chili pepper sauce, which provides an incredible blend of heat, tanginess and bright citrus flavors. This pairs perfectly with the crisp and char you get from fire-cooked chicken, along with its juicy and tender meat inside.
Traditionally, this is made with piri piri (or pili pili) peppers, but it’s incredibly difficult to get these here in the UK. All power to you if you manage to track them down, but I have had to adapt and use bird’s eye chilies to provide that heat, as well as standard red chilies for added sweetness and colour.
Quick Tips
- The key to the cook here is using 2-zone cooking, particularly indirect grilling. See my guide to the indirect cooking setup here.
- A lot of recipes use lemon juice in the sauce, but because I use it in the marinade I just don’t find it necessary. If you do want more citrus, try adding the juice of one lemon to the piri piri sauce.
- Don’t marinate the meat past the 1-hour mark. Once you go beyond this, the protein particles will break down too much and make the texture of the chicken a bit odd.
Grilled Piri Piri Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 4 chicken thighs bone-in and skin-on
Marinade
- 2 lemons juice of
- 4 cloves garlic crushed
- 2 tsp coarse salt
Piri Piri Sauce
- 4 mild red chillies stems removed
- 2 bird’s eye chillies stems removed
- 5 cloves garlic
- 4 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp coarse salt
Instructions
- Make the marinade by adding the lemon juice, crushed garlic and salt to a large bowl. Add the chicken thighs to the marinade and use your hands to combine well. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature to marinate for 30-60 minutes.
- Add the piri piri sauce ingredients to a blender. Pulse until they form a rough paste.
- Fire up your grill with the coals set up for indirect grilling. Add one or two small wood chunks to the bank of coals and brush a thin layer of cooking oil to the grill grates.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry with kitchen paper. Place the chicken thighs on the indirect side of the grill, skin-side up. Brush the skin with the piri piri sauce, and cook the chicken for 40 minutes, brushing every 10-15 minutes with the sauce.
- Before pulling the chicken from the grill, quickly finish the chicken over direct heat to add a little crisp and char to the skin.
- Remove the chicken thighs from the grill and serve right away
