Peri-Peri Chicken & Loaded Sweet Potato
Cook Time: ~45 Minutes
A few months back, I was visiting home and my mother served this dish for for a family get-together. This peri-peri sauce is beautifully light and zingy with a welcome blast of heat and acidity. The loaded sweet potatoes are soft, buttery, and balanced with a range of textures and flavours.
I decided to recreate it so that I can come back to it in future. It’s a recipe that takes five minutes to prepare and is perfect for get-togethers, BBQs, meal prep, or just for a couple enjoying a satisfying evening meal.
Serves: 2-4
Prep: ~5 minutes
Cook: ~45 minutes
Ingredients
Peri-Peri Chicken
1kg chicken thighs
6 garlic cloves
6 birds’ eye chilli
Large lemon
Dried oregano (1 tsp)
Smoked paprika (2 tsp)
Olive oil (3 tbsp)
White wine vinegar (3 tbsp)
Salt & black pepper
Loaded Sweet Potato
Sweet potato (1 per person)
Feta cheese (~100g)
Pecans (~50g)
Fresh coriander (~15g)
Chilli flakes
Knob of butter
Salt & black pepper
Notes
Chicken: This marinade works well with other cuts of chicken such as wings, legs, drumsticks, etc.
Vinegar: You can also use red wine vinegar; which will give the marinade a fruitier and more robust flavour compared to the white wine’s dry and lighter flavour.
Chilli: As always, spice to your tolerance. Note that a distinctive quality of peri-peri is the use of birds’ eye chilli. It is supposed to be hot.
Style: This marinade works wonderfully for grilling, BBQ’ing, and frying too.
Equipment
Mixing bowl
Blender or food processor
Two baking trays
Wire rack
Mise En Place
Lightly crush the pecans; be sure not to grind it too finely into a powder. You want chunks.
Wash the sweet potato, and penetrate the body with several slits using a knife or fork.
Score the skin and flesh of the chicken lengthways about 1cm deep.
For the peri-peri sauce, blend the chilli, garlic, oregano, paprika, olive oil, white wine vinegar, and the juice of a whole lemon into a smooth sauce.
In a mixing bowl, pour ~half of the peri-peri sauce over the chicken and mix well. Ideally, you will let this marinade in the fridge for a minimum of one hour (the longer the better), but it’s not mandatory. The rest of the sauce will be used to drizzle over the cooked chicken.
The Cook
Preheat the oven to 200°C, and add your sweet potatoes sitting on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Depending on the size of your potato, these should take ~45 minutes to cook. Cook the potatoes until they are soft to the touch; your finger should be able to press into the potato a centimetre or two.
After ~15 minutes of your potatoes roasting, add the chicken thighs to the oven. Line a baking tray with tin foil and sit your chicken thighs on top of a wire rack before doing so. Depending on the size of your chicken cuts, these should take between 30 minutes to 40 minutes to cook through. Once the chicken is cooked, allow it to rest for ~5 minutes to ensure a moist thigh.
Tip: Every 5 to 10 minutes, baste your chicken with the juices that release underneath the wire rack for optimal flavour.
Once the potato is cooked and soft inside, open up the potato with a lengthways cut down the middle. Add a few slices of butter to both sides, sprinkle in some chopped feta cheese, pecans, a dash of chopped coriander, and some chilli flakes. Season with salt and pepper.
After the chicken is rested, set it down beside your potato and lather over the leftover peri-peri sauce. Enjoy.
If you attempt this dish, let me know how it goes, and if you variate the recipe in any way. This newsletter relies upon word of mouth, so if you know someone who would enjoy this recipe please share it.
Thanks for reading,
Conor