Attempting to make my own Nando’s peri-peri chicken recipe.

For years we were bitter that the nearest Nando’s wouldn’t deliver to our home which was only about 5kms away. But that didn’t stop us from eating at Nando’s.

In fact, if we ever spotted a Nando’s anywhere, it would take precedent over other meal options. Like seriously, we would know where to eat in a heartbeat. Nando’s!

Recently, we embarked on a slow-carb diet and boy were we happy when we realised that Nando’s has the best slow carb meals! Proteins, vegetables and beans…superb! However, Nando’s still does not deliver to my area :(

# – Kimberly’s homemade peri-peri chicken!

But it’s okay now because I can make my own peri-peri chicken at home!

For the peri-peri sauce:

  • 3 bird’s eye chillies (if want spicier increase amount up to 8 for very hot), chopped
  • 3 ordinary red chillies, chopped
  • 1 red capsicum, seeded and chopped
  • 5 cloves of garlic, peeled
  • 2 tablespoonfuls of oregano
  • 1/2 a cup of olive oil
  • Juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • 70 ml of white vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons of salt
  • For the chicken:

  • 1 whole chicken, butterflied and cut into half
  • Some salt
  • By the way, the recipe for the peri-peri sauce yields about 300ml of sauce. Multiply it accordingly if you want to make more, it keeps for a month in the fridge!

    # – First, pour the olive oil into a saucepan over medium heat.

    # – Then add the white vinegar.

    # – When the oil & vinegar mixture starts simmering, throw in the chopped up red capsicums.

    # – As well as the garlic cloves.

    # – Followed by juice of half a lemon. Stir to mix.

    # – Allow the mixture to simmer for 15 minutes.’

    # – After 15 minutes, turn off the heat. Add the chopped red chillies with seeds and all.

    # – Not to forget the bird’s eyes chillies too, with seeds as well.

    # – Also the oregano.

    # – And lastly, salt. Allow the mixture to cool down slightly, about 10-15 minutes.

    # – After it has cooled down a bit, pour it into a blender.

    # – Blitz till it’s creamy and turn a bright orange. The peri-peri sauce is now done :D

    # – Now, pour about 150 ml of sauce all over the chicken (that’s been rubbed with some salt) and brush it all over. Keep the rest of the sauce.

    # – Stick the chicken in the fridge to marinade for a minimum of 3 hours or best, overnight.

    # – When ready to cook, bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees celcius for 30 minutes. Then turn the heat down to 180 degrees celcius and cook for a further 15-20 minutes.

    # – Peri-peri chicken, DONE!

    # – Serve with grilled vegetables and 3 bean salad (recipe to be posted soon). Pour the remaining peri-peri sauce over the chicken for extra oomph.

    # – And that’s how you make your own Nando’s peri-peri chicken at home.

    The chicken was succulent and full of flavours. The sauce was delicious!

    The BF said that it didn’t taste precisely like the sauce from Nando’s but it’s unmistakably a peri-peri sauce with its own special kick. Happy cooking!

    39 thoughts on “Attempting to make my own Nando’s peri-peri chicken recipe.”

    1. OMGOMGOMG I am super stoked to see this! This is freaking awesome! I will definitely try this! I missed Nando’s chicken ever since I left Msia T_T

    2. The ingredients are indeed simple, had all of them at home. So made this sauce for chicken fillets today. The sauce tasted just like a South African brand Peri-Peri sauce sold at Cold Storage, however it is not like the Nando’s one, which is sourer & spicier. Still good anyhow, has a nice capsicum flavour.

      1. Glad you’ve tried it! I totally agree with you. If you like it spicier and sourer, you can add more bird’s eye chilies and vinegar. It’s all about experimenting till you find your perfect balance of flavours :D

    3. I remember coming across this recipe and then trying it out and unfortunately couldnt find this recipe again.And here i am after a year or more,i finally found your page again.Im so happy.Cant wait to make this again.The last time i made it,it was SO amazingly tasty.Thanks for this recipe :D

    4. Just tried this recently, and its super tasty~!! the sauce is spectacular. Although Nandos has a certain “pijar” (i dunno what’s the word in English), and not EXACTLY like nandos. my family loves it~!

    5. finger licking good tried it and I am from Sri Lanka we love our chillie in this part of the world and boy do my family love it or what!!!!

    6. Thanks Kim your sauce worked perfectly although I used 10 birds eye chillies because my son and I eat extra extra hot at Nandos also made bean salad yum. Love your blog Kim as my wife is Japanese and we have eaten a fusion of east west for years. Your holiday looked awesome wish we lived closer to resorts like that at least we got Minehead haha Mark in Bristol

      1. Thanks for your comment Mark, appreciate it. Always happy to know someone has benefited from these silly recipes :) Minehead is beautiful, my husband’s aunt lives there! :) Cheers

    7. Hi there,

      I haven’t tried this yet, but will definitely give it a go. I am totally addicted to Nandos, in fact last time we ate there (and scanned our loyalty card) the really sweet guy at the counter, who on a side note, greeted us with “Hello again!”, got a glance at our saved up points and said, “wow, nice”.

      One thing your recipe is missing is a subtle hint of coriander! I feel almost positive that it makes an appearance in their bastings, though of course I have no proof.

      Give it a go, I reckon it will get you a little bit closer to the real thing! :)

    8. Absolutely delicious! Even better after a couple of weeks in the fridge to soak up the flavours. Thanks for posting. Well definitely be making this again!

    9. Rightio, this looks burnt and dry as fuk, why wouldn’t you just go to the supermarket or nandos where they sell the actual nandos sauce so you can baste the chicken yourself?
      Fkn muppet retards

      1. Julian you obviously tried the recipe… Why didn’t you just go buy your own then??? Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean others don’t. Be grateful people even share their recipes!!

    10. Omg you’ve just changed my life. FuFindingnding a decent recipe means I can now have Nandos-ish without fear of gluten or cross contamination.
      I swapped out the vinegar for white wine vinegar.

      Awesome. Thanks again.

    11. Great stuff – thanks for taking the time to write this up. I’ve been looking for a home made nandos chicken recipe all morning – the others I read didn’t seem quite right… THIS looks like the real deal!

    12. Kim, I love this recipe! The one thing I miss most about living in South Africa is Nando’s chicken. I’ve used your recipe over and over again and I will never get tired of it. Thank you!

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