Portuguese Piri-Piri Seasoning

Name: Portuguese Piri-Piri Seasoning
Yield: About 1 cup wet marinade
Ingredients: Dried African bird's-eye chile; garlic; lemon; bay leaf; and paprika; blended into a marinade

The Quirky Foodster Team

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About 1 cup wet marinade

Servings

Ingredients

Dried African bird's-eye chile
garlic
lemon
bay leaf
and paprika
blended into a marinade

Method

Blend all ingredients into a marinade, or infuse into oil/vinegar for a shelf-stable piri-piri sauce.
Not applicable.

Origin: Portugal — closely related to and largely the origin point (alongside Mozambican and Angolan contact) of the broader African peri-peri tradition.

Use: A marinade and finishing sauce for grilled chicken and other meats.

Classic Dishes: Frango piri-piri (Portuguese-style grilled peri-peri chicken, the direct culinary ancestor and close relative of the African peri-peri chicken tradition it helped shape through centuries of colonial-era exchange).

Storage: Keeps 1-2 weeks refrigerated as a fresh marinade, or several months as a shelf-stable bottled sauce.

Variations: Peri-peri has a genuinely two-directional Portuguese-African culinary history — not simply a Portuguese import into Africa, but a flavour tradition substantially shaped by the African bird’s-eye chile itself and Mozambican/Angolan culinary practice, feeding back into Portuguese cooking in turn.

Substitutions: A simplified chile, garlic, and lemon marinade.