Portuguese Piri Piri Gravy

Piri piri is a small fierce chilli, taken from Africa to Portugal and back again, and the sauce made from it is defined as much by garlic, vinegar and olive oil as by heat. Turned into a gravy it stays deliberately loose and sharp, because the acidity is what cuts through roast chicken skin. If you like the sauce that comes with a Portuguese style chicken, this is roughly the family it belongs to.

Ingredients

Makes about 450ml, enough for six

• 4 piri piri or bird's eye chillies, stalks removed the small pointed red ones. Use two for a milder gravy
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp flaky sea salt
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 red pepper, roasted and skinned or 2 piquillo peppers from a jar
• 2 tsp smoked paprika pimentão fumado, sweet rather than hot
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 lemon, juice of
• 400ml (14fl oz) hot chicken stock, plus the juices from the roasting tin
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp caster sugar

Kit

• Roasting tin or frying pan
• Small blender or pestle and mortar
• Sieve

Method

1. Pound the chillies, garlic and salt to a rough paste in a mortar, or blitz them in a small blender. Add the roasted red pepper, smoked paprika, oregano, vinegar and half the olive oil and blend to a loose brick red sauce.

2. Lift your roast chicken out of the tin and rest it. Spoon off most of the fat but keep the darker juices and everything stuck to the base. Set the tin over a medium heat.

3. Add the remaining olive oil and the piri piri paste and fry it for three to four minutes, stirring constantly and scraping the tin. It will darken and smell strongly of garlic and smoke. Keep it moving, since garlic paste catches fast.

4. Pour in the hot stock, add the bay leaf and bring to a simmer, scraping up the last of the roasting residue.

5. Simmer uncovered for ten to twelve minutes until reduced by about a quarter. It should be a thin, glossy, deep red sauce rather than a thick one, with a slick of oil on the surface.

6. Take out the bay leaf. For a smooth gravy push it through a sieve, pressing hard, or leave it rough if you prefer texture.

7. Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and the sugar. Taste and adjust: it should be hot, sour, garlicky and smoky, in that order, with the acidity clearly present. Add salt as needed and spoon it over the carved chicken.

Tips worth knowing

• The acidity is not a garnish, it is the structure of the sauce. If it tastes flat, it almost always needs more vinegar or lemon rather than more salt or chilli.
• Bird's eye chillies from a supermarket are a decent stand in for true piri piri, which is smaller and fruitier. Portuguese shops and online spice sellers stock the real thing, dried or in jars.
• Fry the paste properly before the stock goes in. Raw garlic and paprika stirred into hot stock tastes harsh and one dimensional.
• Make double the paste and keep half in a jar under a layer of olive oil in the fridge. It is a good marinade for chicken thighs and keeps for a fortnight.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps a week in the fridge and the heat builds slightly. It separates as it stands, so whisk or shake it before serving. Freezes for three months, though the fresh lemon note fades, so add a fresh squeeze after reheating.

Questions people ask