Piri Piri Whole Chicken

Piri Piri Whole Chicken

  • Whole Chicken
  • 4-6
  • 3 hours 20 minutes
  • Easy
This glorious finger-licking, taste-bud-tingling Piri Piri chicken will have you begging for all the picky bits left on the bones! When marinating a whole chicken we like to start the cooking process off under tin foil just to give the marinade a chance to work it’s wonder before going to dark in colour - but the rich smoky heat from this marinade will really get you excited for this evening’s dinner!  When you’re making the marinade if you think six chilies are too much adjust it to taste - you can always add as you go along.

Ingredients

For the piri-piri marinade

  • 100ml red wine vinegar
  • 4-6 red chillies
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 tsp Smoked Paprika
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 lemons, juiced

Method

To make the marinade

  1. Put the red chillies, garlic & vinegar in a blender and blitz. Add the smoked paprika, oregano, thyme, sugar, a pinch of salt and the lemon juice. Blitz again to form a delicious paste and set aside.
  2. Sit the chicken in an oven proof dish and use the back of a spoon to loosen the chicken skin from the flesh.  Push a good tablespoon of the marinade under the chicken skin and make sure you massage the rest of the marinade all over the outer chicken, coating the legs and the underside too. Pop the juiced lemons inside the chicken along with the gifted rosemary.  Cover and chill for at least an hour, but overnight would be better.
  3. When you’re ready to cook heat oven to 180C, cover the chicken with foil and roast the chicken for 2 -2 1/2 hrs, then uncover for approximately a further 20 minutes, basting only once until a crust has formed on the outside of the chicken.
  4. With the juices, simply thicken them with a little corn flour and season with additional salt and black pepper to taste, for a truly wonderful sauce.
  5. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 30 mins. Serve with potato wedges and some garlic mayonnaise.

Enjoy x

Recipe courtesy of Stephs_Food_diary Â