I have always loved Nando’s chicken, so when I got the opportunity to learn how to make my own Peri-Peri chicken from the comfort of my kitchen, I couldn’t wait! Also, the fact I haven’t had a Nando’s in over a year made me more excited to learn how to make it on Zoom, with a chef in Portugal.
Our host Jose began the class by teaching us a bit about the dish, which was interesting and a good introduction before preparing the chicken and cooking it. I learned that Peri-Peri is actually a pepper, and the red ones are ripe while the green ones are unripe. This surprised me, as I had always thought that Peri-Peri was a sauce.
Jose is from Portugal, where Peri-Peri (also known as Piri-Piri) was created, so I knew that I would be learning from the very best! Throughout lockdown, Jose has been offering cooking classes online in order to share his skills to the public.
In normal circumstances, Jose offers in-person cooking classes at his culinary school. He said that they were able to open up their doors in Portugal 2 weeks ago to the public, which was great news. I’m so glad that things are starting to go back to normal for him after a year of lockdowns.
Jose said that people attending the cooking classes online have either been to Portugal, or love chicken. He was very surprised that my friend and I had never been to Portugal before. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to go in the future and definitely visit Jose at his culinary school. He said that many older English people retire and decide to move to the Algarve (sounds perfect to me).
Once we learned all about the dish and Portugal, we moved on to preparing the sauce for the chicken. Firstly, we cut up a red bell pepper, 2 bird’s eye chillies, garlic, and parsley, before adding a squeeze of lemon. Did you know that chillies are from America? Jose asked who was brave enough to bite the chilli to see how many we should put in.
I would say that I can handle spice, but even I was a little scared… As I took a bite, it wasn’t even that spicy (thankfully) so I decided to put 2 in the blend. Once that was prepared, we put it all in a blender and added some paprika powder and salt before blending it together. Jose told us to not blend it too much, as there were still meant to be bits in the sauce.
Next we fried the chicken on both sides for 2 minutes so that it was slightly golden-brown before putting it in the oven, covered in the Peri-Peri sauce. I used chicken breast, however Jose said it is better with chicken thighs on the bone and with skin on as they are more flavoursome.
I put the chicken breasts into a dish and covered them with the sauce. I then covered the dish with tin foil and cooked it for 25 minutes. Once that time was up, I removed the tin foil and cooked it for a further 15 minutes. The Peri-Peri chicken was cooked to perfection, it was so juicy and full of flavour! I can only image how good it would have been using chicken thighs instead.
I paired my Peri-Peri chicken with garlic wedges, which was a very tasty combination. Jose gave me some inspiration for next time I make it; he said the perfect / most common sides with Peri-Peri chicken are either French fries or white rice and salad.
Thanks for reading!
This online cooking experience was £14, which was great value for money as my friend joined in as well. We both really enjoyed this experience and will definitely be making Peri-Peri chicken again but will pair it with white rice and salad, as a healthier option. I would recommend joining this class if you are a Nando’s lover and would like to save yourself some money by making some delicious chicken from the comfort of your home.
