Peri Peri Chicken Thighs Over Charcoal

Method

1. Blitz the marinade

   Blend the chillies, roasted pepper, garlic, lemon, vinegar, paprika, oregano, oil and salt to a loose paste. Taste it: it should be sharp, salty and hot, because it will mellow considerably on the grill.

2. Marinate, and reserve some

   Set aside a third of the marinade in the fridge to use as a finishing sauce, then coat the thighs in the rest. Four hours minimum, overnight is better. Never reuse marinade that has touched raw chicken.

3. Wipe them down before cooking

   Scrape off the excess marinade before the thighs go on. Wet solids on the skin will burn and steam rather than crisp, and this marinade has sugar in the pepper and lemon that catches quickly.

4. Indirect first, skin up

   Two-zone fire at around 190°C (375°F). Thighs on the cool side skin side up, lid on, for around 20 minutes. This renders the fat under the skin gently, which is the step that makes crisping possible.

5. Finish skin down over the coals

   Move them directly over the bank, skin side down, for four to five minutes. Stay with them. Chicken skin over coals goes from golden to black in under a minute, and you will get flare-ups.

6. Cook thighs to 80°C (175°F)

   Dark meat is not done at 75°C (165°F). Thighs are full of connective tissue that only breaks down above 75°C (170°F), so they eat better at 80°C (175°F) to 85°C (185°F), where they are more tender rather than less.

7. Dress with the reserved marinade

   Spoon the reserved fresh marinade over the hot thighs off the grill, with extra lemon. The raw sharpness against the smoke is the whole point.

Notes worth knowing

• Bone-in, skin-on. Boneless skinless thighs cook fine but you lose the best part of the dish.
• Deseed half the chillies to control the heat rather than reducing the quantity, which would flatten the flavour.
• This marinade is excellent on spatchcocked whole chicken too, cooked the same way but for around 45 minutes.

Common questions

Why cook thighs hotter than breast?

Thighs are worked muscle full of collagen. At 75°C (165°F) that collagen is still intact and the meat eats rubbery. Held at 80°C (175°F) to 85°C (185°F) it converts to gelatin, so the meat gets more tender and more moist, the opposite of what happens to breast.

Can I make peri peri less hot without losing flavour?

Swap most of the bird's eye chillies for romano or long red chillies and keep the same volume. You keep the fruity chilli character and the roasted pepper body without the capsaicin load.