Nando's peri peri chicken with two sides

Hello home makers!

This entry's addition is another great example of how inflated the cost of dining out has become. Nando's is a personal favourite of mine ever since it first started serving fiery hot grilled chicken to Malaysian poultry lovers over ten years ago. I think Nando's struck a chord with most Malaysians because of its unapologetic use of heat and spice in mainstream fast food cuisines. Back then we were getting more and more used to a host of bland and traditional grilled chicken fast food establishments like Kenny Rogers and Dave's Deli. The chicken was good, but it was getting a bit tired and boring. Along came the Portuguese champ and totally changed the way we felt about grilled chicken.

Unfortunately, I have been very disappointed with the chain for the last couple of years. The quality of food from one chain to the next is surprisingly inconsistent. Often do I have complaints about the little things, like being served stale grilled vegetables that tasted off; ice lemon tea that tasted strongly of chlorine, and dry small pieces of quarter chicken. Recently the restaurant had also revised its menu and raised prices substantially, putting the quarter chicken with 2 sides at around RM17 before taxes. So realistically you are looking at close to RM25 per person after taxes. Some may say that this price is reasonable; but I would need to see a substantial improvement in food quality if I were going to pay that much for grilled chicken.

Nando's chicken recipes rely a lot on the use of the peri peri chilli pepper, which proves a slight problem. I do not have access to this pepper, and I can't even substitute it accurately because technically I've never even tasted it pre-sauced. But looking at the pictures on the internet, I've noticed a lot of similarities between this pepper and those of our own; the notorious cili padi, or bird's eye chillies.

Peri-peri hot

Browsing the internet, I found a couple of recipes of making the sauce and because I was going to have guests, I was looking for something less spicy than the original one. So the main characteristics of the sauce are tangy and heat. So my acid component will come from white vinegar and the juice of two lemons, while the heat will come from a combination of 6 bird's eye chillies and 1 capsicum. Colour is added through sweet smoked paprika and onions. Here's how I made it:-

1 whole onion
5 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon paprika
juice of 2 lemons
1 red bell pepper / capsicum
6 bird's eye chili
white vinegar (1/2 cup)
olive oil

i) blend all the ingredients until smooth and slowly add the oil to reach the consistency of sauce.
ii) I do believe that the original sauce would probably require some sort of fermentation to occur, like the process of making most hot sauce - but I neither have the time not the patience. Either way, I'm only using it as a basting sauce, not dipping.

We were having people over so I got 2 reasonably sized chicken at exactly RM10.99 a bird. Even before I started, I am already saving a ton of money. The groceries bill came to about RM50++ but I have to take into account that I was shopping at a posh supermarket (it was convenient to go there) and I bought more than I needed. So I would estimate that with the chicken, it cost me roughly RM35 to prepare everything. The most costly ingredient after the chicken would be the olive oil, which you need a lot of.

The method I will be using to prepare the chicken is through basting, as I feel it would be the best way to keep the chicken moist and not burn anything in the process. A lot of the recipes ask for a marination process with the sauce itself overnight; but I know from experience that marination changes the texture of chicken and makes it less juicy (depending on what you put in the marinade). Furthermore, I only had about 3 hours to get everything ready, so not an option. I went for a quick brine method instead with a cup of salt and a cup of brown sugar. In hindsight, my chicken would taste far better if I had left it in the brine longer than 2 hours. Well, at least it wasn't salty.

Submergeficiationing.

So the basting method requires that I hot sear the chicken (butteflied) on the hot side of the grill and then moving it to indirect heat to cook under the hood for a long low and slow. You can achieve a similar result by browning the chicken in a hot pan and moving it into an oven. My grill temperature was about 350f.

Start searing with the skin up so that you won't have flare ups too early. Flare ups are caused by the fat from the skin dripping onto the hot coals.

Using a brush, brush on a generous layer of the sauce on top of the seared chicken. Cover the grill to create an oven-like environment. Cooking the chicken at a low heat stop it from drying out. It will take longer though, so start early before your guests arrive.

Aim for an internal temperature of about 165 Fahrenheit. That should ensure your chicken is safe to be consumed.

Another brush of the sauce and you're ready to eat! Taste wise, it is pretty close, maybe lacking a bit of tang due to the fermentation process, and I think capsicum is not the way to go. It is still very good chicken though. With two sides of potatoes and salad total cost = RM35-40. Serves 8. Savings of almost 75%!