Galinha à Zambeziana — Mozambican Peri-Peri Grilled Chicken

⏱ 90 min · Serves 4

Spatchcocked chicken bathed in a fiery peri-peri marinade of bird's eye chillies, garlic and lemon, then grilled and basted with coconut milk butter until charred, sticky and blistered. Smoky, sour, hot and rich all at once — the taste of a Maputo beach grill.

Per serving: 712 kcal · 58.0g protein · 6.0g carbs · 51.0g fat

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, about 1.6kg, spatchcocked
• 8 bird's eye chillies (piri-piri), stalks removed
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 tsp flaky sea salt
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• Juice of 2 lemons, plus wedges to serve
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 200ml full-fat coconut milk
• 40g unsalted butter
• Small bunch coriander, chopped
• Black pepper

Method

1. Pound the chillies, garlic and flaky salt to a rough paste in a mortar (or blitz in a small processor). Reserve 1 tbsp of the paste for the baste.
2. Stir the smoked and sweet paprika, lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, sugar and a good grind of black pepper into the remaining paste.
3. Slash the chicken thighs and breasts twice each, down to the bone. Rub the marinade all over and under the skin. Cover and chill at least 1 hour, ideally overnight.
4. Heat a barbecue for indirect cooking, or an oven to 200C fan. Bring the chicken to room temperature and season with a little more salt.
5. Melt the butter in a small pan, stir in the coconut milk and the reserved chilli paste, and simmer 3-4 minutes until slightly thickened. Set aside as your baste.
6. Cook the chicken skin-side up over indirect heat (lid down) or on a rack in the oven for 35 minutes.
7. Start basting generously with the coconut-peri-peri butter every 8 minutes for a further 20-25 minutes, until the juices run clear and a thigh reads 75C.
8. Finish skin-side down over direct heat (or under a hot grill) for 3-4 minutes to char and blister. Watch it — the sugars catch fast.
9. Rest 10 minutes, then joint into pieces. Spoon over the remaining warm baste and pan juices, scatter with coriander and serve with lemon wedges, rice or chips.