Recipes / Chicken
Peri-peri chicken rolls
Thin chicken breast steaks marinated in paprika, garlic and chilli, braaied fast over hot coals and served in crusty rolls with lettuce and chilli mayo.
- Prep
- 20 min
- On the fire
- 10 min
- Plan ahead
- 1 to 4 hours marinating
- Serves
- 4
- Done at
- 165°F (74°C)
Ingredients
Chicken
Chilli mayo
To serve
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with all burners on high and the lid closed for 10 to 15 minutes, until the lid thermometer reads 260°C (500°F) or more. Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Cook with the lid open and use the recipe times as a guide, checking with a thermometer.
- Keep one burner off or on low as a cooler zone. If fat flares up, move the food there. Never use water on a gas grill flare-up.
- For a smoky taste, put a handful of wood chips in a smoker box, or a foil parcel pierced with a few holes, over a lit burner while the grill preheats.
- Slice each breast in half horizontally to make 4 thin steaks about 1.5 cm (1/2 inch) thick.
- Mix the oil, garlic, paprika, chilli, oregano, lemon juice and salt in a bowl. Turn the chicken in it, cover and keep in the fridge for 1 to 4 hours.
- Stir the mayonnaise, chilli sauce and lemon juice together and keep it cold.
- Shake off the excess marinade and cook the chicken over hot coals for 3 to 4 minutes a side, turning once.
- If you are using cheese, lay a slice on each steak after you turn it and let it melt.
- Butter the cut sides of the rolls and toast them on the grid for 1 minute while the chicken rests.
- Spread the rolls with chilli mayo, add lettuce, tomato and a chicken steak, and close.
Done when: the chicken is browned with a few charred spots, white all the way through, and a thermometer in the thickest part reads 74°C (165°F).
Tips
- Thin steaks cook through before they dry out. If your breasts are very large, cut them into three slices instead of two.
- Do not marinate for more than 4 hours. The lemon juice starts to make the meat mealy.
- For more heat, brush the chicken with extra peri-peri sauce in the last minute on the grid.
Peri-peri chicken came to South Africa with Portuguese and Mozambican cooks, and the chilli-and-garlic flavour is now sold on every high street. The chicken roll is the quick version: flat pieces of breast that cook in minutes, tucked into a crusty roll the way a steak goes into a prego. To make the marinade from scratch with fresh chillies, use the peri-peri marinade and marinate for the same time.
Source
Adapted from Peri Peri Style Chicken Burgers at Simple Home Edit.