Missing Nando's? How to make peri-peri chicken at home

Nando's may have been forced to close restaurants and reduce hours after its deliveries were hit by a national shortage of lorry drivers, but there is an alternative way to satisfy your chilli-chicken cravings.

Whenever I go to Portugal my first pit stop is the same: a chicken piri piri restaurant that is little more than a shack (there are no real walls, just bits of matting hung on a frame) at the side of a dusty road. The place is full of Portuguese families noisily shouting for more piri piri sauce. Nothing else is served. Just frango piri piri, salad and chips or bread.

The chicken is cooked on huge braziers and it’s difficult to replicate the special smokiness when you cook it at home, but you can almost get it.

The Portuguese piri piri I’ve eaten always has a great red colour and is slightly sweet. I’ve tried to replicate this here by adding roast pepper. It’s hard to be prescriptive about cooking times as it depends on your grill (and some domestic grills are very poor), so these instructions are guidelines only. If you prefer to roast your joints, put them on a rack set in a roasting tin and cook for 40 minutes in an oven preheated to 220C/200C fan/gas mark 7.

In Portugal, whole small chickens or poussins – spatchcocked – are cooked this way, so use those if you prefer. There is enough piri piri here for four poussins. Roast them just as you would joints.

Prep time: 25 minutes, plus four hours marinating | Cooking time: 45 minutes

SERVES

Six

INGREDIENTS

• 1 small red pepper

• 50ml olive oil

• 4 red chillies

• 4 garlic cloves, crushed

• 2 tsp dried oregano, or chopped fresh oregano leaves

• ½ tsp chilli flakes

• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar

• Juice of 2 lemons

• ½ tsp caster sugar

• 1 tsp sea salt flakes

• 6 skin-on bone-in chicken legs (drumsticks and thighs attached)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas mark 5.

2. Halve and deseed the pepper, brush with a little of the oil, put into a small tin and roast until its flesh is soft (about 25 minutes). Peel the skin off if it comes off easily; leave it if it doesn’t. Chop roughly, then crush in a mortar and pestle. Set aside.

3. Remove the stems from the chillies and deseed them. Chop finely, then put into an empty mortar with the garlic, oregano and chilli flakes. Pound to a rough paste, then add the vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, salt, remaining oil and red pepper. Put the chicken into a broad, shallow dish and pour on most of the marinade. Turn to coat, cover with cling film and put in the fridge for about four hours (overnight is even better), turning a couple of times. Bring to room temperature before cooking.

4. Heat your grill and arrange the chicken on the grill pan, skin side up. Place the grill pan 10cm from the heat and grill for 12 minutes on each side, reducing the heat halfway through. Baste every so often with the juices or a little more marinade.

5. Move the chicken another 10cm from the heat and grill for another six or seven minutes on each side. The chicken should be cooked through (make sure the juices are clear and there is no trace of pink), sizzling and dark red.

6. Serve immediately with a lettuce, cucumber and tomato salad and fried potatoes or coarse country bread.

Recipe from A Bird in the Hand by Diana Henry (Mitchell Beazley, £22). Order your copy from the Telegraph Bookshop