Friday Night Take-away - Piri Piri Chicken

Yesterday we went around to a friend's house for our evening meal.  Out of politeness and good grace I decided not to post about the meal.  This is only fair as before the meal they did not know that I had a blog, never mind a daily food one*.  Of course the subject came up over the course of the evening.

Host "What have you been doing lately?"
Me "Nothing much, spend most of my time writing about the food we eat on my food blog."
Host "What? You're kidding right? You have a food blog?"
Me "Yes, really.  It's not recipes, just the story behind the evening meal.  Why we've cooked it, where the inspiration comes from etc."
Host "You're not going to write about this meal are you?"
Me "No. That would be unfair."

So having only broken a promise a little bit, I'll move onto tonight's menu.  As it's Friday we're sticking to the cook at home take-away tradition and tonight we're having piri piri chicken.  The piri piri is a relative new comer to the take-away menus that flop with all too regular an occurrence through our letter box.  This is due to the success of one national chain of restaurants who, believe it or not, are South African in origin.

My first experience of said chain was through a friendly Portuguese who recommended them, not on the strength of the chicken but on the authentic custard tarts that you can order for dessert.  Sadly they are all too often sold out of these cracking little puds to make it worth visiting these days.  The fact that they now cover Leeds like a rash also puts me off**.

The marinade for the chicken can now be bought off the shelf in supermarkets up and down the country but I prefer to make my own.  It is more like making a hot vinaigrette than most marinades; lots of oil and vinegar, garlic, a sweet red pepper and oregano, all simmered together.  Only once the pepper is cooked do you remove from the heat.  At this point add lemon juice and as much chilli as you and your loved ones can handle.

Once the sauce is completely cool blend it to within an inch of its life then pour over whatever piece of chicken you have to hand.  We had a couple of chicken legs left over from our last Swillington Farm meat box.  To keep with the restaurant experience we had our chicken with skinny fries, corn on the cob and coleslaw.  The chips and corn were from the freezer, the coleslaw was home made so that I didn't feel quite so dirty.

*For the record we had a cracking beef stew with great roasties and a chocolate bread and butter pudding for dessert.  Thank you Laura and Mark.
**Give me an independent restaurant any day.