Peri Peri Sauce
Best Peri Peri Sauce Recipe – This luscious homemade hot sauce is zesty, spicy, and irresistibly delicious! You won’t believe how easy it is to make your own copycat Nando’s Peri-Peri sauce that’s perfect to use on chicken, shrimp, or other favorite proteins.
Why We Love this Peri Peri Sauce Recipe
Peri Peri Sauce is a popular South African hot sauce made famous by the chicken chain Nando’s. If you’re not in the know, Nandos makes spicy-hot grilled chicken doused in Peri Peri sauce that is utterly irresistible!
You can buy Peri Peri sauce in the grocery store, even the Nando’s brand, but it’s fun and surprisingly easy to make it at home. It is great to customize for heat, depth of flavor, and even consistency by changing the type of chile pepper used, the amount of additional herbs and spices, and the liquid content.
Whip up a batch at home in only about 30 minutes and use it to add some serious pep to simple chicken or seafood dishes!
Ingredients You Need
- Fresh red chilies – African bird’s eye chiles are traditional
- Onion – sweet yellow or red onion with some bite
- Garlic – whole cloves
- Extra virgin olive oil – or other high-heat and natural-tasting oil like avocado or canola oil
- Fresh basil leaves – for a fresh but slightly peppery taste
- Balsamic vinegar and apple cider vinegar – using both create a deeply tangy and flavorful sauce that isn’t too rich. You can use red wine vinegar or lemon juice in place of apple cider vinegar if desired.
- Granulated sugar – to balance the heat
- Other spices – smoked paprika, dried oregano, salt
How to Make Peri-Peri Sauce
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Set out a large rimmed baking sheet. Remove the stems from the red chili peppers and shake out all the seeds. Peel the garlic and onions. Place the garlic cloves on the baking sheet and slice the onion into large wedges. Lay the onion wedges on the baking sheet. Drizzle the top of the chilies, onions, and garlic with oil. Salt generously.
Roast the chilies and aromatics in the oven for 12-15 minutes until soft and slightly charred around the edges.
Allow the roasted vegetables to cool. Then scoop the roasted ingredients and the oil into a blender jar or food processor. Add the basil, balsamic vinegar, sugar, smoked paprika, apple cider vinegar, and dried oregano.
Purée until very smooth.
Check the consistency of the hot sauce. It should be thick and equal to about 1 ½ cups of sauce. At this point, you can jar the sauce, or add water to thin out the sauce. If you like a thinner hot sauce, add 3 to 10 tablespoons of water. Purée again.
Top Recipe Tips
- Thai red chiles are a form of cayenne chiles and are VERY hot. If you can’t find (or handle) Thai red chiles, any type of red chiles will work. I used Fresno chiles, which are still hot, but not as hot as Thai chiles. Yet you can use a combination of hot red chiles and red bell pepper to reduce the heat.
- When working with hot peppers, using gloves is a good idea to keep the oil from working into your skin, and then later rubbing your eyes or nose.
- If your sauce is too hot, you can roast additional red bell peppers to puree into the sauce. You can also add a little tomato sauce to reduce the heat.
Ways to Use Peri Peri Sauce
If you’re using any sort of spicy red pepper this sauce will be very hot. It is amazing to use for Peri Peri chicken, of course, but you can also use it in marinades, on Middle Eastern plates, curry bowls, even on Mexican dishes!
Light proteins marinated in Peri-Peri are great to cook in any number of ways! Try baking, roasting, grilling, air frying, or smoking chicken wings, shrimp, or white fish. Then enjoy it as an entree or add to other dishes for a fiery meal with lots of flavor.
Frequently Asked Questions
This iconic sauce is spicy and smoky, with a hint of tart and tangy flavor from the apple cider vinegar.
These are indeed the same thing. Both peri peri and piri-piri are thick and rich spicy sauces made in Africa, just different spellings.
Store homemade peri-peri sauce in jars or other airtight containers for up to 2 weeks.
Looking for More Classic Condiment Recipes? Be Sure to Try:
Peri Peri Sauce Recipe + Video
Video
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ pounds fresh red chiles Thai Bird’s Eye are traditional*
- 1 average-sized onion sweet or red
- 7-8 cloves garlic
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano
- Water
- Salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Set out a large rimmed baking sheet. Remove the stems from the chili peppers and shake out all the seeds. Peel the garlic and onions. Place the garlic cloves on the baking sheet and slice the onion into large wedges. Lay the onion wedges on the baking sheet. Drizzle the top of the chilies, onions, and garlic with oil. Salt generously.
- Roast the chilies and aromatics in the oven for 12-15 minutes until soft and slightly charred around the edges.
- Allow the roasted vegetables to cool. Then scoop the roasted ingredients and the oil into a blender jar. Add the basil, balsamic vinegar, sugar, smoked paprika, apple cider vinegar, and dried oregano. Purée until very smooth.
- Check the consistency of the hot sauce. It should be thick and equal to about 1 ½ cups of sauce. At this point you can jar the sauce, or add water to thin out the sauce. If you like a thinner hot sauce consider adding 3 to 10 tablespoons of water. Purée again.
Notes
- Thai red chiles are a form of cayenne chiles and are VERY hot. If you can’t find (or handle) Thai red chiles, any type of red chiles will work. I used Fresno chiles, which are still hot, but not as hot as Thai chiles. Yet you can use a combination of hot red chiles and red bell pepper to reduce the heat.
- If you’re using any sort of spicy red pepper this sauce will be very hot. It’s amazing to use for Peri Peri chicken, of course, but you can also use it in marinades, on Middle Eastern plates, curry bowls, even on Mexican dishes!
- When working with hot peppers, using gloves is a good idea to keep the oil from working into your skin, then later rubbing your eyes or nose.
- If your sauce is too hot, you can roast additional red bell peppers to puree into the sauce. You can also add a little tomato sauce to reduce the heat.
- Store homemade peri-peri sauce in jars or other airtight containers for up to 2 weeks.