Oven-Roasted Chicken with Peri Peri Sauce

My first dish for blog after moving to a new spot! It's just a temporarily move while waiting on my old place getting revamped. It's going to be a full scale remodeling, tearing down the entire place, getting a new face lift and all that.

So it might take a post or two in order to get a feeling of the lighting at the new spot. Good news is, the oven works great here, otherwise I couldn't have this oven-roasted chicken with such a success.

Oven-roasted chicken with peri peri sauce -

Ingredients?

• 1/2 bone-in, skin-on chicken (can be substituted with 1 small whole chicken or few drumsticks)
• 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 2 dried bay leaves

Pre-roasting ingredients -

• 1 red onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 ripe tomatoes
• 5 garlic cloves
• 2 red chilies

How?

Peri peri sauce recipe was adapted from Adam Liaw's Instagram post. Besides chicken, he also suggested using this barbecue sauce on sausages or lamb chops. After giving it a try, I think it also works great with seafood such as shrimps and cod.

To get it started, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line a baking sheet with foil.

Slice the chicken, just on the surface and not cutting all the way down. It'll help the chicken to cook-through faster, especially the thicker center area. 

Peel and roughly chop the onion. Roughly chop the tomatoes. Destem and remove the seeds from red bell pepper. Peel the garlic cloves. Destem and remove the seeds from red chilies. Juice the lemon and cut down the rind.

Transfer the onion, tomatoes, red bell pepper, garlic cloves, and chilies to the baking sheet and roast for about 20 minutes. 

Once ready, remove from heat and transfer these ingredients to a food processor. Also add in olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, lemon rind, sugar, dried oregano, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and bay leaves. Blend till almost smooth, I prefer some tiny bits remain. For any extra peri peri sauce left after making this recipe, just store them in the fridge for future use.

Prepare one other baking pan and line with foil. Transfer chicken over and spread peri peri sauce all over.

Into the oven, still using 200 degrees Celsius and bake for about 45 minutes. Baking time varies depending on the thickness of the chicken. 

Plate and serve. Perhaps sprinkle some more black pepper when serving the chicken.

First round of food pictures at the new place. Seems ok, I'll try a few more spots and see where I can get the most sunlight.  



Extended reading:

• Lemony roasted chicken legs (thighs and drumsticks)