Portuguese | Piri Piri Chicken Wings

Posted on March 13, 2018

The recipe was for chicken legs (thigh and drumstick together) but I used drumettes. I made it using a store-bought Piri Piri sauce (Portugallo Piri Piri Sauce from www.portugaliamarketplace.com). You definitely want to use a Portuguese Piri Piri sauce for this dish. Piri Piri is a pepper that has it's roots in Africa, it's used in both African and Portuguese cooking. We loved this!! Next time I would put even more heads of garlic in while cooking. For dinner, serve with a salad, a baguette (to spread the roasted garlic on), and a cold beer.

Yield: we ate all of it between two people, but we are pigs

Ingredients

2 pounds chicken drumettes

4 tablespoons Piri Piri sauce

1 or more heads of garlic, cut in half horizontally

2 tablespoons olive oil

a little salt

paprika, preferably Portuguese or Spanish

lemons, cut into wedges

cilantro, chopped

olive oil

 

Method

Place the chicken on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with Piri Piri sauce and toss to coat. Add the garlic to the baking sheet. Drizzle chicken and garlic with olive oil, toss to coat. Sprinkle salt over everything. You can cook the chicken straight away but ideally leave it to marinate for a few hours or even overnight.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the tray in the oven and cook for 25 minutes. Pull out and sprinkle paprika over the chicken. Put back in the oven and cook for another 20 to 25 minutes, for a total of 45 to 50 minutes. Cook until skin is crisp and sticky, the meat is cooked and pulls away from the bone easily, and the juices run clear.

To serve, arrange chicken, garlic, and lemon wedges on a platter. Taste and sprinkle on more salt, if needed. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with cilantro.

 

(Ref. "Piri Piri Chicken" recipe, Lisbon, page 141.)