Piri Piri chicken with sweet potato wedges

A great way to get into the Christmas spirit is to have a feast with friends. The food for which prepared while you’re jigging away to the likes of Last Christmas, Merry Christmas Everyone and Fairytale of New York. Although we incorporated a selection of Christmas treats, the main event was this Portugese inspired Piri Piri chicken with sweet potato wedges. Expedia challenged us to make a dish from one of the countries they fly to and we just had to do Portugal. It seemed the natural choice given two friends have just moved to the UK from there.

With its mild climate, Portugal is a wonderful holiday destination with a range of different landscapes to explore. Our top picks include the historic town of Óbidos which is located on a hilltop in the Atlantic Ocean Coast. Surrounded by a wall with a maze of narrow cobbled streets, market squares and a castle, it has much to offer. On the Western coast of the Algarve is Costa Vicentina which stretches from Odeceixe in the the North to near Lagos in the South. It’s a protected National Park with 74,000 hectares of rolling hills, marshland, coves and beaches. Until recently, the Silver Coast was one of Portugal’s best kept secrets, known only to locals and expats. It’s a spectacular stretch of coastline north of Lisbon up towards Nazare where the beaches seem to go on forever.

Portugal also offers superb cuisine as I discovered making this delicious Piri Piri chicken for the first time. It’s an easy recipe but bear in mind you’ll need to marinade the chicken two hours beforehand – or overnight if you have the time. Here’s what you’ll need.

For the chicken:

1.3 kg free-range chicken
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
4 cloves of garlic 
1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika 
Sea salt & ground black pepper 
Olive oil 
2 red onions 
4 ripe tomatoes – mixed colours if possible 
6 fresh chillies – mixed colours if possible (we used 4 chillies) 
Red wine vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil 

For the sweet potato wedges:

750g sweet potatoes  
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 tablespoons fine semolina 

Method

As we were eating the Piri Piri chicken for the lunch, we marinated it the evening before leaving it in the fridge overnight. It doesn’t take long to do this, just cut the chicken in half along the backbone with a sharp knife. You then pop the thyme leaves into a pestle and mortar along with 1 garlic clove, the paprika and a pinch of salt. Bash the lot into a past then add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. The marinade should then be rubbed all over the chicken including in all the nooks and crannies!

When you’re ready to cook the chicken, in our case the following day, preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF or gas mark 4. The best way to cook this dish is with a griddle pan although we improvised – I’ve added a new griddle pan to my Christmas wish list! Once the griddle pan is on a high heat, add the unpeeled onions (which should be cut in quarters), the tomatoes (half the larger ones), chillies and remaining unpeeled garlic gloves. Cook on the griddle for 5 to 10 minutes until charred all over turning regularly. As our griddle plan was absent, we cooked these ingredients in a pan with a little oil and zapped them for a few minutes under the grill.

You then need to peel the onions and remove the garlic skins, placing all the vegetables into a food processor with a splash of red wine vinegar and a lug of extra virgin olive oil. You can blitz until smooth adding a splash of water to loosen if you need to plus of course seasoning. If you’re using a griddle pan, put the mixture on a high heat and add the marinated chicken – sear all over for 8 to 10 minutes, turning regularly. With no griddle pan, we found the best option was to add the chicken to the pan first then add the sauce bit by bit while searing. Once your chicken has been seared, transfer it to a roasting tin and cook through. If your chicken is 1.3kg it will take around 45 minutes.

The sweet potatoes were peeled, although you don’t have to, and cut into 2cm wedges. We then placed them on a baking tray and added the paprika, semolina, salt, pepper plus a lug of oil. They were cooked in the oven until they were tender and crisp (25-30 minutes). In Jamie Oliver’s Piri Piri chicken recipe, he also makes a jalapeño salsa. If you fancy it, you need is a 200g jar of pickled jalapeños and a bunch of fresh coriander. Just pop the pickled jalapeños, and a splash of the pickling juice, into a blender with the coriander and a splash of extra virgin olive oil. You then just blitz the lot and serve the roast chicken with your piri piri sauce, sweet potato wedges and a little of the salsa.

Disclaimer: We received Waitrose vouchers and a Spicers hamper from Expedia. 

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