Piri Piri Chicken (Quick Stir Fry Version)

A Portugese influenced dish, traditionally made with African Birds Eye Chili (Piri Piri) but this version is spiced using red chilli flakes and fresh green chillies. I like to cook different dishes all the time, but I tend to adapt them a little bit, so as to use everyday ingredients without compromising on the flavours. This is by no means an authentic recipe, it just allows for new flavours in every day cooking.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4  large boneless skinless chicken breasts or 4  large chicken thighs, would be best for flavour
• 1  red pepper, thinly sliced
• 1  yellow pepper, thinly sliced

• Sauce

•  red onion, finely chopped
• 4  garlic cloves
• 1 -2  fresh red chili pepper (if not available, can replace with 1 tbsp red chilli flakes)
• 1  tablespoon sweet paprika
• 1  lemon, juice and zest of
• 1⁄2 cup white wine
• 1  tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
•  fresh basil
•  salt
•  fresh ground black pepper
•  extra virgin olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. 1. Make a couple of slits on the thickest part of the chicken.
3. 2. Stuff the garlic clove in the slit on the chicken, season with salt and rum some smoked paprika on the chicken. Set aside.
4. 3. Heat a griddle pan – sear the chicken on both sides on a hot griddle.
5. 4. The garlic should be a little softened by this, so remove it from the slit in the chicken. Add the garlic to the remaining sauce ingredients and blitz in a blender until you have a thick sauce.
6. 5. Cook the peppers on the same griddle pan slightly, simply to soften them a bit.
7. 6. Take a rectangular pan, spread the peppers on the bottom followed by the chicken and pour the sauce on top. Cook in a preheated hot oven for 25-30 minutes.
8. SLOW COOKER METHOD:
9. This is a perfect dish for the slow cooker.
10. Combine the sauce ingredients and the peppers, onions in the crockpot and place the chicken pieces on top. Let them cook on high for 2 hours and then reduce to medium for a further 4-5 hours. It would not be necessary to blitz the ingredients for the sauce as it will all be nice and soft, with lots of flavours. I would add a little bit more white wine in there – say 1/2 cup and also add 1/2 cup of chicken stock which helps keep things moist in the crockpot.
11. STIR FRY VERSION (shown in pic above):
12. Due to lack of time, I had to make a stir fry version at the class, as shown in the pic above. I didn’t make a separate sauce, I just cooked everything together in one pan and it came out lovely. I felt it needed the sauce, to get the real flavour, but we didn’t have enough time to make the sauce.
13. VARIATION:
14. If stuck for time and need to make this in a hurry, cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes. Saute the onions and chicken in a pan, when the onions have softened a bit and the chicken starts to change colour, add the peppers and garlic (mince first). Stir in all the sauce ingredients, cover and let it simmer for 20-25 minutes on low heat. Serve on a bed of rice or cous cous salad. (For guilty pleasure, roast potatoes make this the ultimate comfort food in the winter months!).
15. Recipe by Ginni Kathuria Kelley.