This Portuguese Peri Peri Chicken recipe results in the most deliciously crispy chicken, yet tender and juicy on the inside. It’s marinated in a smoky, flavorful peri peri sauce marinade and baked over sliced potatoes and served with a flavorful green sauce. Includes a Video.
 This Portuguese Peri Peri Chicken recipe features a whole chicken, marinated in a smoky, flavorful peri peri sauce marinade, and baked over sliced potatoes until perfectly crispy, tender and juicy - my favorite chicken recipe EVER!

This Portuguese Chicken recipe, also known as Peri Peri Chicken, is one of those dishes that makes winter a little more bearable. It’s hearty and satisfying and warms the soul with its deep, smoky flavors. The prep time is relatively short, and the oven does much of the work. During the cold months, I try to utilize the oven as much as possible.

What is Peri Peri Chicken?

Traditional Portuguese Chicken is called Peri Peri Chicken (or sometimes Piri Piri Chicken) and made with Piri Piri peppers which actually originated in South Africa, and were imported to Portugal from two Portuguese colonies, Angola and Mozambique, on spice ships. Today, the peppers are used widely throughout Portugal to make marinades, basting liquids, condiments and hot sauces.

There is nothing quite as satisfying as a simple roast chicken, just pulled from the oven, aromas wafting through house, infusing heart and home with warmth and comfort. Winter has arrived, dropping snow on the fallen leaves. It seemed to happen so quickly this year, the changing of the seasons. My initial reaction, truthfully, is resistance to the abrupt ending of fall and the beginning of the long winter to come. And yet, I’m lured into acceptance by little things – the sound of the crackling fire, the snowflakes, the stack of books waiting to be read, and warm comforting meals.

 

Peri Peri Chicken Ingredient Notes

  • Chilies: Unfortunately, peri peri peppers aren’t easily available here, or if they are, I haven’t found them, so for this recipe, I substituted less spicy Ancho Chilies. This is a one-star dish, as far as heat goes. So if you like heat, you may want to add more. The Ancho Chilies also add a nice depth to the marinade.
  • Peri Peri Marinade: Smoked paprika, dried ancho chilies, and fresh garlic are at the base of this flavorful, deep, smoky marinade. It looks spicy, but don’t be deceived –  this version is not over-the-top spicy, and I’d only call it a “one-star” on the spiciness scale. It really lets the other flavors come through.
  • Chicken: I always try to find organic, pasture-raised chickens, which to me have the best flavor and texture. Use the best quality chicken you can. If you are short on time, use chicken pieces, to save a step.

How to make Peri Peri Chicken

Step 1: Spatchcock the chicken

You can butterfly (or “spatchcok”) a whole chicken for this recipe, or roast it whole, or buy pre-cut bone-in, skin-on pieces. Butterflying the chicken allows it to cook fast and evenly, and is a good technique to learn. Watch how to spatchcock a chicken here (video).  You’ll need a good pair of kitchen shears to cut the backbone out of the chicken, which I’ll show you below.
Pat the chicken dry.

peri peri chicken on a cutting board, about to get butterflied

Place the whole chicken, breast-side down on a cutting board.

cutting the backbone out of the chicken

Using sharp kitchen shears, remove the spine, cutting on each side of the spine.

Backbone of the chicken removed

Open the chicken wide and turn it over so the breast side now faces up.

press the chicken flat

Press down firmly on the breastbone of the chicken to flatten. You may hear some cracking which can be disconcerting the first time. Just press down as hard as you can.  And that’s it- you’ve spatchcocked a chicken!

Step 2: Make the Peri-Peri Marinade

brush the chicken with the peri peri marinade

In a blender or food processor, blend the marinade ingredients into a thick paste. Brush the marinade all over both sides of the chicken, saving the rest for basting while in the oven.

chicken, slathered with peri peri marinade on a cutting board

STEP 3: Assemble the Peri peri Chicken

If making the crispy potatoes that go with this, (which I highly suggest) brush marinade on the bottom of your sheet pan. Sweet potatoes would also work well.

TIP: Do not use a 9×13 inch baking dishuse a large, rimmed, metal sheet pan for best results. This enamel pan is deceiving, it is very large ( 16×22).

brush marinade on the bottom of the pan

Layer thinly sliced potatoes, overlapping only slightly,  and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

potatoes layered over the marinade

Place the chicken, skin side down, tucking the wings under, over top of the potatoes. You could do all of the 1 day ahead and refrigerate (letting it come to room temp before baking.)

Portuguese Chicken ( Peri Peri Chicken) ready to go into the oven

Step 4: Bake the Peri Peri Chicken!

Place on the middle rack of a 425F pre-heated oven. After 15 minutes, turn the chicken over and roast for another 15 minutes, basting with more marinade after flipping. Continue cooking until chicken is cooked through, and the leg reaches 165F. Depending on the size of the chicken, this could be 20-50 more minutes.

Then give a good broil in the oven so skin gets crispy and slightly charred in places. This is important!

The flavorful juices from the Peri-Peri Chicken and marinade will seep into the potatoes which will have softened and also become crispy a nice contrast. Place it in the oven.

Step 5: Make the Green Sauce

While the peri peri chicken bakes make the flavorful green sauce. Cilantro and yogurt are combined to make a delicious cooling sauce- a delicious accompaniment to the smoky chicken.

 baked Portuguese Chicken ( Peri Peri Chicken)  right out of the oven
Once the Peri Peri Chicken is cooked through, let it rest for 5-10  minutes, so all the juices don’t run out of the meat too quickly.
This will ensure a juicier chicken.
Resting the Portuguese Chicken
Cut the Peri Peri chicken into pieces and serve with the Green Sauce and the crispy potatoes.
The crispy potatoes are deliciously addicting, and the chicken comes out perfectly crispy and delicious.
Cutting the Portuguese Chicken
This Portuguese Peri Peri Chicken is absolutely delicious – with the crispy bits of potatoes.  Crispy, smoky, deep and flavorful.
The potatoes are crispy and flavorful in the bottom of a pan

What to serve with Peri Peri Chicken?

We love serving this with a hearty green salad.  Either our Caesar Salad, this Kale salad, Caprese Salad or this Arugula Salad. 

Finished Portuguese Chicken with Crispy skin cut up on a cutting board.

How to store Peri Peri Chicken

Leftovers can be stored up to 4 days in the fridge, in an airtight container, or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.

I hope you enjoy this delicious Peri Peri Chicken! Leave your comments, adaptions, and rating below. Always appreciated!

Cheers and love,

Sylvia

More Chicken recipes you’ll love!

Watch how to make Peri Peri Chicken

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Portuguese Chicken ( Peri Peri Chicken)  with Crispy Potatoes...

Peri Peri Chicken Recipe

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 63 reviews
  • Author: Sylvia Fountaine| Feasting at Home
  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 70 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
  • Yield: 6
  • Category: Main, chicken recipe, sheet-pan dinner
  • Method: baked
  • Cuisine: Portuguese

Description

This Peri Peri Chicken recipe results in crispy, smoky chicken that is tender and juicy, with the most flavorful peri peri marinade! Bake it over potatoes and serve with the Green Sauce!


Ingredients

Units
  • 1 small Whole Chicken (34 lbs) or sub chicken pieces ( see notes)
  • 1 1/2 lbs potatoes (Yukon or reds), thinly sliced ( 1/4 inch thick)

Marinade:

Cilantro Sauce:

  • 1 cup plain yogurt
  • 1 bunch Cilantro – finely chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • Cracked pepper to taste
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil


Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425F
  2. Rehydrate dried chilies in a small pot of simmering water on the stove for 20 minutes. Remove stem and seeds.
  3. Butterfly the chicken: Rinse inside and out, removing innards. Pat dry. Place on a cutting board, breast down. Using sharp kitchen scissors, cut along both sides of the spine, remove and discard. Turn the chicken over, and placing your hand on the breast bone, press down hard with the palm of your hand, to flatten.
  4. Make the marinade by blending the marinade ingredients into a paste with a blender or food processor. Brush a layer of the marinade on the bottom of your large sheet pan.
  5. Place the thinly sliced potatoes on top of the marinade and sprinkle with a generous pinch of kosher salt,  overlapping slightly but not too much.
  6. Brush all sides and crevasses of the chicken with the marinade, coating fairly heavily. (You will add more marinade during cooking, so be sure to save the remaining.) Place chicken, skin side down on the potatoes and place in the hot oven.
  7. Turn chicken over after 15 minutes, and place back in the oven. After 15 minutes, brush more marinade all over the chicken on the skin side, really lathering it up. Return to the oven and bake until cooked through another 15-30 minutes, or until leg/ thigh reaches an internal temperature of 165 F.  The bigger the chicken, the longer this will take. ( A large, 5-6 pound chicken may take an additional 20 minutes!) To crisp the skin and get it deeply brown, broil for a few minutes. A little char is good here!!! Remove chicken when done and let rest 5-10 minutes before serving. You can continue to cook the potatoes or crisp them up ( with broiler) while resting the chicken and cutting it into pieces.
  8. While chicken is roasting, combine Cilantro Sauce ingredients together, either in a bowl- mixing by hand, or in a food processor. Serve cilantro sauce on the side.

Notes

For a healthier version, use skinless boneless chicken thighs, or breast. Feel free to marinate overnight in a zip lock bag. Cooking time will shorten significantly, so you may have to remove chicken and let potatoes continue cooking to get them crispy.

For WHOLE CHICKENS! The baking time for the chicken will vary depending on the size (weight) of the chicken. This one in the photos was a small 3.5 pound chicken. Larger 5-6 lb chickens will take longer in the oven ( 70-90 minutes). So plan accordingly.

***Use a large rimmed metal sheet pan, rather than a glass baking dish so air can circulate and potatoes can get crispy! (This enamel baking dish in the photos is much larger than it looks! )

Nutrition

  • Serving Size:
  • Calories: 485
  • Sugar: 2.2 g
  • Sodium: 1295.2 mg
  • Fat: 15.5 g
  • Saturated Fat: 2.7 g
  • Carbohydrates: 30.2 g
  • Fiber: 4.6 g
  • Protein: 54.3 g
  • Cholesterol: 165.5 mg
Crispy Portuguese Chicken with Potatoes...a delicious one pan meal that is full of smokey spicy flavor! | www.feastingathome.com

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Comments

  1. 16-06-2022: I made it tonight and it was delicious!! Will surely make it again!! Thanks for the recipe!!






  2. Another excellent recipe! The piri piri chicken and potatoes were excellent, easy and tasty sauces, too! And I love that the times you list for prep and cooking are accurate and that most of the ingredients are already in the fridge or pantry or are readily available at just about any grocery. My dinners for the nights that I would “cook” before I found your website: take-out, go out or cereal. Now, I’ve cooked for us four times in a week (all using your recipes, too)! And my husband (who works 60+ hours/week and is typically in charge of dinner because I disliked cooking so much) is thrilled! Thank you, Sylvia, your recipes make cooking fun again!






  3. LOVE this! The sauce alone make you do a Pavlovian drool but then when it all comes together … chicken fatty potatoes, spicy crispy chicken, it’s bomb diggity!
    I am in camp eat the chicken skin for sure!






  4. Hi Sylvia,

    Trying this tomorrow 🥰 I’ve just prepped the marinade and the cilantro sauce but both have ended up being quite watery – can you recommend what I should do to sort this out? Thanks 🙂

    1. Hi Florence. 😉 The cilantro sauce should thicken in the fridge. But the marinade should not be watery? Do you mean oily?

      1. Thanks Sylvia. The cilantro sauce thickened and so did the marinade. I think maybe I just blended them each a bit too much 🙂 Loved this recipe and so did everyone else. I will definitely be making it again.

  5. Sylvia, what salad recipes or green sides of yours would you suggest as good flavor complements to this dish? Also…I have one eater who doesn’t eat white potatoes and I thought I’d do a section of sweet potato slices under the chicken. Thoughts?

    1. Sweet potatoes sound good! Cut them slightly thicker. You could do wilted greens or just a simple green salad?

      1. Thanks for the quick response, wilted greens it is! I love how I never need to “try out” your recipes before I serve them for the first time…. Company coming for dinner? Find a new Sylvia recipe and go for it–guaranteed hits, every time.

  6. I didnt have whole ancho chili’s available…but 1 whole chili converts to 1 heaping Tbls if ancho powder. Recipe called for two chilis..so I used 2 heaping tbls of powder. Worked great! If paste dry, can add a little oil, but didn’t have a need to..great recipe and SO delicious!! THANK YOU!






    1. Hi Sam- I guess It depends on which “camp” you are in. If going for lower fat, perhaps yes healthier without skin- but some folks are on Keto ( high fat) so to them, skin is healthier. “Healthy” is relative to our beliefs. Make the best decision for you. 😉

  7. Have you ever smoked the chicken using this recipe?
    I’m wanting to try but not sure about adding more marinade to it while it’s on the smoker
    I’m planning to marinade overnight

    Also the cilantro sauce should that be made prior to eating or can I make before hand as well overnight

    1. You can make the cilantro sauce a day ahead, not a problem. Haven’t tried smoking this one…so not sure how it would be with the marinade. I guess you could smoke it first, then add marinade and finish it in the oven??

  8. My daughter doesn’t like anything that is even remotely hot (spicy). Would really love to try this recipe but worried about using chillies. Can you recommend anything in place of the chillies to ensure there is no heat at all?

    1. Oh Shoot. This may not be the recipe for her then, because the recipe really is all about the chilies.

  9. I rarely ever comment on recipes (yet I use ones on the internet all the time) and THIS is absolutely MIND BLOWING. It’s straight forward, easy, and totally juicy and delicious. My fiance and I struggle with finding new recipes that we love, or new takes on easy meals. This has really changed our roast chicken game!! I didn’t end up spatchcocking the chicken (just roasted whole for 1 1/2 hrs for a 5lb chicken), but it still turned out perfectly. Additionally, I was really worried about how the potatoes would turn out. I’ve tried potatoes like this in the past and they always end up hard and lacking flavor. But not these potatoes- they were soft, with a crunchy exterior (I did cut them thicker than suggested because I knew the chicken would be in longer since I did not spatchcock it), and bursting with flavor! The flavor of the chicken was so good that it could easily stand on its own, but the sauce throws it over the edge. I honestly would spend $40 for a thigh of this chicken at a restaurant- it’s that good. Braaaavooo!!!






  10. This was amazing! Full disclosure: I found this recipe because I bought a bottle of Nando’s Garlic Peri Peri sauce and wasn’t sure what to do with it, so I used that instead of making my own. The potatoes were incredible and the roast chicken was the juiciest I’ve ever made. It was a 3-4 pounder and altogether took about an hour, doing a temp check every 15 min. Thanks so much for this recipe!






  11. A friend just shared this recipe with me, I can’t wait to try it. But, where did you get that beautiful pan?

      1. It is gorgeous! I cannot seem to find whole dried ancho chili. Could I sub dried ancho powder with some liquid to make a paste?

        1. That should work. Just start with adding the powder, then maybe just add a little more olive oil if it seem dry.

      2. Hi all,

        I don’t have any ancho chili peppers at home. Can someone please recommend a substitute (in powder, ie chili or cayenne) and measurements.

        Thank you

        1. Hi Arkadiusz! Totally guessing here, but perhaps try 3 tablespoons chili powder along with the smoked paprika. If the paste seems really “loose”, add a bit more? If the paste seem to dry and thick, loosen with a bit more oil.

  12. Southern Africa not South Africa specific.

    It is part of many of the Southern African countries. The African birds eye chilli is the chill that was used. Portuguese settlers made the sauce. Peri-peri is a Swahilli word for Pepper-pepper.

  13. This is my 3rd time following your recipe to cook Piri Piri chicken. Always comes perfect. 3rd time because friends demanding more to prepare. Your instructions are very easy to follow and I love your tips particularly about potatoes. My wife loved the potatoes more than the chicken. This is one of my favorite chicken dishes. Thanks a lot for sharing.






  14. Have made this a few times now…..always comes out amazing!
    Just wondering if it would be more flavoursome if I were to marinate the chicken and leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

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