Crushed Piri-Piri Pepper

Piri-Piri chillies are extremely hot, sunset red in colour and measure only an inch in size. The crushed chilli is typically mixed with lemon juice, onion, garlic, vinegar, oil and salt to form a paste. This paste can be smothered over prawns, chicken and fish, then barbequed or grilled. You could also try our Peri-Peri spice blend and Spanish Pimenton Bravas Sauce, which both contain these chillies.

Piri-Piri chillies have a long, fascinating history. The chillies influence Mozambican and Goan cuisine because Portuguese explorers introduced them to the regions where the famous Peri-Peri Chicken was born – the process of fried chicken being doused in a special peri-peri sauce that adds plenty of heat and flavour. Having become extremely popular throughout the UK thanks to restaurant chain Nandos, Piri-Piri sauce can also count Nelson Mandela amongst its most avid fans.

Peri-Peri is also popular in South African cuisine where in Swahili peri-peri means “pepper pepper” because according to folk law, the chillies are so hot they were named twice! They’re still sometimes known as “African Bird’s Eye chillies” and can range anywhere from 50,000 to 175,000 SHU on the Scoville scale. Nowadays, it’s mainly grown and cultivated in Malawi, Zambia, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Portugal.

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