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Recipe courtesy of Hawa Hassan

Piri Piri Sauce

  • Level: Easy
  • Yield: About 1 1/2 cups
  • Nutritional Analysis
    Per Serving
    Serving Size
    1 of 4 servings
    Calories
    189
    Total Fat
    14
    Saturated Fat
    2
    Carbohydrates
    17
    Dietary Fiber
    2
    Sugar
    10
    Protein
    2
    Cholesterol
    0
    Sodium
    381
  • Total: 10 min
  • Active: 10 min
It’s hard to go a day in Mozambique without eating something that’s touched with piri piri sauce (sometimes written as peri peri). The sauce, made with chiles, citrus, and oil, is Portuguese in origin, but peri is actually the Swahili word for “chile” and refers to a specific type of chile pepper that is said to have been first cultivated in Africa. While the sauce is traditionally made with piri piri chiles, all different kinds of hot peppers work well. We found that red Fresno chiles, readily available in the United States and not quite as hot as jalapeños, work really well. However, if you can only find jalapeños, just use three fresh ones in place of the red Fresno chiles. Use the sauce anywhere you would use sriracha. Try it on grilled chicken, toss it with raw cashews and then roast them for a great snack with cocktails, stir it into a seafood stew, or use it for Prego Rolls (Steak and Piri Piri Sandwiches).
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Ingredients

10 red Fresno chiles, stemmed, seeded, and coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons minced ginger

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon granulated sugar, plus more as needed

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed

Directions

  1. In the jar of a blender, combine the chiles, garlic, ginger, lime juice, oil, sugar, and salt and puree until smooth. Season to taste with more salt or sugar if you’d like. Transfer to a jar and store, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Reprinted with permission from In Bibi’s Kitchen by Hawa Hassan with Julia Turshen, copyright © 2020. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.

Categories:

African Sauce Recipes Chile Peppers Gluten Free Vegan

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1 Review
Add Your Review

Sandra L.

Just made this sauce for the first time. It is delicious! I made it for prego roll sandwich with flank steak. Our guests loved it too. I only used 8 Fresno chilies but that was the perfect level of heat for us. Will make more to put on some chicken because I like piri piri chicken. I had it in Washington D.C. and enjoyed it.

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