Peri Peri Chicken and Patatas Bravas

I made this mix of Portuguese and Spanish cuisine for my friends and parents the night before I go to Paris. With a bit of preparation beforehand and a little bit of effort into dressing up the table its a meal that looks impressive but that is super easy to make. It is also relatively cheap as the chicken I used was leg meat which is super juicy and tender but so much cheaper than the breast!

For starters I also cooked prawns in garlic butter and served a selection of Serrano ham and olives, but that is relatively easy to work out yourself!

Patatas bravas is a potato dish that is part of nearly every Spanish tapas dish: crispy cubed potatoes with a delicious tomato based sauce. I made the sauce from scratch a couple of days before and just left in the fridge, it probably takes 20 minutes max to make.

Just sweat 1/2 finely chopped onion and 4 cloves of crushed garlic in frying pan on a low heat for 3-4 minutes. Then add 1/2 tablespoon of sweet smoked paprika (this is the best paprika with the most flavour), 1 teaspoon of tobasco and 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. Mix these ingredients and then transfer to a large bowl.

Add 4 tablespoons of tomato ketchup and 2 of mayonnaise. Blend yourself or using a food processor. I have one of those hand processors which is really good. Then season with salt and pepper to taste and and add a drop more tobasco if needed. 

On the actually evening about an hour before you want to eat  just peel and dice enough potatoes for 1 large potato each (use Maris Piper or King Edwards) plus a few extra. Heat the oven to 200C. Place the potatoes in a saucepan of cold water, wash, and the change for fresh water. Bring to the boil, adding salt, and par boil for 6-7 minutes. In the meanwhile heat a baking tray with 1-2 tablespoons of sunflower oil in the oven. Drain the potatoes and leave to one side with the lid on to keep the heat in.
Remove the oiled baking tray out of the oven and being careful spoon the potatoes into the tray and place back in the oven. Watch over every 20 minutes, turning if necessary. They should take 40-50 minutes till they are golden brown and crispy.

Piri Piri Chicken is a portuguese chicken dish that has been made famous by the legendary Nandos and is based on the African bird's eye chilli as the key ingredient. So... my recipe just used normal crushed chilli and didn't taste exactly like Nandos- but for a homemade dish it was so tasty and the chicken was ridiculously tender. All my friends (Nando experts haha) still loved it.

Again I made the sauce a couple of days before and just left in the fridge, leaving little to do on the day/evening. For this you will just need 1/2 chopped red onion, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1tbsp sweet smoked paprika, juice of one lemon, 2tbsp white wine vinegar, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, a bunch of fresh basil finely chopped, and 1-2 bird's eye chill's (or teaspoon of crushed chilli flakes as you like). Simply mix the ingredients together, add a splash of water and blend again with a hand blender, or food processor. Super easy- sauce made!

Pour the sauce over your chicken legs in a large baking dish, cover with foil and leave to marinate over night in the fridge. I'm really trying to be prepared and let stuff marinate overnight- it really does make such a difference to the flavour!

On the night take out your chicken and brown all over in a frying pan on a high heat. Place back into the baking dish and spoon sauce back on to the chicken covering well. Place in the oven with the potatoes about 40 minutes before the potatoes are due to be done, perhaps lowering the heat to 160-180 towards the last half an hour. Make a big green salad in the meanwhile, tidy up, tidy yourself up and you are ready to entertain, all you need is to take a few things out of the oven and serve!