The piri piri chicken we make when we want dinner to feel like an event

Piri piri chicken is Portuguese and it is all smoke, chilli, garlic and sharp vinegar. It is also one of those things almost everyone buys in a bottle, which is a shame because the homemade version takes about four minutes in a blender and tastes like a completely different (& clean!)

Butterflying the chicken is the trick that makes this a weeknight possibility rather than a Sunday project. Flattened out, the chick cooks in half the time, the skin goes evenly blistered and crispand every drop of spiced fat renders straight down onto the broccoli, red onion and fennel roasting in the tray underneath. One tray, four people, and the vegetables end up being the part everyone fights over.

Before we get into the recipe, here's what this plate is doing for your body:

Protein: A whole free range chicken gives you a proper hit of complete protein plus the collagen and glycine that come with cooking meat on the bone. That is what keeps you full for hours instead of hunting through the fridge at nine o'clock.

Healthy fats: Extra virgin olive oil in the marinade, avocado oil on the vegetables and toasted almonds on top slow the whole meal down and keep blood sugar steady through the evening. Fat is also what carries the fat soluble vitamins out of all those vegetables and into you.

Fibre and greens: Broccoli, fennel, red onion, rocket and radish mean there are five different plants on this plate before you count the herbs. Your gut bacteria want variety far more than they want volume, and this is an easy way to give it to them.

Vitamin C and iron: Capsicum, chilli and lemon are all loaded with vitamin C, and broccoli quietly delivers more per serve than most people expect. Eaten alongside the iron in the chicken thigh meat, they help your body actually absorb it.

Probiotics: A spoon of kraut on each plate and a splash of raw apple cider vinegar in the marinade finish the meal with a little gut love. Small habit, real difference over time.

This is not a fussy meal. It is one tray, a blender and about sixty five minutes, and the leftover chicken shredded through a salad the next day is genuinely one of the better lunches going.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1.6kg free range whole chicken, butterflied or 1kg of chicken thighs if you don't want to use the whole chicken
• 1 large head broccoli, cut into flat steaks and florets
• 2 red onions, cut into thick wedges
• 1 fennel bulb, cut into wedges
• 1 tablespoon avocado oil
• 120g rocket
• 6 radishes, thinly sliced
• 1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 40g almonds, toasted and roughly chopped
• 4 tablespoons sauerkraut, to serve
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges to serve
• Sea salt flakes and cracked black pepper, to taste

PIRI PIRI MARINADE:

• 3 long red chillies, roughly chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 red capsicum, roasted and peeled
• 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 90ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon raw honey
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt flakes
• 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper

How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 220C fan. Pat the butterflied chicken completely dry with paper towel and leave it sitting on a rack on the bench while you make the marinade.
2. Blitz the chillies, garlic, roasted capsicum, apple cider vinegar, smoked paprika, cumin, lemon zest and juice, olive oil, tomato paste, honey, salt and pepper into a loose red marinade. Spoon a third of it into a clean jar and set that aside for the table before the raw chicken goes anywhere near it.
3. Rub the remaining two thirds all over the chicken, working it well under the skin and into the thighs. Sit it skin side up on a rack set over a large roasting tray.
4. Toss the broccoli steaks and florets, red onion wedges and fennel with the avocado oil and a good pinch of salt, then tip them into the tray underneath the chicken so they catch every drop of spiced fat as it renders.
5. Roast for 25 minutes, then turn the oven down to 190C fan and give it another 20 minutes, until the skin is blistered and deeply charred at the edges and the juices from the thickest part of the thigh run clear. Rest the chicken on a board for 10 minutes.
6. While it rests, turn the vegetables through the pan juices and slide them back into the hot oven for 5 minutes to catch a bit more colour. Toast the almonds in a dry pan until fragrant.
7. Toss the rocket, radish and parsley with 2 tablespoons of the reserved clean piri piri. Carve the chicken, pile it onto a platter with the charred broccoli and fennel, add the dressed greens, a spoon of kraut per plate and a scatter of toasted almonds. Pour the rest of the reserved marinade into a small jug for the table with the lemon wedges.

A note on the reserved marinade: Hold back a third before the chicken is anywhere near it. That clean third goes over the carved chicken at the table, so you get the full raw punch of garlic, chilli and vinegar with no food safety worry at all, and it doubles as the dressing for the greens. It is the single thing that takes this from good to restaurant good.

A note on the skin: Pat the bird properly dry, and if you have the time, marinate it uncovered in the fridge for a few hours. The surface dries out slightly, which means the skin crisps and lacquers rather than steams. Wet skin is the whole reason roast chicken sometimes comes out disappointing.

The one thing I always do: Cut the broccoli into thick flat steaks rather than only florets. The cut sides sit flush against the hot tray and char properly, and the broccoli underneath a roasting chicken is, without exaggeration, the best part of this dinner.

Make it your own: No whole chicken? Use 8 bone in thigh cutlets and drop the first roast to 20 minutes. Swap the broccoli for cauliflower steaks or a tray of broccolini and green beans. If you like it hotter, leave the chilli seeds in, and if you are cooking for kids, pull half the marinade before the chilli goes in. A spoon of Gagas gut loving kraut on the side rounds the whole plate out. 🌿