Piri Piri Chicken or also known as Peri Peri Chicken is now a quick weeknight dinner with this freezer-friendly chicken recipe! Prep is as simple as blend the Piri Piri sauce and add chicken! Use whichever cut of chicken you like, and even cook it either in the oven, in a skillet, or on your grill!
Piri Piri Chicken... or also spelled Peri Peri Chicken is a Portuguese dish that is made with roasted red peppers, bird's eye chilis, and smoked paprika.
Bird’s eye chilli is not something that is just hanging out at my local grocery store, so I just sub out with regular red Thai chilli peppers, and in a bind, I will use crushed red hot pepper flakes. No, not super traditional, but sometimes mamma needs to improvise!
This is one of those recipes that can be made into a quick prep freezer meal – with no cooking. Simply, blend up the marinade and add the chicken to a freezer zip bag. Label it, and you are done!
This sauce comes together so quickly by just putting all marinade ingredients in your blender or food processor and giving in a few pulses until smooth!
I have done this recipe with boneless skinless chicken thighs (as shown in this post), but you can also use other cuts of chicken such as bone-in chicken thighs, drumsticks, chicken breasts, or even a whole chicken – you just need to adjust the cooking time.
You can also cook the Piri Piri chicken in a few ways. You can crisp up in a cast iron pan in olive oil at medium heat to high heat and then finish in the oven, or you can straight up bake them. Grilling is another alternative. So many options for this.
Oven, Skillet, or Grill Piri Piri Chicken {Freezer Friendly}
Ingredients
- 12-16 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 12 oz jar fire roasted red peppers drained
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- Lemon juice from 1 lemon
- 1 small red onion quartered
- 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ⅛ tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 Thai red chili peppers more or less to preference (or sub ½ tsp red chili flakes)
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
Instructions
- Add everything, except the chicken into a blender, to make the peri peri sauce. Blend until smooth. This should take less than a minute (depending on how powerful your blender is).
- Place chicken and sauce into a freezer-safe zip bag. Label and freeze up to 6 months.
- On cook day, ensure the freezer pack is thawed, but don’t leave it sitting for long at room temperature.
- To bake in the oven: remove as much excess sauce from the chicken as possible and place it on a baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes at 400F, flipping halfway. Ensure chicken is cooked to 165F.
- To grill, remove as much excess sauce from the chicken as possible. Grill at 400F for 10 minutes, turning chicken halfway through. Ensure chicken is cooked to 165F.
- In the Skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high heat. Remove as much excess sauce as possible. Cook chicken for 5 minutes. Deglaze the skillet and remove the brown bits (they will burn if you don't). Flip and cook for another 2-5 minutes until cooked to 165F.
Nutrition
So, come along on a little freezer-friendly culinary trip to Portugal with me! A super easy, super delicious way for any foodie to expand their culinary tastes!
Danielle says
If I switch to chicken breasts how many chicken breasts should be used?