Description

Piri Piri chicken thighs are soaked in a spicy lemon and thyme brine then coated in hot sauce and roasted to juicy and fiery perfection. #chicken #poultry #spicy #recipes

Ingredients

Scale

For Roasting

6–8 chicken thighs

a bottle of your favorite Piri Piri sauce or similar hot sauce

For brining

100g (about 1/2 cup) salt

100g (about 1/2 cup) sugar

1 tbsp peppercorn

1 lemon (zest grated and juiced)

1 head of garlic (garlic cloves crushed)

3–4 bay leaves

1 tbsp red pepper flakes

1 tsp thyme

2.5 L (8 1/2 cups) water

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Roasting

Brine the chicken overnight.
Preheat oven to 220C/425F.
Take chicken out of the brine and pat dry, removing any brine debris that still may be sticking to the chicken.
Place on an oven tray and coat in your favorite Piri Piri sauce or whichever hot sauce you prefer.
Bake in the oven at 220C/45F uncovered for 45 min-60 min or until thoroughly cooked, making sure to baste with fresh hot sauce as you go.

Brine

Grate the zest of one lemon and add it to a large pot along with the juice.
Add salt, sugar, crushed garlic cloves, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, thyme and 1 L of water and bring to a boil over high heat.
Boil for 10 minutes, making sure the brine mixture does not boil over onto the stovetop.
After 10 min, remove from heat and let cool.
Once room temperature, add the remaining 1.5 liters of water. The mixture should taste like a salty soup. If you find it to be too salty, add a mug or two of water but not much more as you don’t want to dilute the brine too much.
Add poultry to room temperature brine and let soak overnight or up to 2 days in the refrigerator.
When ready to cook, remove poultry from brine, pat dry and remove any herbs that might remain on the meat.
Discard brine once poultry has touched it and do not reuse.

Notes

For those that like a drier and crispy chicken skin, just roast it naked with a little bit of smoked paprika dusted on top.

Grill for an added smokiness

Prep Time: 10
Cook Time: 60
Category: Chicken
Method: roasting
Cuisine: Western

Keywords: Chicken thighs, spicy, poultry, peri peri, piri piri, chili brine, spicy chicken