This dish, very popular in Portugal, has a very curious name that does not have an easy explanation.
The word piri-piri would come from the word pilipili which in Swahili, an African language spoken in the east of the continent, would translate as "pepper".
However, it seems that the word originated in the Rongo language, spoken in the south of Mozambique, where the Portuguese brought a type of pepper that they had found in Brazil and that they called "malagueta".
From those malaguetas derived another type of hot pepper, the pili-pili, which is now considered a different species. In fact, it even grows wild in much of East Africa, having acclimatized very well to the subtropical strip that more or less has the same climate as its place of origin.
To make matters worse, the name malagueta was given by the Portuguese to the pepper that they found in Brazil because it was spicy like the melegueta or amomo pepper that they found in West Africa, but which has nothing to do with the piri-piri because even that the Portuguese arrived, there were no peppers in Africa.
So for an African the term piri-piri means pepper, while for a Portuguese it has more a meaning of an extremely spicy sauce made from hot peppers with which to season some stews and roasts.
To further complicate this mess, the Portuguese call hot peppers malagueta but the resulting sauce piri-piri.
Since malagueta are not easy to find out from Portugal, we are going to make the hot sauce with red chillies, sometimes also called ajies. I reproduce photo here so there is no confusion. The sauce is powerful, you have been warned.
INGREDIENTS (4 people) :
- Thighs, quarters or even half a whole chicken, depending on the diner's hunger. If it is whole, cut as if it were to be made with garlic.
- For the sauce:
- 12 red chillies
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 cup (200 ml) extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- 1 lemon
- Salt
- Vinegar
First, we preheat the oven to 200 degrees (390 F) . When it has reached the temperature, we introduce the red chillies for exactly 10 minutes.
Once we have baked the chillies, we extract them and make the sauce. If you do not want to use the oven you can use the microwave grill.
In the glass of the hand blender we introduce the chillies, the garlic cloves without the green germ and the olive oil. Beat to mix well.
Add the lemon juice (first of one half, then we'll see if we need the second), the paprika and half a teaspoon of salt and another of vinegar. We taste and adjust the flavor by adding more lemon juice, vinegar and salt, if necessary. The lemon tones down the flavor of the oil, so you may need to add the grated rind as well.
With the obtained sauce we paint the pieces of chicken and let it marinate, put in the fridge, for at least 6 hours.
After the marinating time, place the chicken pieces on a tray that can go in the oven and pour the piri-piri sauce on it.
We introduce in the oven and let it cook for about 40 minutes or until the chicken looks done. From time to time sprinkle it with the broths from the bottom of the tray.
It is served very hot - hot and spicy -, generally accompanied by potatoes, rice or salad.
I recommend that you also have milk or some dairy drink on hand, which is the only thing that calms the itching.