While browsing the web a few days ago I stumbled across a video of three guys in the UK preparing a dish that reminded me of my time in Portugal. There were several times while in Lisbon that we visited a small grill that made a unique style of chicken that I will never forget. It was flavored with a regional red chili pepper called Piri-Piri. The Piri-Piri pepper, also know as the African Birds Eye chili ranks at 175,000 units on the scoville scale placing it below the habanero, which averages about 200,000 units, but still way above other common chilies such as cayenne and jalapeno. This fiery little beast makes a great marinade for for just about anything but is particularly great on chicken. Unfortunately Piri-Piri is not available in my area, and is a bit strong for my kids anyway, so I replaced it with dried arbol peppers. The particular recipe that I modified also called for fresh thyme and sea salt which I also did not have available. For this recipe simply blend all the ingrediants together and use it to season the chicken for grilling or baking. Tonight we had a baked version complimented with salad and rolls. The family all seemed to like it, however, the most common comment was “Dad, why does this taste like fish?” Oh well, I guess I just chose the wrong main ingredient for tonight's meal…
Ingredients:
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 160 ml olive oil
- 50 to 60 ml red wine vinegar
- 3 tbs lemon juice
- 2 dried chilies de arbol
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp dried thyme leaves
- 4 chicken breasts
Please note that using fresh ingredients instead of substituting dried items such as chilies and herbs will make an incredible difference to your meal. I would suggest using 2 of the fresh Piri-Piri peppers in this recipe. Also, as this is a kid friendly recipe more dried chilies can be added to kick up the heat.
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